After suffering injuries in a Pittsburgh car accident, you may not know what to do or where to turn for help to cover expensive medical bills and lost wages in addition to compensation for your pain and suffering. If you are worried about getting money and benefits from the insurance company, our team of personal injury lawyers can review your case.
At Berger and Green, our Pittsburgh car accident lawyers take auto accident cases on contingency, so you don’t have to worry about paying upfront or out-of-pocket expenses. We only accept payment if you recover compensation. Even the consultation is free. You have nothing to lose, so let us get to work on your case today to recover the compensation you deserve.
Put Our Auto Accident Lawyers’ 40+ Years of Experience to Work for You
Our personal injury attorneys have represented thousands of clients in motor vehicle accidents throughout Pennsylvania for more than 40 years. Our founding partner, Attorney Laurence B. Green, has been recognized as one of the top 100 trial lawyers in Pennsylvania by the National Trial Lawyers Association and has been selected as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer.
Additionally, Attorney Bill Kenny, Attorney Green, and Attorney Mark Milsop, are members of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, a distinguished group of attorneys throughout the United States. They have successfully obtained awards or settlements in the amount of $1 million or more for their clients. We don’t skimp on damages, we seek the maximum amount possible in light of the facts of your case.
In other words, our lawyers are trial attorneys with experience handling cases similar to yours. If we need to go to trial and represent you in front of a judge and jury, we will not hesitate to do so. We will pursue the award you deserve.
For a free legal consultation with a Car Accident lawyer serving Pittsburgh, call 412-661-1400
We Can Help You Recover Damages from Your Pittsburgh Car Accident
Car accident injuries can be serious, putting you in the hospital and possibly out of work while you heal. This can hurt your income and create medical bills and other expenses you are unable to pay.
A Pittsburgh car accident attorney from Berger and Green can help you seek damages from the insurance company or the liable party who caused your accident. You deserve the peace of mind that comes with knowing that the at-fault party was held responsible for your injuries. Furthermore, your compensation is an acknowledgement of how the other party’s negligence affected you.
Your recoverable damages will depend on the circumstances of your case. However, in general, you can receive compensation for your monetary and non-monetary damages.
Out of Pocket Damages
Compensation in this category provides for:
- Past, current, and future medical treatment
- Current and future lost wages
- Reduced earning capacity
- Property damage costs like repair or replacement
Reimbursement for medical expenses applies to any costs related to your accident. That includes medical costs for secondary conditions like infections, rehabilitation expenses like physical therapy, and mental health resources like counseling.
The same comprehensive approach applies to your income losses as well. Whether you worked full-time at a salaried position prior to the crash, or you were a part-time freelancer, whatever income you missed due to your injuries is compensable. If your injuries prevent you from returning to your job, monetary damages can provide you with resources to find a new position in a new field that can accommodate your needs.
General Damages
Despite the name, non-monetary damages are still a form of financial compensation. They just aren’t tied to specific monetary losses like bills or missed work. Instead, these types of damages include:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Physical impairment, scarring, disfigurement
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Accident injuries affect more than just your physical health. Our experienced car accident lawyers work to ensure every consequence—physical, emotional, or financial—is covered by your compensation.
Common Wrongful Death and Survival Damages in Car Accident Cases
If your loved one died in a motor vehicle accident in the Pittsburgh area, you can potentially pursue a wrongful death claim or lawsuit to recover damages, such as:
- Final medical expenses the deceased paid or owed
- Funeral, cremation, or burial costs
- Loss of companionship, guidance, or support
- Loss of earning through the date of death
- Lost future earnings
- Lost services
To properly recognize such a drastic loss, our wrongful death lawyers seek maximum compensation for families whose loved ones were accident victims.
Pittsburgh Car Accident Lawyer Near Me 412-661-1400
Let Our Personal Injury Attorneys Fight for Fair Damages on Your Behalf
We understand the complexities associated with calculating damages, so we will go through the process with you step-by-step to help you understand the potential settlement value of your case. Then, we handle settlement negotiations on your behalf.
How Will Our Lawyers Calculate Your Car Accident Damages?
When someone tries to settle the case alone, they may forget to include damages, misplace bills or receipts, overlook expenses, or fail to put an accurate price on things. This could lead you to agree to a settlement offer that does not cover your current expenses. You may also not include future expenses and need to pay out of your pocket.
This is why we encourage all motor vehicle collision victims to discuss their case with a car accident attorney before agreeing to a settlement. You may not realize the extent of your losses that are eligible for reimbursement and compensation.
When our lawyers take on your Pittsburgh car accident case, we gather evidence and make a full accounting of your damages before we file an insurance claim on your behalf. That way, we know what a fair settlement offer looks like before we seek a payout from the insurer. Identifying and documenting your full range of expenses and losses may require us to:
- Retrieve copies of all accident-related medical records and bills
- Catalog all treatment-related expenses, including medical equipment rentals and both prescription and OTC medication
- Obtain information about your usual pay, document your time away from work, and calculate lost income from jobs and side gigs
- Consider any other expenses related to your accident, injuries, or treatment
What’s more, we then keep track of it all. You won’t have to worry about losing paperwork or forgetting crucial evidence of your damages. Our attorneys and support staff manage this aspect of your case for you.
We Will Work to Get You Compensation for Every Accident-Related Cost
We want to recover the full value of your losses. To do that, we identify and document expenses related to your auto accident that you may not expect or realize are eligible.
Some often-overlooked expenses include:
- Parking at the doctor’s office or hospital
- Taking an Uber, Lyft, taxi, or bus to appointments because of damage to your car
- Rental car costs
- Necessary remodeling to make your home wheelchair-accessible
- Medical equipment, including replacements in the future
- Repair or replacement of personal items, including your smartphone, eyeglasses, laptop, or other items in your vehicle at the time of the accident
How We Apply Our Understanding of Your Damages
Once we have a good idea of all your accident-related expenses and losses, we will advise you of the fair value for your damages.
If you opted for a full tort car insurance policy, or sustained serious injuries, disfiguring injuries, or the death of a loved one or meet another exception to limited tort, we will also calculate the value of your non-economic damages, including your pain and suffering losses in addition to your economic damages.
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How We Can Help With Your Pittsburgh Car Accident Case
When you agree to let a Berger and Green lawyer handle your car accident case, we will manage it entirely. All you need to do is focus on healing from your injuries. As you can imagine, this greatly reduces your stress about the whole process, whether you are filing an insurance claim or a lawsuit.
When we take you on as our client, we will:
- Explain all of your rights and how Pennsylvania laws apply to your case
- Analyze insurance coverage and policy terms that factor into your pursuit of damages
- Gather evidence that supports your case for damages, including police reports, witness testimony, expert analysis, photos, and video
- Identify liable parties in your accident and prove their negligence
- File an insurance claim or civil lawsuit on your behalf, if necessary
- Negotiate with all parties involved in your case, including other attorneys and insurers
- Take care of all paperwork and meet all legal deadlines
- Keep you updated on all case developments
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Our Lawyers Help Determine Negligence in a Car Accident Claim
Negligence is the basis of most personal injury claims, so you must be able to prove it exists to receive compensation.
In your case, we work to demonstrate the four parts of negligence:
- Duty of care: All drivers owe each other a duty of care to proceed with caution whenever they get behind the wheel.
- Breach of duty: When a driver fails to uphold their duty of care, they breach it. Examples include failure to yield, speeding, distracted driving, driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, or texting while driving.
- Causation: As a result of this negligence, the driver caused a rollover, rear-end, head-on, or side-impact collision, as well as your injuries.
- Damages: You have suffered physical, financial, and emotional damages.
Constructing a case involves drawing connections between each of these parts using evidence. We build on each step, showing the cause and effect of your collision.
Other Forms of Negligence Could Apply to Your Crash
Although drivers are usually responsible for car accidents, other parties can also act negligently. For example:
- A car parts manufacturer: A manufacturer could have produced faulty brakes or tires that led the driver to lose control of the vehicle.
- A government agency: An entity responsible for maintaining the city could have failed to fix a faulty traffic signal, warn road users of a road defect, or clean up debris on the road. Any of these issues could compromise a driver’s judgment.
- Another road user: A bicyclist or pedestrian could have broken a traffic law that gave the other driver a limited time to react, hitting you in the process.
Some cases also involve parties who share liability with the negligent party. For instance, if you were hurt by someone who was driving in the course of business, like a commercial truck driver or a rideshare, their employer could share liability. The driver may have been the one who was careless, but they were representing the company at the time of the crash. That can leave the company liable.
Our attorneys can investigate all of these options to determine what happened and who to pursue for compensation.
Berger and Green Lawyers Know How to Deal with Insurance Companies
From the moment you talk with us about your car accident claim, we go to work protecting your rights to compensation for your full range of damages. This is one of the most important roles of a personal injury lawyer, although it is often overlooked.
Insurance company representatives want to pay as little as possible. They will try to get you to:
- Admit to being partially at fault
- Apologize for your role
- Downplay your injuries
- Speculate or guess what happened
- Accept an offer too soon after an accident
These mistakes could reduce your claim or hurt your chances of a lawsuit.
When our attorney handles all communications about your case, these errors are unlikely to happen unless the opposing side has strong evidence showing that your actions contributed to your accident. Even then, we can work to mitigate the effect this has on your financial recovery.
Our firm’s lawyer will also build a strong case that will support negotiating a settlement with the insurance company or winning your case in court. We can even call in expert witnesses to bolster your case, something you likely would not have the resources to do on your own.
You Must File Your Case Before the Deadline Expires
You are on a clock when it comes to taking legal action in Pennsylvania. If you want to hold liable parties accountable for your accident, you are encouraged to start as soon as possible. The state generally allows injury victims two years to file an injury lawsuit, as outlined in Pa. C.S.A. § 5524.
The countdown to the deadline starts on the date of an injury. If you are filing a wrongful death action, it begins on the decedent’s death date. You must file a lawsuit before the statute of limitations runs, or the court will likely refuse to hear your case. This means you will be unable to compel the liable parties in your case to compensate you for your accident or injuries.
Moreover, the earlier you start, the more we can accomplish before the deadline. In fact, we can start negotiations for a settlement prior to the statute of limitations. The time is also spent gathering and preserving evidence, as well as allowing you the chance to heal and consider your options.
Worrying About Whether You Can Afford to Hire a Car Accident Lawyer?
The team at Berger and Green understands that cost is critical for many people when deciding whether to hire an attorney for their case. To make this decision easier, our law firm works on contingency, which means you pay us no hourly or upfront fees. This arrangement allows us to start on your case promptly and eases the burden of having to pay for legal services upfront.
Our payment is an agreed-upon percentage of the award you receive. If we do not win your case, we do not get paid. We cover all the details of a contingency-fee pay arrangement with you upfront before you sign on with us as a client.
What Types of Auto Injury Cases do Berger and Green Lawyers Handle?
Our auto accident attorneys can assist you with any of the following injuries:
- Brain injury
- Catastrophic and serious injury
- Broken bones
- Scarring
- Lacerations
- Bruising
- Knee injury
- Shoulder injury
- Burns
- Back injury
- Spinal cord injury
- Paralysis
- Amputation
- Wrongful death
Immediately following a crash, your adrenaline is pumping, and everything feels like a blur, so you may not feel the effects of your injuries until after they have had time to manifest and cause further harm. For example, Mayo Clinic explains that traumatic brain injuries can take several days to show symptoms, causing irreversible damage if left untreated. Seek medical attention right away. The doctor can diagnose your injuries and begin treating you right away.
Not only is prompt medical care essential for your health, but it is also important for your car accident claim. The longer you put off seeing a healthcare professional, the more likely the insurance company will use this gap of time to undervalue or deny your claim. For example, the adjuster could blame your injuries on something else or say that you made them worse since you waited too long to seek treatment.
Call Berger and Green for Help with Your Pittsburgh Car Accident Case
If you or a loved one have been injured in a car accident in the Pittsburgh area or a loved one has passed away from their injuries, call Berger and Green today for a free consultation. We can start planning your legal options, possible damages, and the next steps during a free consultation. Learn more now about how our Pittsburgh car accident lawyers can help you.
Call or text 412-661-1400 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form
