Your Escondido Personal Injury Attorney and Oceanside Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyer, Sebastian Gibson

Escondido Personal Injury Lawyer Sebastian Gibson is ready to begin gathering evidence today to represent you as your Escondido Personal Injury Attorney in 2010. These tips are provided to offer some guidance as to the first steps you should take after being injured in a Escondido Personal Injury. Your actions in the initial days following your Escondido Personal Injury are crucial and this advice, if followed, will greatly assist us in your representation.

While some of these tips may be too late for you if your Accident in Escondido was some hours or days ago, as a Personal Injury Lawyer in Escondido, we provide these tips in the hope they may yet be useful for you in connection with your Escondido Personal Injury and for any future Accidents you may have.

First, take a look around and determine if you or anyone else is hurt. If so, taking steps to prevent further injury or loss of blood are the most important thing you can do until help arrives. The worst thing you can do is get angry or start a fight. As your Escondido Personal Injury Attorney, it is much easier to obtain the compensation you deserve if we don’t also have to deal with claims that your accident turned into a brawl or was the result of road rage.

Second, make sure any other drivers and passengers in your Escondido personal injury accident are safe from being injured further. If you are in the middle of traffic and can safely get out of the way, walk to where it is safe. If you aren’t dizzy and can help others without risk to yourselves or risking injury to them, help them. If your vehicle is a hazard to others and you have warning devices such as triangles or flares you can safely place in the road, put them out on the road to warn other drivers and get away from any danger. Let the Escondido police or other emergency personnel investigate the scene with all the vehicles in place and let them move the vehicles at a later point.

Third, if no one else already has, call the local police or the California Highway Patrol or 911. Accident reports are extremely helpful if they will prepare one. Let the Escondido police know you are injured immediately. Answer all the questions honestly but if you are dazed or confused, let them know you need medical attention and answer only what you are certain about. Statements you make will later appear in the police report and if you make a mistake, it is unlikely a later statement will be believed over your initial statements as your best recollection is usually immediately after an accident.

Fourth, obtain the other driver’s information including their name, address, driver’s license, make and model of their vehicle, license plate number, insurance company and policy number. If there are witnesses, obtain their information as well. If the other driver makes any admissions of fault, write them down as well. The police will likely separate you once they arrive so try to obtain this information while you can. Although we can obtain a copy of the police report as your Escondido Personal Injury Lawyers, it often takes a week to 10 days or longer for the report to be completed.

Fifth, if you have a camera or a cell phone with a camera built in, take some photos of the vehicles, the scene of the Escondido personal injury accident and the others involved. If you failed to do so immediately after the accident, take some now of the scene of the accident in Escondido or wherever it occurred and of your vehicle, if one was involved. As your Escondido Personal Injury Attorneys, we can obtain additional photographs or police photographs, if any, later.

Sixth, if you are hurt, obtain medical treatment. Don’t decline the ambulance or hospital examination to save your insurance company money or to be stoic if you have coverage. Take your valuables out of your vehicle and get checked out at the hospital. If you are not hurt, don’t get treatment you don’t need. However, remember, after an accident, you may feel a rush of adrenaline that causes your symptoms to go unnoticed by you until a few hours later. If you have a health plan that requires you to obtain permission before going anywhere for medical treatment, call them first to find out where you can go for treatment that is covered by them. As a Personal Injury Lawyer in Escondido and other areas of California, nothing is more important to you and your case than obtaining proper medical treatment promptly.

Seventh, call a good Escondido Personal Injury Attorney as soon as you have had your initial medical treatment so your Escondido Personal Injury Lawyer can gather important evidence and prevent the other party’s insurance company from taking advantage of you by obtaining things such as a recorded statement from you. A good Escondido Personal Injury Attorney can save you from making mistakes and can shoulder much of the hassle that results from an accident. Your Escondido Lawyer can also advise you in connection with how to obtain vehicle repairs, a car rental, medical treatment on a lien, etc. An experienced Escondido Personal Injury Attorney can almost always obtain higher settlements, obtain reductions of medical bills and insurance liens that have to be repaid. Most Lawyers will also advance the costs of obtaining police reports, and medical records that are crucial to a good settlement.

Eighth, report the Escondido accident to your insurance company. However, before you do so, it is good advice to retain a Escondido Personal Injury Attorney first as even your own insurance company will want to take a recorded statement. If the other driver did not have insurance, remember, your own insurance company will be your adversary. You will also need to report the accident to the Department of Motor Vehicles and your Escondido personal injury Lawyer can provide you with the form.

Ninth, do not agree to settle your claim privately with the person at fault for the accident in Escondido or with their insurance company when they want to offer you a paltry amount before your injuries have been checked out or treated. Neither of these scenarios work to your advantage. Private individuals rarely want to pay you for anything more than your car repairs. And if you agree to not involve the police, the other driver may change his or her story and blame you later when the police are no longer willing to investigate the Escondido personal injury accident. Insurance companies offering a quick settlement are usually taking advantage of you at a time when you can least afford it.

Tenth, don’t pay a traffic ticket without attempting to fight it if you weren’t at fault and don’t accept a small payment from the other driver for your vehicle repairs without knowing that the amount will in fact cover the entire cost of repairs. As your Escondido Personal Injury Attorney, we can usually persuade the insurance company to pay for additional repairs beyond the initial estimate if the body shop finds additional damage from your accident once the repairs have begun.

If you’ve had a Escondido or Oceanside Personal Injury, auto, bicycle, truck, car, big rig, motorcycle, or pedestrian accident or a dog bite in Escondido, or anywhere in Southern California, we have the resources and knowledge to be your Escondido Personal Injury Lawyer and your Escondido Personal Injury Attorney and will see that you are properly represented to obtain the compensation you deserve for your accident.

At the Law Firm of R. Sebastian Gibson we have the auto accident experience and the car accident resources to be your Escondido personal injury attorneys and Oceanside auto accident lawyers.

Auto Accidents commonly involve rear-end crashes, left-turn collisions, unsafe lane changes, excessive speed, hit and run car accidents, and uninsured motorist collisions.  Motor vehicle versus pedestrian auto accidents in our experience produce the most serious injuries and on too many occasions, deaths. 

Personal injury accidents of all types occur throughout Escondido and car accidents in Oceanside can result in spinal cord  injuries, fractures, neck and low back injuries, sprains and strains, headaches and brain damage.  All of these types of injuries are handled by Escondido car accident lawyer and Oceanside personal injury attorney Sebastian Gibson.

Escondido personal injury attorney Sebastian Gibson has also handled common carrier car accidents including accidents involving passenger and freight trains, bus accidents, taxi driver negligence and aviation crashes.  Oceanside auto accident lawyer Sebastian Gibson has also been greatly concerned with the safety of children and Sebastian Gibson is proud to have created a new tort in California at the trial level for intentional endangerment of a child.

Escondido personal injury attorneys from our firm can advise you with regard to car repairs and estimates and obtain reimbursement for auto, car, and truck rental costs and out of pocket expenses. Oceanside car accident lawyer Sebastian Gibson can assist you in obtaining payment of  your medical, hospital, medication, chiropractic, orthopedic and neurological expenses as well as the costs of treatment and physical therapy for your neck, back, shoulder, and hip problems as well as for auto accident related fractures and surgeries.

Serious injuries in auto accidents in the Escondido and car accidents in Oceanside California can include brain injuries, quadriplegia, paraplegia, as well as fractures and injuries requiring surgery. Escondido personal injury attorney R. Sebastian Gibson provides a free initial phone consultation to you to discuss your case. If we feel our law firm's lawyers are not necessary, we will advise you of this and try to answer your questions and concerns.

Oceanside personal injury lawyer Sebastian Gibson will work with you and advise you how to obtain estimates for the repair of your car damage, and your rights in the event your car or auto has been totaled in an automobile accident.

If you have had a car or auto accident in Escondido or a car accident in Oceanside, we will also advise you how and when you should notify your auto insurance company, what responsibilities you have to cooperate with your auto insurance company and your rights in dealing with any other party’s auto insurance company accident  representatives, and their requests for recorded statements in connection with your automobile accident.

Escondido Personal Injury Attorney Sebastian Gibson will also inform you how and in what circumstances you can obtain a car rental, and whether you should utilize the medical coverage on your auto accident insurance policy or the other party’s car insurance policy to pay your medical bills.

Oceanside Auto accident attorney Sebastian Gibson is also available at all times to answer questions such as when your health insurance should be utilized to see general practice and family doctors and chiropractors, and how to go about seeing  orthopedic, neurological and pain management specialists for your medical complaints after a car accident.

Escondido personal injury attorney Sebastian Gibson, has decades of experience in representing clients with injuries resulting from California auto accidents which can range from injuries to your neck and back, whether they simply involve strains and sprains or require surgery.  You may have also suffered injuries from an auto accident to your head, brain, hip, shoulders, arms, legs, feet, wrists or ankle.  With injuries such as brain damage, you may not even recognize each of your injuries or the severity of them.

In the course of over 30 years of practicing law, Oceanside personal injury lawyer Sebastian Gibson has handled thousands of cases involving autos, motorcycles, trucks, trains, airplanes, buses, including school buses, and all manner of other vehicle and auto accidents including off-road vehicles, boats, ships and other vessels, helicopters and airline accident claims in southern California.

Sadly, our law firm's personal injury attorneys and lawyers have also handled a number of fatal and very deadly car accidents in California in which no amount of compensation can replace the loss of a loved one.

In today’s world, California auto and personal injury lawyers are also cognizant of the need to investigate whether the auto accident was alcohol related, whether teen or teenage automobile drivers were involved, and whether a cell phone was in use at the time of the auto accident. While driver negligence is usually the cause of a car accident, with investigation by our the lawyers utilized by our law firm, the underlying cause can sometimes be found to be the driver's inadvertent attention to the radio, what has fallen to the floor from another seat, or the conversation of another passenger causing the driver to look away from the road.

If the auto accident crash in Escondido or a car accident in Oceanside involved impaired driving or the use of any kind of alcohol or drugs, a conviction of the defendant can affect the amount of the personal injury claim and the auto accident settlement and use of alcohol by the automobile driver at fault may also warrant a claim for punitive damages in the auto or personal injury lawsuit filed by Sebastian Gibson. 

With the drafting expertise of Oceanside car and personal injury attorney Sebastian Gibson, the law firm files lawsuits in the Superior Court in cities and counties throughout the State of California, including Escondido as well as lawsuits in federal court. 

Remember, the job of an insurance company adjuster is to give you as little as possible in settlement of your personal injury, while appearing to be fair and while doing all they can to convince you there is no need to retain a personal injury attorney or lawyer.  Insurance bad faith claims against one's own insurer in California include not only an insurance company's refusal to pay, but also their refusal to defend.  If you've been seriously injured in an automobile accident in California that is not your fault, it is important to have our law firm file your personal injury claim before the California personal injury law limitation period expires.

If you've been injured in a car or personal injury accident in Escondido or Oceanside, we encourage you to call the Escondido personal injury attorney Sebastian Gibson for a free consultation today, before any of your rights are lost. 

You deserve to be compensated for your injuries. Escondido and Oceanside Personal Injury Lawyer Sebastian Gibson will work with you to assist you at this difficult time, represent your interests, and with your interests at heart, will fight for you.