You’ve seen and read many car accident horror stories. They’re usually plastered all over nightly news, especially when it’s significant enough to have no survivors.
Taking notice of these horrific vehicle collisions, you brush it off and carry on about your day. Because you’re better than that, a more careful driver who’s never been ticketed, let alone involved with any vehicular accidents.
Then, the unthinkable happens.
You’re driving to work, having left with plenty of time to commute. A large semi hauling metal bar sideswipes you while changing lanes during a rainy day. Your car careens off a guard rail and spins out into oncoming traffic. Yet another vehicle hits you, finally sending you into the ditch. Thankfully, you’re okay, but your BMW is obliterated.
I’m Howard Craig Kornberg, a well-respected Long Beach car accident attorney. I’ve seen these situations many times; an experienced driver, who’s never been involved in a car accident, believes it can never happen to them. When it finally does, the victim seems hopeless that nobody will understand their situation, many times thinking only of their families and their high-paying job which could be jeopardized by this preventable incident.
Car Accidents Can Happen Anywhere, Anytime
Sadly, you cannot always avoid a car accident, even if you are driving safely. In fact, they are very common in not only California but across the country. The following accidents are widespread among drivers and oftentimes have serious consequences.
- Rear-end accidents: Typically occur when a driver collides with the vehicle in front of them. Depending on the speed at which each vehicle was moving will determine how serious or minor the accident and injuries sustained can be for the drivers.
- T-Bone accidents: This type of accident is also known as a side impact collision and occurs when the side of a car is hit by the front or rear of another vehicle. Collisions like these oftentimes result in severe injuries for all involved.
- Sideswipe collisions: Generally happen when one car collides with the side of another vehicle. Both cars are usually traveling in the same direction. The most common causes of sideswipes happen because drivers fail to check their blind spots prior to changing lanes or drivers who are parked with the intention to re-enter traffic, fail to ensure the lane is clear before pulling out. In low-speed accidents, damages aren’t too serious but at high speeds, injuries can be significant and quite severe.
- Head on collisions: Whenever two vehicles collide directly with each other while traveling in opposite directions whether at high speeds or not, injuries can be severe, and sometimes death is imminent.
- Single vehicle crashes: These types of accidents involve only one vehicle and can be the effect of a collision with a stationary object or from veering off the road. You will see these accidents are due to driver errors that result from intoxication and fatigue. Other external factors like unsafe road conditions and poor weather can contribute to accidents too.
- Rollover accidents: Whenever a vehicle is involved in a collision or unexpected departure from the road, rollovers or an overturned vehicle are very possible. They can be severe due to the substantial injuries incurred from the car flipping while the driver remains inside. Wearing a seatbelt has never been more important in a time like this as well.
- Hit and run accidents: Any accident in which one of the drivers involved in the accident decides to flee the scene. A hit and run are known as the driver leaving the scene of the accident without providing contact information. This can result in a ticket at a minimum all the way up to criminal charges.
Car accidents don’t know their victims. Executives, college students, soccer moms, nobody’s immune to the devastation that one negligent driver can cause. They happen to Jaguars, Fiats, Chevettes, even Bentleys. Victims can be teenagers, elderly, black, white, a visitor from another country, or the good old country boy from the backwoods of California.
In Los Angeles County, circa 2015, over 39,000 victims were killed or injured as a result of a collision. Nearly 10%, or 3,300, had alcohol involved. While the California Office of Traffic Safety does not collect data in terms of fault, my office has seen a fair share of these collisions.
Inebriated drivers, while a substantial roadway threat, aren’t as negligible as distracted drivers or those with inexperience.
If you think car accident fatalities are worse in other states, you should know that the national average grew 6% between 2015 at 2016, while California saw a 13% increase during the same period. While a great number happen in Los Angeles County, a growing number are happening in rural areas.
When you want a car accident attorney Long Beach accident victims have trusted in the past, Howard Craig Kornberg gladly takes your call.
Staking Your Accident Claim
If you or a loved one are injured in a car accident while driving in California, you need to talk to one of the top experts at the Law Offices of Howard Kornberg. A Long Beach car accident attorney will help you navigate this difficult time because let’s face it, the period following an auto accident can be extremely stressful.
Car crash injuries add the stress of medical bills, expenses, lost wages, physical and emotional pain as well as damages to your vehicle. It can be a lot to handle sometimes, so why not enlist the help you so desperately need.
Unfortunately, settlement checks don’t magically appear in your mailbox after an auto accident. A lengthy, sometimes stressful process ensues where our attorney firm, the insurers, the at-fault driver, and sometimes the courts negotiate favorable terms based on the severity of your accident and other mitigating circumstances.
It takes a skilled car collision lawyer to roll up their sleeves, crunch numbers, and approach an opposing party who’d rather throw you a few seeds instead of the whole bag of popcorn. A typical car accident settlement negotiation process, from start to finish, will go something like this:
- An accident indeed happens involving you and another party. If taken to court, we actually must prove this element (as redundant as it seems, since you’re banged up pretty bad).
- Someone, perhaps yourself, notifies local law enforcement that a car accident has occurred. You simply cannot leave once placing the call; doing so may lead to criminal charges.
- Law enforcement will take pictures, conduct witness interviews, victim statements, and notify the ambulance service if one hasn’t been dispatched already.
- At this point, get yourself taken care of. Get a copy of all medical bills, notes, or anything else related to the injuries stemming from your accident.
If you’ve not been hassled by insurance adjusters, take the opportunity to call a car accident attorney Long Beach residents to know and trust, Howard Craig Kornberg. From this point forward, I’ll handle the irrationalities associated with insurance adjusting and also take this opportunity to begin putting together your case.
Once I collected all the facts, photos, police reports, and both victim and witness statements, I’ll have enough ammunition to file your case in Los Angeles County Courts. With a completely typed up case in tow, and a folder full of facts surrounding your case, I’ll enter the negotiation phase with the at-fault insurer.
We will both spend days putting together figures, comparing notes, throwing various case laws at each other until finally our settlement is agreed on, or we all agree to disagree and I take your case right up to the courthouse.
I’m a straight-shooting attorney. One thing I cannot stand are insurers that lack compunction for my clients. The settlement offers I propose a reasonable, help my clients continue healing while having enough to cover their daily expenses and get their medical bills paid for so there’s one less thing to stress over. Unfortunately, it takes courtroom action to awaken unreasonable insurers to the realization that they’re going to lose, but now that they’re in court with Howard Craig Kornberg, they’re really going to lose.
My experience in auto accident litigation is quite extensive. I will help you get proper medical treatment, assess the accident, examine all medical evidence that evaluates injuries, calculate losses and help maximize the compensation you recover. At the same time, I will explain your legal options while counseling you on the best way to proceed. I will do everything in my power to minimize the stress you are feeling post auto accident.
That’s essentially the ‘Cliff’s Notes’ version of car accident settlements. There are many behind-the-scenes components that most clients care nothing about, and rightfully so; they involve big words and small victories which lead to the greater prize: a respectable settlement for you.
What If My Loved One Passes Away?
Law enforcement will tell you the most horrifying part of their job is knocking on the door of a newly widowed person when they don’t know yet they just became widowed. An unfortunate part of car accidents is that they do kill, and quite frequently: Long Beach injuries and deaths stemming from a collision, in 2015, reached 2,551.
When a loved one passes away in a car accident, and the negligent party has been identified, I’m the car accident attorney who can settle your case. Also, if your significant other had enough work credits and you have minor children, I can counsel you on filing for Social Security death benefits.
As car accidents leading to death are much more serious, settlements can be much larger. Therefore, we work hard to honor the decedent by securing financial compensation they would want you, surviving husband and wife, to have so your life may continue on and your shared children may flourish.
Lean on the competence and proficiency of Howard Craig Kornberg, a car accident attorney Long Beach citizens have known and trusted for over 20 years.
I Was Hit by a Commercial Truck. Do I Still Have a Claim?
Commercial vehicles negligently causing accidents are equally culpable as regular passenger vehicles under California law. In fact, because many commercial drivers require special licenses and even bonding, the ramifications of willful negligence in the operation of a vehicle could devastate commercially licensed drivers.
My office is handled by numerous commercial vehicle insurers. As the gross vehicle weight of box trucks, semis, even dump trucks is much larger than regular passenger vehicles, damages can be more severe. This, of course, means settlements can potentially reach much larger numbers.
Ridesharing drivers, such as those getting paid by Uber or Lyft, are also responsible for both vehicles they hit, and all passengers across both vehicles. This means ridesharing drivers, who generally carry a $1 million liability policy, could face up to six settlement suits. My office can handle cases like this individually or bring a group lawsuit in which the final award would be equally distributed amongst all of the victims.
You’re Just Another Settlement Mill, Right?
My practice, nor my outstanding reputation as a Long Beach car accident attorney, would benefit nothing by shoveling people through the settlement process without an iota of care for their personal well-being. I treat every accident, every victim, and every negotiation I settle for with the same dignity and respect I would want my family to be treated with if mired in a similar situation.
Car accidents aren’t fun. There are no health benefits, trophies, or special titles that victims receive as a result of their injuries. People are displaced from work, sometimes permanently injured, and are now without reliable transportation until theirs is either fixed, with a purchased a new one. The situation is truly life-altering, one that I would wish upon no one.
I can promise you the following things:
- Your case will get the utmost attention it deserves from the time I take it, to the time I issue your check.
- I’ll never charge you a dime until your case settles.
- You will never have to fear insurance companies and their counsel because I will handle them on your behalf.
- If I cannot settle your case, you owe me nothing. Not even a handshake.
- I will never throw your case into a category, shuffle it to the back of the line, or compare it to any other case I’ve litigated. It’s your car accident, so it’s unique to me.
It takes a car accident attorney Long Beach residents have known and trusted for years to truly understand the needs of local victims.
To begin your no-cost car accident case evaluation, contact Howard Craig Kornberg, a man who stands by accident victims and offers them aggressive legal representation during what’s easily the most tragic time of their lives.
