Waterbury Car Accident Lawyer

An auto accident in Connecticut can have a profound impact on your life in several ways. You may sustain severe injuries that affect your mobility and find yourself facing medical bills and lost wages. The aftermath of a car crash is often overwhelming, as you come to terms with the traumatic event forced upon you. However, a knowledgeable and experienced Waterbury car accident lawyer can help you seek compensation for the losses you suffered.

Contact D’Amico Pettinicchi for a free consultation with a highly qualified member of our legal team. We’ll walk you through the steps involved in a car accident claim and explain your options for maximizing your financial recovery. Your case review is free and without any obligation, and you pay nothing out of pocket for us to start working.

Benefits of Hiring an Attorney for Your Car Accident Claim in Waterbury

Hiring an attorney to handle your car accident claim in Waterbury is always in your best interest. It’s important to remember that the other party and their insurance company will have lawyers, often an intimidating arsenal of them. If you don’t have a lawyer of your own, you’ll have an immediate disadvantage in settlement negotiations.

Lawyers play several key roles in car accident cases. They investigate the accident to identify the at-fault parties and collect evidence. Attorneys calculate the value of your case and negotiate with the insurance companies. Moreover, they can take your case to trial if the insurance companies refuse to offer a fair settlement.

It’s also worth noting that most auto accident attorneys, including those at D’Amico Pettinicchi, work on a contingency fee basis. This means you don’t pay anything unless we secure compensation for you through a settlement or trial award. It also means you have nothing to lose for us to begin working on your auto collision case and pursue the money you need to get your life back in order.

What Should You Do After a Car Accident?

After a car accident, you should take the following steps to strengthen your case:

• Follow up with all medical treatment until your doctor says you are fully recovered or will not recover further.
• Keep track of all medical and service bills related to the accident.
• Write down everything you remember about the accident and keep notes on your daily pain levels.
• Avoid providing a recorded statement to the at-fault party’s insurance company. The insurance adjuster’s job is to get you to admit fault for the accident.
• Don’t post anything about your accident on social media, as the insurer can use your words and pictures against you.
• Consult an experienced car accident lawyer and have them handle your case from start to finish.

How Our Lawyers Investigate Car Accident Cases

At D’Amico Pettinicchi, our lawyers investigate car accident cases by gathering various types of evidence. This includes photographs of the accident scene, traffic camera footage, interviews with eyewitnesses, and hired experts, such as crash reconstruction specialists and medical professionals.

Some of this evidence is time sensitive. For example, if the accident was caught on surveillance footage, it may be overwritten if we don’t get to it in time. Eyewitness memories also fade over time, making it essential that we speak as soon as possible with those who saw the accident. For these reasons, it’s best to start working with our lawyers soon after a car accident so we can build the strongest possible case.

Compensation You Could Recover in a Car Accident Claim

The compensation you could recover in a car accident claim covers various losses you sustained due to the incident. Compensable losses include the following:

• Past and future medical bills, including for surgeries, prescription medications, physical therapy, and other medical treatments
• Lost wages and loss of earning potential caused by your injuries, impacting your ability to work
• Physical pain and suffering related to your injuries
• Emotional distress, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD, arising from the accident
• Permanent disability caused by your injuries, such as spinal cord damage
• Vehicle repair/replacement due to damage caused by the accident

When you meet with our car accident attorneys in Waterbury for a free, confidential case review, we can assess your situation to determine the compensation you could pursue.

Parties Who Could Be Held Liable for a Car Wreck

In many car accident cases, other motorists are liable for injuries and property damage, and you can file an auto insurance claim against their liability coverage policy. In Connecticut, the required minimum amounts of liability coverage are as follows:

• $25,000 per person for bodily injury
• $50,000 per accident for bodily injury
• $25,000 per accident for property damage

However, other parties could also be liable, including the following:

• Vehicle manufacturers, if a defective product played a role in the accident
• Maintenance providers, if poor maintenance caused a part to fail, leading to the crash
• Government entities responsible for maintaining public roads, if poor road maintenance was a contributing factor

Could You Recover Compensation If You’re Partly to Blame for a Car Accident in Connecticut?

If you are partly to blame for the auto wreck that caused your injuries in Connecticut, you can likely still recover compensation. However, the car accident compensation available may be reduced under the state’s modified comparative negligence rule.

Comparative negligence is a system that reduces a plaintiff’s trial award by a percentage equal to their degree of fault. As an example, if the jury awarded you $100,000, but found you to be 20 percent at fault, you would only obtain $80,000.

Additionally, Connecticut’s modification puts a 50 percent threshold on recovery. If you are found to be more than 50 percent at fault for the accident that caused your injuries, you cannot recover any compensation.

While this rule applies specifically to compensation awarded by a jury, auto insurance companies also use it when negotiating settlements. For this reason, it’s crucial that you work with a knowledgeable car accident lawyer from D’Amico Pettinicchi who can maximize your financial recovery by minimizing your degree of fault through compelling evidence.

How Long Do You Have to File a Car Accident Lawsuit in Connecticut?

Under Connecticut’s statute of limitations for personal injury cases, victims have two years to file car accident lawsuits against the parties responsible for the accidents that caused their injuries.

This two-year time limit starts either on the date of injury or the date on which you realized you were injured or that your injuries are connected to the auto accident. If you didn’t immediately know you sustained an injury, the latest you can file a lawsuit is three years after the vehicle accident that caused it.

It’s vital that you file your lawsuit(s) within the deadline so you don’t lose your right to seek the compensation you need. A reputable car wreck lawyer from D’Amico Pettinicchi can file your lawsuit on your behalf so you don’t have to worry about missing the deadline.

Common Types and Causes of Car Accidents

Many types of car accidents occur in Waterbury, CT, and your options for financial recovery may differ depending on the exact circumstances of the accident that injured you. The most common types of accidents our auto accident law firm handles include the following:

These accidents can have various causes, and our lawyers may need to gather different evidence to hold the at-fault party liable, depending on the situation. Common causes of motor vehicle accidents in Waterbury include the following:

Typical Injuries Resulting from an Auto Collision

Car accident victims can sustain serious injuries that require lengthy medical treatment and may result in permanent impairment. The following are the most common and severe of these injuries:

• Traumatic Brain Injuries – TBIs are caused by violent shaking or blows to the head, resulting in dangerous brain swelling and bleeding.
• Spinal Cord Injuries – Damage to the spinal cord may result in chronic pain or even paralysis if the spinal cord is severed entirely.
• Crushed or Amputated Limbs – Particularly prevalent in rollover accidents or collisions involving large commercial vehicles, limbs can become crushed or trapped, potentially requiring amputation.
• Broken Bones – Fractures to the wrists, forearms, ribs, and femurs are common in car accident victims.
• Internal Organ Damage – The blunt force trauma of a car accident can rupture internal organs and cause damage that may not be noticeable for several days.
• Soft Tissue Injuries – Injuries to the muscles, tendons, and ligaments are extremely common in a car accident case, with whiplash being one of the most common injuries seen in rear-end accident victims.
• Psychological Injuries – Victims may experience anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other psychological injuries after a car crash.

Contact a Waterbury Car Accident Lawyer

D’Amico Pettinicchi has a hard-earned, 35-plus-year reputation for obtaining justice for car accident injury victims. This includes our recovering millions of dollars at trial and through settlements.

Our Waterbury car accident attorneys have received recognition in personal injury law at both the national and state levels. We’ve been ranked among the Top 10 Connecticut personal injury attorneys by Super Lawyers for 10 years running. Our attorneys are also board-certified in both civil trial advocacy and civil pretrial practice by the National Board of Trial Advocacy.

When you work with us, you get big-firm resources in a small-firm capacity. Other lawyers trust D’Amico Pettinicchi to handle their referred cases because they know we have the skill, knowledge, and determination to represent clients in difficult, complicated lawsuits. Moreover, we pledge to always provide personal attention to our clients first and foremost.

If you’ve been injured in a motor vehicle accident in Waterbury, CT, then It’s Time to Fight the Good Fight℠. Contact D’Amico Pettinicchi for a free, no-obligation case evaluation. You pay nothing out-of-pocket for us to get started, and there are no fees unless we successfully resolve your case.