If you are involved in an accident, the party responsible for the crash may not be another motorist. Instead, your crash might have been caused by a poorly maintained road. In fact, some roads become so damaged that they can have large holes that can cause damage to your vehicle.
Determining Fault
The road conditions might cause the car accident itself. In other cases, the road accident might lead to you crashing into another motorist. When another driver is involved, they might be partially at fault for the accident. However, if your car was damaged by the road conditions alone, you may have a case against the city for failing to properly maintain the road. If the accident occurred on a private road, you may be entitled to compensation from the owner of the private road.
To seek compensation for your accident, you must prove that the road conditions were directly responsible for your accident. You will need help from an auto accident attorney who can, with the help of expert witnesses, reconstruct the accident scene and show that the road conditions were directly responsible for the accident.
Finding Out if the Party At Fault Can Be Sued
Some parties are difficult to sue and there might be specific procedures you must follow to sue them. You may not be able to sue for certain forms of damages, such as pain and suffering. However, there may be a special claim-filing procedure that may allow you to obtain compensation for economic damages.
For the agency responsible for maintaining the roads to be responsible for damages, they must have had sufficient notice that the roads were in disrepair and failed to promptly repair the roads. Also, there might have been a design defect that would have lead to the road becoming an inherent safety hazard.
State and federal governments generally have immunity from lawsuits and you will only be able to seek compensation if they have an administrative claim process. You should speak with an auto accident attorney because the administrative claim process can be confusing and any mistakes you make could lead to your claim being thrown out. Typically, the negligence must be clear and gross. There is also usually a very short time frame in which you are able to file your auto accident claim.
For more information about your options, reach out to an auto accident attorney in your area today.
Share7 July 2020
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