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Scottsdale Car Accident Lawyer

Scottsdale Car Accident Lawyer

Car accidents are a leading cause of unintentional injury and death in the US. For most drivers in Arizona, getting into an auto accident is a matter of when not if. In fact, in 2019, there were nearly 130,000 car accidents in Arizona alone. Over 900 of these collisions were fatal, while about 37,000 caused injuries. Unfortunately, a serious car accident can cause lasting injuries and dramatically affect your life.

At Shapiro Law Team, we are passionate about helping those injured in car accidents and their families in Scottsdale, Arizona.  We are tireless in our efforts to recover compensation for your injuries and fight for justice on your behalf.  While we understand that the money will not fix everything, we hope a fair financial recovery can help you and your family move forward. If you have been in a car accident in Scottsdale, contact our lawyers for free today. Call (480) 300-5405 24/7 to schedule an initial free consultation.

Why Clients Choose Our Scottsdale Car Accident Lawyer?

  • We are a full-service personal injury law firm that offers comprehensive legal care. Our car accident attorneys can handle your case from start to finish, even if that means going to trial.
  • We have years of experience not only in car accident claims involving negligent or reckless drivers, but also government negligence and auto part defects.
  • Our law firm has a long history of obtaining top results for our clients in Arizona. This includes a $2.75 million award for a trucking collision and $1.75 million for a motorcycle accident.
  • We do not ask our clients to pay legal fees unless we are successful in securing financial compensation on their behalf. Our Scottsdale car accident lawyers work on a contingency fee basis.

When to Contact a Car Accident Lawyer

It can be easy to accept a low settlement offer from an auto insurance company. Many car accident survivors with serious injuries do not fully understand their rights or the values of their claims. They fall for bad faith tactics from insurance companies such as lowball settlement offers or wrongful claim denials. It is important to work with an attorney if you have life-altering injuries from an auto accident in Scottsdale.

Catastrophic injuries, wrongful deaths, and expensive losses deserve attention from a personal injury lawyer. A lawyer will have the knowledge and experience to aggressively negotiate your claim for fair results. Do not settle for less than you require. Work with an attorney for maximum compensation.

Common Causes of Car Accidents in Scottsdale, AZ

One of the first actions you or your car accident lawyer will need to take to work out a claim is to identify the cause of the crash. Every trucking accident, motorcycle accident fender-bender, and vehicle collision has a cause. Causation can point to the identity of the defendant, or liable party, in your car accident case. It could also determine whether or not you have grounds to file a claim against another person or party for negligence. The car accident lawyers at Shapiro Law Team have experience with many car accident causes, both common and uncommon.

  • Driver negligence. Driver error is behind most vehicle collisions in Arizona. Common mistakes are driving drunk, drugged, drowsy, or distracted. Other errors include speeding, reckless driving, tailgating, red-light running, illegal passing, and failing to yield the right-of-way. If another driver negligently or recklessly caused your collision, he or she may owe you compensation.
  • Vehicle owner negligence. A car, truck, bus, or motorcycle that does not operate properly because of maintenance problems could point to the owner’s liability for a related crash. If a commercial trucking company does not adequately inspect, maintain, or repair a truck, for example, its brakes could fail or another part could break down and cause an accident.
  • Defective car parts. A motor vehicle relies on hundreds of parts working smoothly together for safe operation. When a part such as a tire or an engine contains a defect, the vehicle may be unable to properly operate. The manufacturer or distributor may be liable for a car part that contains a manufacturing, marketing, or design defect and causes a collision.
  • Dangerous roads. In some car accident cases, the vehicle and driver are both sound but the roadway is not. Road defects such as loose rubble, debris, potholes, missing reflectors, unsafe construction zones, obscured signs and broken traffic lights could contribute to preventable car accidents in Scottsdale. The city or state government could be liable for these types of crashes.

Whether you know what caused your Scottsdale car accident or you need a lawyer to investigate further, contact Shapiro Law Team. We can look into the cause of your car accident and let you know if you have grounds for a claim. From there, we may offer to take over insurance company negotiations or take your claim to trial in Maricopa County on your behalf. We accept car accident cases involving many different causes, factors, and defendants in Arizona.

Frequent Car Accident Injuries

A vehicle collision in Arizona can inflict serious, catastrophic, or fatal injuries on victims involved. The forces exerted on vehicle occupants in the average car accident are enough to break bones, injure soft tissues, and cause a variety of other injuries. Attorney David Shapiro got into personal injury law out of a passion for helping people with serious to life-changing injuries. He built his practice on the belief that no victim should have to accept an injury without a fight. Our plaintiff’s firm accepts car accident cases involving many types of injuries.

Some auto accident injuries will cause lifelong symptoms for victims. A spine injury, for example, could cause irreversible losses of sensation, movement and bodily functions (paralysis) below the point of injury. A brain injury could also permanently affect how a survivor thinks, behaves and moves. Catastrophic injuries could cause millions of dollars in lifelong medical costs, as well as lost wages from the inability to return to work.

The Scottsdale car accident lawyers at Shapiro Law Team aggressively negotiate for maximum compensation for badly injured crash victims. We understand serious injuries and sympathize with those who must live with them. We can fight for maximum compensation for past and future losses.

How To Prove Negligence in Car Accidents in Scottsdale

Sustaining an injury in a car accident in Scottsdale is one thing, but proving the negligence of the other party is another thing altogether. First, it is important to understand that there are four elements of negligence that a car accident victim or their attorney needs to prove in order to secure compensation for what happened.

  1. Duty. Any injury case revolves around proving that the person who caused the injury (the defendant) owed a duty of care to the injury victim (the plaintiff). Every driver on the roadway owes a duty of care to other drivers, passengers, and bystanders around them. This duty of care involves operating your vehicle safely and within the parameters of Arizona law at all times to ensure the safety of everybody else.
  2. Breach. When a duty of care has been established, a plaintiff needs to show that the defendant breached this duty in some way. In other words, they need to show that the driver operated below an acceptable standard of care period for car accident cases. This often involves proving that the defendant broke a traffic law and caused the accident.
  3. Causation. When the plaintiff establishes that a breach of duty has occurred, they need to show that this breach directly caused the incident.
  4. Damages. Finally, the plaintiff needs to show that they sustained some sort of monetary losses as a result of the breach of duty. This can include medical bills, property damages, pain and suffering, etc.

Understanding the elements of negligence is crucial, but that in and of itself does not prove the negligence. There are various steps that car accident injury victims can take immediately following the incident as well as in the days and weeks after to help prove negligence:

  • Seek immediate medical care. The most crucial part in proving negligence will be establishing the injuries and the severity of those injuries. Any serious car accident victim needs to seek immediate medical care, regardless of how severe the injuries seem initially. The signs and symptoms of many car accident injuries do not appear for hours or even days after the crash occurs, and a doctor needs to be the one to determine what treatment you need.
  • Call law enforcement officials. Negligence often revolves around information in the police report filled out after the crash occurs. Nearly every Arizona vehicle accident needs to be reported to law enforcement officials who will conduct a preliminary investigation into the incident and gather crucial information needed by insurance carriers and juries.
  • Take photographs at the scene. If a car accident injury victim or someone else can safely do so at the scene of the crash, they should use their phone or another type of camera to take photographs of everything. This includes damages to vehicles, injuries, debris, weather conditions, traffic patterns, and possible causes of the crash.
  • Contact information of eyewitnesses. The names and contact information of any other witnesses need to be obtained. This includes not only other drivers and passengers, but also bystanders nearby who saw the incident occur.
  • Gather video surveillance. Take note of any cameras near the scene of the crash. Nearby businesses or homes may have surveillance cameras or doorbell cameras that caught some or all of the incident on film. An attorney may be able to help gather this surveillance footage to help prove liability in the injury case.
  • Continue medical care. All accident victims need to continue seeking medical care until a doctor says they have reached maximum medical improvement. Again, these cases revolve around the medical care that the victim receives, and discontinuing treatment before reaching maximum medical improvement could jeopardize the total compensation.

It is crucial to understand that you do not have to try to gather all this information on your own. When you contact a Scottsdale car accident injury lawyer soon after the incident occurs, the job of your lawyer will be to begin gathering and preserving any evidence available.

Comparative Negligence After a Scottsdale Car Accident

In Arizona, car accident victims often wonder if they can still recover compensation if they are partially at fault for the incident. Sometimes, insurance carriers will lead car accident injury victims to believe they cannot recover compensation or that they should accept a lower settlement if they played a role in causing the crash.

Arizona operates under a “pure comparative negligence” system. This means that a car accident injury victim can receive compensation for their injuries even if they are up to 99% at fault for the incident. However, the caveat to this system is that the injury victim will receive reduced compensation based on their percentage of fault for the incident.

For example, suppose Samantha is struck by a speeding and intoxicated driver as she tries to change lanes. As a result of the incident, Samantha sustains injuries that lead to her incurring $100,000 in medical bills. However, during the course of investigating the incident, it is determined that Samantha is partially at fault for the incident because she did not use her turn signal until after she had already begun changing lanes. As a result, it is determined that Samantha is 30% responsible for the incident, even though the driver who struck her was intoxicated at the time of the crash. In this case, Samantha would be entitled to $70,000 in compensation as opposed to the full $100,000.

Cases of comparative negligence can be incredibly nuanced, and it is crucial to work with a skilled vehicle accident attorney in Scottsdale to help you through your situation. You can be sure that the other party involved will try to lay as much blame as possible on you in order to avoid paying out a large settlement. You want an attorney by your side who can fight back and help you secure as much compensation as possible.

Types of Car Accident Cases We Accept

It is important to hire a personal injury lawyer in Scottsdale who has experience handling your type of car accident injury case. While no two cases are exactly alike, all car accident claims abide by the same set of rules and laws in Arizona. Arizona is a fault-based car insurance state, for example, meaning the party at fault for the crash will be financially responsible. The law firm you choose should have the experience, resources, and personnel to address the needs specific to your car accident lawsuit. Shapiro Law Team accepts many different types of car accident cases in Scottsdale, AZ.

  • Passenger cars
  • Commercial trucks
  • Delivery vehicles
  • Vans and buses
  • Motorcycles
  • Bicycles
  • Pedestrians
  • Wrong-way crashes
  • Driving under the influence (DUI) accidents
  • Head-on collisions
  • Rear-end accidents
  • Intersection accidents
  • Rollovers
  • Texting and driving accidents

After any type of traffic accident in Arizona that leaves you or a loved one with personal injuries or serious damages, contact us to discuss the possibility of a lawsuit. We will review your case during a comprehensive consultation for free and at no obligation to hire our car accident lawyers. If we think you have a case and offer to represent you, our accident attorneys will start pursuing compensation on your behalf right away. Our law firm has had years of success and obtained millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts for motor vehicle accident victims.

How Soon Do You Need to File?

In most cases, the statute of limitations on car accident claims (and other personal injury lawsuits) in Arizona is two years from the date of the injury. If you do not discover your car accident injuries until later, however, such as a brain injury with delayed symptoms, you will have two years from the date of injury diagnosis to file. However, exceptions do exist.  If the defendant wrongdoer was a governmental entity, you only have 180 days from the date of the injury to file your notice of claim under ARS 12-821.01.  Additionally, if you were injured while you were at work (for example, if you were delivering a pizza and were rear-ended badly), you only have one year to file your suit before your claim gets assigned to the worker’s compensation insurance company who is paying your bills. Due to the nuance and complexity, it is critical to your claim to file as soon as possible after your collision. Auto insurance companies often require immediate reporting – within 24 to 72 hours of the car accident. You will then have to the end of your statute of limitations to file a civil claim to damages in Arizona. You may only have 180 days from your auto accident to file a civil claim if the defendant is a government entity. Waiting could lead to the inability to use key evidence, such as cellphone records, during your claim. Acting quickly could preserve your right to seek financial compensation from the party or parties that caused your car accident.

What Are Damages? How Much Is Your Car Accident Claim Worth?

In a personal injury claim in Arizona, the word damages has a double meaning. It refers to both the losses you suffered in the auto accident as well as the compensation you could receive from the defendant. When calculating your damages, look at all past and future losses you will experience because of the vehicle collision. In Arizona, a personal injury claimant can seek compensation for both tangible (economic) and intangible (noneconomic) damages. If you need assistance calculating your damages, contact Attorney David Shapiro.

  • Medical bills
  • Lost wages
  • Vehicle repairs
  • Out-of-pocket costs
  • Pain and suffering
  • Emotional injuries
  • Diminished enjoyment of life
  • Death benefits
  • Punitive damages

It would be inaccurate to base your claim’s value off of someone else’s car accident lawsuit. Each claim is unique. What one client received in compensation may not reflect the value of your injuries and damages. Some claimants receive thousands while others recover multiple millions. The best way to receive an honest and accurate depiction of what your claim could be worth is by consulting a personal injury attorney near you for a review.

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Scottsdale, Arizona Traffic Accident Statistics

When we turn to data available from the Arizona Department of Transportation, we can see that there were 129,750 total vehicle crashes across the state during the latest reporting year. Out of these incidents, there were:

  • 982 fatalities
  • 53,809 injuries

We can use this DOT data to look closer at Scottsdale. During that same reporting year, there were 4,526 total vehicle collisions in the city. Out of those incidents, there were:

  • 24 fatalities
  • 1,955 injuries

However, the data for Scottsdale does not give us the full picture of the danger that residents in and around this area face on a regular basis. We want to pull back a bit and look at the overall crash data for Maricopa County. During the same year of data gathered above, we can see that there were 97,105 total crashes throughout Maricopa County. This should not be surprising, as Maricopa is most certainly the most populous county in the state. Out of those incidents, there were:

  • 446 fatalities
  • 38,571 injuries

Car Accident Insurance Requirements in Scottsdale, Arizona

As with every other state across the country, Arizona drivers are required to carry a minimum amount of insurance in order to remain legal on the roadway. Each state is responsible for setting these minimum limits, and Arizona requires drivers to carry the following amounts of automobile insurance:

  • Bodily injury liability coverage: Minimum $25,000 per person / $50,000 per accident
  • Property damage liability coverage: Minimum $15,000

One thing you will not see required in Arizona is uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. Other states do require uninsured motorist coverage, but Arizona does not. However, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage is incredibly beneficial and relatively inexpensive. We strongly encourage all drivers to consider purchasing this type of additional coverage. If you are struck by a driver without insurance or a driver whose insurance policies are not sufficient to cover your total expenses, uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage can help cover these additional costs.

In the event you are struck by an uninsured driver or if the other driver does not have enough insurance coverage to handle all of your expenses, it may be possible to file a personal injury lawsuit in order to recover the compensation you deserve. However, if the other driver did not have money to pay for insurance, it is unlikely they will have much in the way of resources to pay for the expenses you incur in the aftermath of a collision.

Contact a Scottsdale Car Accident Attorney for Free Today

Your health, well-being, and future could depend on how you react to an auto accident in Scottsdale, Arizona. Hiring a personal injury attorney from the beginning can grant you access to key resources to help you build your claim. It could also prevent you from making mistakes that could interfere with your financial recovery. Attorney David Shapiro and his associates are here to help you understand your rights, protect them during claim negotiations, and fight for optimal results after a motor vehicle accident. Learn all the ways our law firm can help you or your loved one after a car accident in Scottsdale during a free consultation. Request one today with our Scottsdale car accident attorneys through our website or by calling (480) 300-5405 any time, day or night.


Client Review: “David was referred to us after our car accident, and the minute I stepped into his office I felt welcomed.” -Jennifer

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