Staying Safe While Driving at Night

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Driving at night lets you skip the traffic, but it does come with its own dangers. Across the United States, accident rates tend to be higher at night than they are during daylight hours. Whether you drive at night on a regular basis or only occasionally, following a few key safety tips can help you protect yourself and others.

Discover our most important night driving safety tips, and if you’re hurt in a car accident, let us help. Call Mann & Potter at 205-879-9661 to set up a consultation now.

Check Your Lights for Functionality

Your headlights are a key part of your nighttime safety, but it’s easy to miss it when one or both go out. Once every week or so, get out of your car after starting it but before driving. Make sure both headlights are shining at full brightness and that they are properly adjusted. Driving with dim or dead lights can put you at a significantly higher risk of a crash.

Avoid Distractions

Distractions can be deadly whenever you are driving, but they are especially dangerous when you are driving at night. Drivers often turn to loud music, their phones, or other distractions in order to avoid getting tired at night. However, this makes it more likely that you’ll miss obstacles or other vehicles that come across your path.

Before leaving, set up your GPS directions, your music or podcasts, and anything else you may need to get through your drive. This will limit your need to use your phone while driving. If you find that you reach for your phone whenever you hit a lull in your drive, consider installing an app that locks your phone when your car is in motion. It could save your life.

This also includes distractions created by your passengers—if you have a passenger who wants to keep the cabin lights on so they can read or otherwise entertain themselves, find another light source. Cabin lights can be a significant source of distraction for nighttime drivers.

Use High Beams When Appropriate

High beams get a bad reputation because of their potential to irritate those driving toward you, but if you are driving in a rural setting or another quiet road, you’re unlikely to run into many other drivers. Additionally, high beams can alert you to obstacles that your regular lights cannot—such as deer or stalled vehicles in the distance. Most vehicles now automatically sense when another vehicle is coming and dim your high beams, making it even easier to use these lights safely.

Slow Down and Leave Space

Even though there’s less traffic at night, avoid the urge to save a few minutes by speeding. You should be driving more slowly at night than in the daytime—it’s harder to see obstacles on the road and speeding gives you less time to stop or take evasive action. Check your driving speed; if something were to enter the very end of your headlight range, would you be able to stop in time and avoid hitting it? If not, you should slow down.

Additionally, if you do end up sharing the road with other drivers, make sure to leave plenty of space between you and them. The risk of encountering a drunk driver is higher at night, and you don’t want to end up too close to an erratic or unsafe driver.

Don’t Drive While Fatigued

Fatigued driving is a serious risk when driving at night. If you must drive at night, ensure that you are fully rested before you hit the road. The research on drowsy driving is clear. Being awake for at least 18 hours is similar to having a BAC of 0.05%, and being awake for at least 24 hours is the same as having a BAC of 0.1%. When you add this to the other dangers of nighttime driving, driving while drowsy is a recipe for disaster.

Injured in a Car Crash? Turn to the Team at Mann & Potter

If you or someone you love is involved in a car accident, find out if you are entitled to compensation. Our team is here to advocate for you every step of the way. Call us at 205-879-9661 or reach out via our online contact form.

The Importance of Eyewitnesses in a Personal Injury Case

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Building a strong personal injury claim means using a wide range of evidence to prove your case. While you may be able to explain in detail what happened, your word likely won’t be enough for the insurance company. They want to see physical evidence, medical reports, and eyewitness accounts. If you can find eyewitnesses for your personal injury claim, you may be able to strengthen your claim.

Looking for more personalized assistance with your personal injury claim? The team at Mann & Potter is here to help you. Call us at 205-879-9661 to get started.

Finding Eyewitnesses

You may be wondering how you can find eyewitnesses, especially if no one came forward at the time of the accident. In many cases, witnesses stop to provide information and observations. However, depending on where your accident occurred, you may be able to talk to people who live in nearby houses or apartments, those who drove by the accident scene, passengers in your vehicle, pedestrians and bicyclists, and those in nearby businesses.

The Type of Eyewitness Matters

While all eyewitness testimony can be useful in a personal injury claim, different people’s words carry different value in the eyes of an insurance adjuster. Yes, you may be able to get input from people who were with you at the time of the incident. You should know, though, that the insurance company is unlikely to take their statement as seriously as they take a statement from a completely unbiased third party.

While the people with you may not have a financial interest in your personal injury claim, they still know you and may want to support you in your claim—even if that means exaggerating the truth. Even if your friends and family members would never do that, that’s what the insurance company is afraid of. If you have eyewitness testimony from a friend or family member, try to balance it with input from a neutral third party.

How Eyewitnesses Help Your Claim

Eyewitnesses support your personal injury case in a variety of ways. First, they may be able to present information that you don’t have. They likely had a different point of view during the accident, so they may have additional context that can be useful for your attorney.

Even if they do not have new information, they may have observations that match up with yours. That gives credibility to your retelling of the incident and makes it harder for the insurance adjuster to claim that your viewpoint is inaccurate.

In some cases, eyewitnesses can answer critical questions that determine who is liable for an incident. For example, consider a traffic accident that occurred at an intersection. You know that the light was green, but the other driver insists that their light was green. The entire question of liability hinges on which one of you is telling the truth.

Enter a witness who was at the same intersection when they were passed by the other driver. They tell the police that the light was absolutely red for them when they saw the other driver fly past them without even slowing down. This makes it incredibly difficult for the other driver to claim that you are lying about your light being green.

Time is of the Essence

Regardless of how you find eyewitnesses and what they have to contribute to your claim, it’s important to avoid wasting time as you build your injury claim. No one’s memories last forever, and odds are that the incident isn’t quite as important to the eyewitnesses as it is to you. Their memories will fade even more quickly than yours. It’s crucial to talk to a personal injury attorney as soon as possible after your accident. They can review your evidence, talk to your eyewitnesses, and get their input while their memory is still fresh.

Contact Mann & Potter Now to Start Your Claim

Whenever you are ready to begin your personal injury claim, the team at Mann & Potter is here for you. Let’s take a look at your case, explain your options, and come up with a plan to get the compensation you deserve. Call us at 205-879-9661 or reach out to us online to set up a consultation now.

Lost Income and Your Injury Settlement

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When you suffer a personal injury and receive a settlement, that settlement will be broken down into several parts to accommodate for the wide range of losses you may have suffered. One part of your compensation may be for lost income. However, it can be difficult to know what you are entitled to and how to calculate it.

We’re here to help you. As you try to figure out what you’re owed and what you’re likely to receive, make sure you choose the right personal injury lawyer for your claim. Call Mann & Potter at 205-879-9661.

What Type of Income Can You Recover?

A lot depends on the type of work you do, how well your income is documented, and how you are paid. For example, assume you work a standard job with an annual salary. You could ask for the amount you would have earned, based on your set salary. The same is true if you earn an hourly wage and work roughly the same number of hours each week.

If you work in a tipped position, you may be able to recover the amount you likely would have earned in tips during the time you were forced to take off.

Self-employed income can also be compensated in a personal injury claim. However, both tipped income and self-employed income may be harder to prove. This doesn’t mean it’s impossible—it just means that working with an experienced personal injury lawyer can really help.

Proving Your Lost Wages

In order to include compensation for lost wages in your claim, you must be able to prove what you’ve lost.

If you earn an annual salary, you can divide your income by 52 to get your weekly income. You would then multiply that amount by the number of weeks you took off of work in order to figure out what you were owed.

If you are paid an hourly wage and you work the same number of hours each shift or week, you would multiply your hourly wage by the number of hours you usually work, then multiply that by the number of days you had to take off of work.

What if you are tipped? This can be a bit more complex, especially since income tends to fluctuate throughout the year based on holidays and seasonal trends. If you have previous records of what you’ve earned, including tax returns and employer records, that will be very helpful for your attorney.

Be sure to account for any major losses of income. For example, if you are a waiter and you had to miss Mother’s Day because of your injury, you may have lost out on a full week’s worth of regular income.

Self-employed income, much like tipped income, can be harder to verify. Tax records, client contracts, and official documentation of ongoing projects can go a long way in strengthening your claim. Account for any work you had to outsource and pay for in order to meet client’s needs, as that can be a significant expense for many self-employed workers. If you had to turn down any projects as a result of your injury, you may be able to include that in your calculation.

What About Sick Days and Vacation Days?

Most employers offer some form of sick pay and vacation pay. If your sick days and vacation days cover your time away from work, you may assume that you can’t be compensated for those.

That is not the case. Those days are yours to use as you see fit, and you should not have to use them on an injury caused by someone else’s negligence. Even if your sick days covered your time away from work, you should still be able to receive compensation for them. This should give you some breathing room should you become sick or want to take a vacation later in the year.

Let Mann & Potter Help with Your Accident Claim—Call Us Now

Are you ready to start your personal injury claim? It’s time to talk to the team at Mann & Potter and find out how we can help you. Schedule a consultation with our team now by calling us at 205-879-9661 or filling out our quick and easy contact form.

The Connection Between Speeding and Fatal Accidents

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A wide range of driving behaviors and road conditions can lead to fatal accidents. However, few behaviors are as closely tied to fatal crashes as speeding. There’s a large body of research linking speeding to fatal accidents, and unfortunately, each year proves that research to be true.

If you or someone you love has been hurt in a speed-related accident, you could be entitled to compensation. Find out now by calling Mann & Potter at 205-879-9661.

Speeding—the Most Common Form of Reckless Driving

There are many behaviors that are considered reckless driving: driving while impaired, driving while distracted, drag racing, and any other activity that displays willful disregard for other people’s safety.

Speeding, though, is something that almost everyone does sometimes. Even the safest drivers find themselves driving five to ten over when they’re running late. However, speed limits exist for a reason. Research indicates that the given speed limit is the safest option for that road and its conditions. Driving above the speed limit—or even below the speed limit in certain weather conditions—is reckless.

That’s why it’s so alarming that speeding is closely connected to fatal crashes. Since almost everyone speeds at least some of the time, there are likely far more fatal crashes than there ever should be.

Speeding Leads to More Severe Crashes

The Federal Highway Administration has conducted research on speeding and fatal car accidents. Their basic explanation is that the faster two cars are driving when they collide, the higher the collision speed is. This is true even for single-car crashes, as a single car driving at a higher speed will cause much more damage than a slower car when it strikes an obstacle.

Speeding gives drivers less time to react to obstacles in the road, a sudden slowdown in traffic, or someone cutting them off. This increases the overall accident rate, and the higher speeds increase the damage of the crash itself. They note that speed, while not the only factor in collisions, is definitely one of the most easily controlled. They estimate that roughly one-third of fatal collisions are completely or partially caused by speeding, even if speeding isn’t listed as the cause of the crash in the official report.

Other agencies have noticed this troubling trend and weighed in. The NSC has looked into the correlation between higher fatal accident rates and higher rates of speeding. Per official reports, 29% of traffic fatalities in 2020 were caused in part or in whole by speeding. That’s over 11,000 lives that could have potentially been saved had drivers chosen to slow down. While speeding-related deaths had been trending downward, that trend reversed in 2020 and speeding-related fatalities are now on the rise.

It’s important to note that this trend does not affect all demographic groups equally, perhaps due to differences in driving habits and preferences. The ratio of speed-related collisions to fatal collisions decreased with each jump in the age demographic, indicating that younger drivers’ tendency to speed and drag race is a serious risk factor. Furthermore, female drivers are far less likely to cause a speed-related crash. The group showing the greatest risk for speeding-related fatal accidents is male drivers between the ages of 15 and 24.

The correlation between speeding and fatal crashes is also different across weather conditions. The correlation is lowest on dry roads and highest on roads with moving or standing water. The accident rate is also higher than average on roads with mud, dirt, gravel, ice, or frost.

Drivers who caused speeding-related fatal accidents to follow another trend. Speeding and being under the influence of alcohol are closely linked, and those who are impaired are more likely to speed than sober drivers. Drivers between the ages of 21 and 54 are the most affected by this troubling trend.

Get the Support You Deserve: Call Mann & Potter Now

Speeding-related crashes are far too common and often cause devastating injuries. If you’ve been hurt by a speeding driver, we’re here to help. Schedule a consultation with Mann & Potter now by calling us at 205-879-9661 or filling out our online contact form. We’ll help you fight for the compensation you deserve.

How Insurance Companies Use Independent Medical Examinations to Their Advantage

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Personal injury claims are complicated at the best of times. And when you get a notification that the other party’s insurance provider is ordering an independent medical examination, that’s definitely not the best of times. While the name “independent medical examination” may make it seem like you’re participating in an objective third-party overview of your injuries, that is not the case.

Learn more about what an independent medical examination is and how it can hurt your claim. When you’re ready to take the next step with your personal injury claim, call Mann & Potter at 205-879-9661.

An Overview of Independent Medical Examinations

Independent medical examinations, often shortened to IMEs, have a very misleading name. In theory, they should provide an objective look at the extent of your injuries and how much the insurance company should pay you. In reality, an IME involves a doctor chosen by the insurance company.

The insurance company knows which doctors are likely to give reports that are favorable to their case, so an IME is anything but neutral and unbiased. Consider an IME equivalent to talking to the police without an attorney when they suspect you of a crime—nothing you do can help you, but it’s very easy to do something that actually hurts you. Unlike talking to the police without an attorney, though, you cannot refuse to participate in an IME.

Who Does the IME Help?

The IME undoubtedly helps insurance companies, which is why they order them. If IMEs routinely led to insurance companies being forced to pay more or cover more expensive treatments, they would never order them. However, insurance adjusters know that requesting an IME from the right doctor can limit their own financial liability and put them in a position to offer less money.

What does this mean for you? You do have to go through an IME when requested, unfortunately, so this means that you have to do what you can to mitigate the situation.

Information Gathered During an IME

The doctor conducting your independent medical examination can use anything and everything in their report. That doesn’t just start when you enter their exam room. That starts from the moment you arrive at the clinic. If you claim that your injury is so bad that you can’t drive but they clearly see you drive up to the appointment location, that will definitely end up in their report.

If you claim that your pain is so bad that you can’t take care of your children but you mention taking your daughter to ice skating lessons three times a week, that will end up in the report. While your medical information and tests will be the primary focus, anything else you say or do can also make its way into the doctor’s final report.

What an IME Can Do to Your Personal Injury Case

As you may have expected, an independent medical examination can have a devastating effect on your personal injury case if you don’t approach it correctly. If the doctor finds that your injuries are less severe than you claimed or that your symptoms are better than you reported, the insurance company may refuse to pay for further treatment or decrease what they are willing to pay you.

How an Attorney Can Help

This is just one reason you should have a personal injury lawyer on your side when you are going through an accident claim. An experienced personal injury lawyer will know exactly how IMEs work and what you are up against, and they’ll know how you should approach it to limit the damage to your claim. As soon as you find out that you have to go through an IME, contact your attorney with all of the information you have. They will help you move forward with a plan.

Choose Mann & Potter for Your Personal Injury Claim

Fight for what you deserve with a committed and aggressive advocate. The team at Mann & Potter is focused on helping accident victims get what they deserve after a collision. Give us a call at 205-879-9661 or fill out our online contact form to get the help you need.

Can I Sue a Truck Driver’s Employer in a Truck Accident Claim?

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Although truck accidents in Birmingham, AL are far less common than crashes that only involve passenger vehicles, they are much more likely to lead to fatal or catastrophic injuries. Those who suffer serious injuries after a truck accident may struggle to recover the compensation they deserve since many trucking companies employ massive legal teams to limit their liability and subsequent payouts.

What can you do after a truck crash? Learn more about employer liability and how you can protect yourself. For more advice regarding your specific needs, call Mann & Potter at 205-879-9661.

Verifying the Truck Driver’s Status

First, you should know that there are multiple ways a truck driver may carry loads for a company. Many truck drivers are actual employees of the truck driving company, so they are protected under the company’s business and driver insurance. However, they may also be an independent contractor. Some truck drivers own their own vehicles and carry loads for multiple companies, which means that they alone are responsible for their insurance.

Employee vs. Independent Contractor

It’s not always cut-and-dry, unfortunately. A trucking company might claim that a driver is an independent contractor when the driver actually functions as an employee. Companies often misclassify drivers as independent contractors for the exact reason discussed in this article—they want to avoid liability for accidents.

If an employee causes an accident, the employer is responsible under the “respondeat superior” doctrine. This means that work done by the employee in the course of their normal employment is their employer’s responsibility.

Don’t lose hope, though. Just because a company calls a driver an independent contractor does not necessarily mean that they are. There are several ways you can prove that the employer is misclassifying the driver, that the driver is actually an employee, and that the company is subsequently responsible for your losses.

For example, if the truck driver only drives for one company and is not permitted to take loads from other companies, it’s likely that they are legally an employee of the company they drive for. If the driver is truly an independent contractor, however, then you can seek compensation through their own vehicle insurance policy.

Your Options for Compensation

Calling an attorney should be one of your first steps after a trucking accident. They can conduct an in-depth investigation that uncovers the cause of your accident and proves who the liable party is. While the liable party is generally one of the two drivers, that isn’t always the case. If a separate party is responsible for the accident, you may not even need to worry about whether or not the driver is an employee.

Other liable parties may include the manufacturer of the truck, the owner of the cargo, or the company responsible for loading the cargo. As you may expect, though, people are not quick to claim responsibility when something like this happens. While each party may be quick to tell you that they are not at fault, they also don’t have a vested interest in helping you figure out who is.

If your top priority is getting the full and fair compensation that you deserve, talk to an experienced truck accident attorney as soon as possible after your accident.

The good news: if you are able to prove that the driver is an employee, you may find it much easier to get the compensation you are owed. Insurance policies for truck drivers are substantially larger than policies held by standard passenger vehicle drivers, simply because trucks often carry expensive cargo and can do a lot of damage in a crash. If you’ve suffered life-changing injuries, a truck insurer is far more likely to cover your damages than a passenger vehicle’s insurer.

Choose Mann & Potter for Your Truck Accident Claim

Don’t wait to hire an attorney for your truck accident claim. The longer you wait, the less evidence you have available to you. It’s time to talk to Mann & Potter and take action. Call our firm at 205-879-9661 or have a team member reach out to you online.

How Future Medical Costs Are Calculated After an Accident

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In some personal injury cases, compensation is awarded for future medical claims. While this type of compensation isn’t relevant to all cases, if it’s relevant to yours, it could be a significant portion of your settlement. The thought of calculating these damages can be overwhelming—how are you supposed to know what care you’ll need in the future and how much it will cost?

Hiring a dependable and proven personal injury attorney is the first step in answering these questions. Call Mann & Potter at 205-879-9661 to schedule a consultation now.

Future Medical Costs Are Not Always Awarded

To start, you have to ask if your case is even one that qualifies for compensation for future medical costs. For some injuries, you get the treatment you need, heal completely, and never have to worry about the injury again.

As an example, if you have a broken leg that heals well with a cast, you’re unlikely to incur further medical expenses related to it. However, if your injuries are so severe that you will never make a full recovery, it’s likely that you will need ongoing care for the rest of your life. In these circumstances, you may receive money for future medical costs.

Calculating Your Medical Expenses

First, think about medical expenses as a broad term. This is an umbrella term that could include:

  • Time spent in the hospital
  • Diagnostic tests
  • Surgical treatments
  • Prescription medications
  • Specialist care
  • Physical and occupational therapy
  • Adaptive equipment
  • Medical supplies
  • Around-the-clock home care, either through a nursing agency or from family members
  • Facility care if at-home care is not suitable
  • Transportation to and from appointments

Calculating costs is the tricky part, as medical costs change rapidly and are influenced by a wide range of factors. Your attorney will have more specific guidance based on your diagnosis, but you’ll generally start by seeking out specialists’ care.

They will have some insight regarding the prognosis of your injury or illness, what type of care you can expect to need for the rest of your life, and approximately what that care would cost. It’s better to seek multiple estimates, as this shows the insurance company or jury that your calculations are based on a large body of medical evidence—not just the opinion of one medical professional.

After getting a better estimate of your long-term medical care needs, your attorney will be able to figure out what amount would be fair in terms of compensation.

Getting the Compensation that You Deserve

Remember, you only have one chance to get what you deserve in an injury claim. If you rush the process, underestimate your future medical expenses, and later find out you cannot get the care you need, there are no do-overs. Once you’ve signed away your right to sue, you cannot go back to the insurance company for more money. This is why it is crucial to hire an attorney, follow their directions, and make sure you prove your injuries in any way you can.

Whether your case is settled outside of court or plays out in the courtroom, you’ll need evidence supporting your need for future medical care. Make sure your care team is on board with providing estimates and insight regarding your future care needs. You may also want to consult a healthcare economist. They understand how healthcare costs fluctuate and can give a more precise estimate of what you’ll need to get necessary medical care in the future.

Hiring the right attorney is essential when it comes to getting a full and fair settlement. The team at Mann & Potter understands how important it is that you get proper compensation for future medical expenses, and our in-depth understanding of financial data and medical expenses gives us the tools we need to represent you. Our goal is to ensure that you have what you need to live a full and productive life after your accident.

Contact Mann & Potter for Help with Your Claim

Are you ready to start your personal injury claim? It’s time to talk to the team at Mann & Potter. After your first consultation, we’re certain you’ll feel confident about our body of experience and how we can help you. Call us at 205-879-9661 or reach out online now to schedule your consultation.

Accidents May Be Caused by Road Defects

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Municipalities have an obligation to their residents to keep roadways safe, easy to navigate, and free of obstructions. Unfortunately, as anyone who has ever driven will tell you, that just isn’t how it happens. When the weather doesn’t cooperate or the county budget doesn’t stretch as far as it needs to, roads can fall into disrepair. This puts drivers and passengers at risk of preventable accidents.

There are several ways that city planners and municipal leaders may fail at road design and maintenance.

Complex Intersections

Intersections should be easy to understand and identify from a distance and up close. If drivers and motorcyclists have to stop prior to the intersection to understand how to navigate it, the road is defective. Complicated intersections can leave people turning from or into the incorrect lane, missing walkways, and not seeing important signage.

Obscured Walkways

Walkways protect pedestrians and help drivers prevent accidents. When walkways are difficult to see or poorly marked, pedestrians, motorcyclists, and drivers all suffer. Even if a motorcyclist can avoid a crash by hitting the brakes or swerving, they run the risk of getting involved in another accident.

Signs Blocked by Trees and Other Obstacles

Landscaping is a surprisingly important part of road safety and maintenance. Even the most carefully planned road can become impassable when trees and shrubs start blocking important signs.

Additionally, overgrown trees and bushes can make it difficult to see vehicles approaching from other directions. This puts motorcyclists in the position of having to make blind turns and hope for the best, which is obviously a dangerous option. Again, this is something that tends to fall to the bottom of the priority list in an overworked municipality or a municipality with more needs than money.

Roads Damaged by Weather

Roads need frequent maintenance and upkeep to be safe for drivers. While roadway defects can cause accidents for anyone, people in cars are far more likely to walk away from these accidents with minimal or no injuries. The design of a motorcycle automatically puts bikers at greater risk of injuries when they hit an uneven or unsteady roadway. If roads aren’t maintained after seasons of heavy rain, snow, or wind, they are bound to become uneven and difficult to navigate.

What You Should Do After an Auto Accident Caused by Road Defects

If you’re involved in an accident that’s caused by a road defect, you may wonder what comes next. Crashes where one driver is at fault are easier to handle, as you only have to negotiate with their insurance. However, claims against the government are inherently more time-consuming and challenging.

You generally have to go through a slightly different process, alert the appropriate parties that you plan on filing a case against them, and then do so—all on a tighter time frame. Personal injury claims against the government typically have a much shorter statute of limitations than claims against private parties, so delaying at all in your claim could be a huge mistake. Waiting too long could mean giving up your right to sue and losing your chance at fair and full compensation.

When you suspect that the government is liable for an accident, talk to an attorney as soon as possible.

Contact Mann & Potter to Start Your Claim Now

Have you been injured in a vehicle accident? Act quickly to preserve the evidence and hold the right party accountable. Take the first step now by calling Mann & Potter at 205-879-9661 or filling out our online contact form. We’re here to help you.

Common Dental Injuries That Result from Auto Accidents

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Nothing strikes fear into your heart like a wiggling tooth that isn’t meant to move or a sharp toothache that stays with you through multiple rounds of Orajel. Unfortunately, for many car accident victims, this is reality.

Dental injuries are a fairly common outcome in serious accidents. Dental work can be incredibly expensive—so expensive that many people put it off for years. Unexpected dental expenses are even worse when you’re dealing with other accident injuries, lost income, and other osts.

Have you suffered a dental injury because of someone else’s negligence? You could be entitled to compensation. Learn more about common dental injuries, and then call Mann & Potter at 205-879-9661 to schedule a consultation now.

Luxated Tooth

A luxated tooth can quickly become a permanently lost tooth. This injury occurs when trauma loosens the tooth from its root, freeing it to move from side to side within its socket. If treated quickly, it can be secured in place. If left without treatment, it may continue to get weaker until it completely falls out.

Avulsed Tooth

A tooth may become avulsed when it completely falls out during a crash. This may happen when you strike your head against an object or are thrown from the vehicle during the crash. Whether or not the tooth can be repaired and reset into the mouth depends on how it broke, how it fell out, and how quickly you seek treatment.

Fractured Tooth

Fractured teeth can be both painful and embarrassing. In some cases, a fractured tooth is just a source of embarrassment—if it is aesthetically unappealing, you still deserve to get it fixed and feel good about yourself. In a more serious case, your tooth may be visibly broken and have exposed roots, causing significant pain.

Tooth Intrusion

When the tooth gets jammed into the gums, you suffer a tooth intrusion. This often causes bleeding, swelling of the gums, and pain.

Getting Fair Compensation

How do you get full and fair compensation after a dental injury? It’s more difficult than you may think. The other party’s car insurance is not in a rush to pay you what you deserve, since a full settlement will result in lost profits. You’ll need to force them to be accountable for their client’s mistake.

Healthcare is already expensive, but when you add in dental care, a settlement can be even more costly. The cost of dental care is significantly higher than many types of medical care, especially since much of it is not covered by dental insurance. To get compensated for your dental injuries, you will need to prove conclusively that those injuries were the result of the other party’s negligence. That’s where an attorney comes in.

A personal injury attorney in Birmingham, Alabama can fight for the compensation you’re owed. We’ll gather evidence and build a case for you. Our goal is to secure a fair settlement from the insurance company or, if necessary, take your case to court.

Contact Mann & Potter Now

Don’t let a dental injury affect your self-esteem, ability to eat, and pain levels. If your injury was caused by someone else’s negligence, you shouldn’t have to shoulder the costs related to your accident. The sooner you connect with the team at Mann & Potter, the sooner we can start on your claim. Call us at 205-879-9661 or fill out our online contact form to schedule a meeting as soon as possible.

What Are My Rights as An Injured Passenger in a Car Accident?

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The Alabama Guest Statute

When you are a passenger in a car accident in Alabama, a lot depends on who is at fault for the injuries you suffered. If another driver is liable, you have options—we will explain that later. However, if the driver of the vehicle you were in caused the accident, you may be facing an uphill battle. Alabama has a Guest Statute on the books, and it’s the only state to still have this type of law in place.

If you are hurt in an accident where the driver of the vehicle you are in is at fault, you cannot file a claim against their insurance if you were their guest. This law is designed to protect drivers from insurance claims stemming from efforts to help people by driving them off somewhere or helping them with errands.

Exceptions to This Statute

There are some exceptions to this. You can seek compensation if your injuries were caused by the driver’s willful or wanton misconduct. Proving wanton disconnect is challenging, however, which is one reason you need the help of a personal injury attorney if you are seeking compensation for injuries.

Willful, wanton misconduct isn’t simply speeding or driving too fast for weather conditions. The standard for this is substantially higher. You may be able to seek compensation under these conditions if, for example, the driver is under the influence and does not tell you that before you accept the ride. You might also be able to seek compensation if they intentionally harm you.

If you go this route, you’ll likely need to talk to an attorney to fight for the compensation you are owed, as it’s unlikely that the driver will come out and tell the insurance company that they were driving recklessly or intentionally putting you in danger.

When Someone Else is Negligent

If the driver of the other vehicle involved in the crash is liable, you can still seek compensation from the liable driver. In these situations, the process is largely the same as if you were an injured driver. You would seek out a personal injury attorney, provide the evidence you gathered as an accident victim, get the medical treatment you need, and find out if you are entitled to compensation. This is much easier with the help of an attorney. Be prepared to prove the other party’s liability with witness testimony, photos of the crash scene, video footage of the crash scene, and medical records. In this situation, the claim would proceed as a standard personal injury claim.