Phoenix Car Accident Lawyers

EXPERIENCE. STRAIGHT TALK. JUSTICE.

A lot of law firms rely only on the police report. The police report is a civil accident report, not a criminal report. It gives you the basics — the driver, insurance info, speeds, roadway conditions. You could stop there, make a demand, and get paid something. But that isn’t obtaining the best value for your client. To do that, you need to dig, and you need to do it quickly.

We send engineering experts to the accident scene to take measurements so we can recreate exactly what happened. Through an engineer — not through some lawyer’s argument — we describe in detail to the insurance company why fault belongs to their insured. There are cases where the police report attributes fault to our client and reconstruction shows the police were wrong. That difference can be the difference between a very small recovery and a very large one.

We also look at whether the accident happened near a bar or tavern. We check for witnesses who didn’t speak with the police but know what happened. We look at the criminal side if impairment is suspected. Most personal-injury lawyers never do that — and you can have a case resolved for the value of the damages without ever knowing about aggravating circumstances that would have doubled or tripled its value.

Evidence disappears faster than most people realize. That’s the reason being available right away matters so much to us.

Private investigators canvass every business at an intersection, first eyeballing where the cameras are, then communicating with each business and explaining why we need the footage. We’ve established that someone didn’t run a red light by getting video from a bank at the intersection nobody else thought to check. We send letters immediately to the adverse driver and their insurance company to preserve the vehicle. We request an inspection of the engine control module — the black box — right away, and a forensics engineer lifts the data without destroying any evidence. That data records the crash event: speed, deceleration, seatbelt use.

We also capture witness statements as quickly as possible, because witnesses move and become unavailable. An objective third-party witness can make all the difference, especially when the other driver is saying the accident was your fault when it wasn’t.

Arizona is a comparative fault state, which means more than one party can be attributed fault for an accident. You can still recover even if you’re partly at fault. But you can also be unfairly attributed fault for something you didn’t do if evidence isn’t preserved quickly. Without video, the black box, or witness statements, you can be held responsible for some portion of the accident that isn’t valid, simply because there’s nothing to support your version of what happened.

The black box is particularly powerful. One of the most common scenarios is a left turn. Typically the person driving straight has the right of way. But if the speed limit is 35 and the driver going straight was doing 85, that changes things. The person making the left turn isn’t going to know someone is speeding 50 miles over the limit. And that driver is never going to admit to it. The black box doesn’t lie — and cases that would otherwise be hard to prosecute become literally open-and-shut.

For distraction, a driver who was on their phone isn’t going to tell the police. They’ll say, “I didn’t see him.” We use technology to inspect their online presence and determine, based on age and social media activity, whether they were more likely than not on their phone. That prompts us to file a lawsuit preemptively so we can subpoena the phone records. Texts and call logs will be there — as long as we move quickly enough.

Once you hire us, you leave all insurance-related matters to us. The insurance company representing the at-fault driver is not on your side. They’re trying to minimize what they pay out, and anything you say can be used to do exactly that. Even an apology — something any decent person might offer after an accident — can be twisted by an insurer into an admission of fault.

We deal with the at-fault driver’s insurance, your own insurance, and any other parties involved. We send the demand letter, we field the counter-offer, and we bring you into the conversation at the right moments so you can make informed decisions. You’re always the captain of the ship. Our job is to make sure the communication is happening in a way that protects your interests — not theirs.

You hear a lot of law firms say, “We’re just going to get you as much money as we can.” Respectfully, that’s BS, and it’s actually counterproductive. When firms demand a million dollars on a $10,000 claim, that doesn’t help — it hurts. What you want is a lawyer who looks seriously at your case, advocates for your interests, and maximizes the recovery within the range that’s reasonable for your injuries and your future injuries.

We also make sure you’ve reached a point of medical stability before we push to settle. The worst thing a lawyer can do is rush your claim along. You get a recovery, then your injury lingers, and because you’ve settled, you only get one bite at the apple. A $50,000 claim accepted at $20,000 cannot be reopened later. Even if a client tells me they want to settle sooner, it’s still my duty to walk them through the pros and cons. The decision is theirs — but it has to be an informed one.

If we can’t reach a fair settlement, we file a lawsuit. That gives notice to the defendant — whether it’s a driver or a company — that we’re suing them. They have a lawyer who represents them, and we deal with that lawyer through the litigation process. That process can take a few months, but with severe injuries and significant disputes, it can take longer.

Only 1–2% of cases actually go to trial. Between 5–10% require us to file a lawsuit. Even then, the vast majority of those still settle during litigation. The point is that we build every case for trial regardless, because that’s what produces the leverage to settle well. If your lawyer has never tried a case, the insurance company knows they never will. We’ve tried cases, regularly, and the insurance companies know it. That reputation is part of what gets our clients better outcomes even when a case never sees a courtroom.

About 93 to 94% of all car accidents are caused by human error, and that statistic was true 30 years ago and it’s still true today. Human error falls into two primary categories: distraction and impairment.

Thirty years ago, alcohol impairment was probably the most common cause. Today, distraction has taken over. Cell phones, texting, and more electronic devices distracting drivers while they’re operating a vehicle. Distraction has always been an issue, but the introduction of cell phones turned it into a primary cause of accidents.

Impairment is still very common, but now it’s not just alcohol. Because marijuana has been legalized in many states, I see marijuana impairment too, and more and more prescription drug impairment. Establishing impairment is critical, because if there’s impairment, it increases the value of the case based on the aggravating behavior. But determining whether someone was impaired requires crossing over to the criminal side, which most personal-injury lawyers never do.

There’s also the seatbelt issue. To this day, a substantial number of people don’t wear them. We know as a matter of science that seatbelts and airbags either prevent injury or at a minimum ensure injuries are less severe. In a frontal collision, if you’re not wearing a seatbelt, you’re going to be ejected from the vehicle.

Vehicle issues are a cause that often gets overlooked, and they require a different kind of digging to establish. Service records are critical here. In one case involving a tractor-trailer, obtaining the service records showed that the brakes had been spotty and the carrier had put the vehicle back in service anyway. That kind of evidence doesn’t come from the police report. It comes from sending the right letters immediately after the accident to preserve the vehicle and then digging into the maintenance history.

If there’s a vehicle defect involved, the scope of liability can extend well beyond the driver to the manufacturer or the company responsible for maintenance. That changes the entire picture of who we’re dealing with and what the case is worth.

Road conditions, weather, and visibility all play a role in accidents. What matters legally is whether another’s negligence contributed to the conditions that caused the crash. A road hazard a municipality failed to address, inadequate signage, poorly maintained traffic signals — these factors can bring other defendants into a case.

We go to the accident scene. We take measurements. We look at where the accident actually happened and what the conditions were at that time. Roadway markings can disappear because of weather. That’s another reason we move immediately, before the physical evidence at the scene is gone.

2394 E Camelback Rd #600 Phoenix, AZ 85016