Drunk Driving Accidents Attorney in East Brunswick
Drunk driving accidents devastate victims and families and are among the most complex cases a personal injury or wrongful death law firm can handle.
At Mayo Law, we pride ourselves on providing experienced, comprehensive legal help to victims and families – not just handling cases. Still, we know there is often no amount of justice that can give families the life they had before the senseless injury or death caused by a drunk or intoxicated driver’s selfish decision to get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol or drugs.
Our East Brunswick drunk driving injury attorneys, and every member of our staff, bring the utmost care, dedication and skill to each one of these families we take the responsibility of representing in the fight for justice.
Drunk Driving Liability Lawsuits
Proving a lawsuit against a drunk driver requires to same legal elements as other traffic collisions:
- Duty: The injured person must show an at-fault party (usually the driver but may also include a vehicle’s owner or other at-fault third party) owed a duty of care. Every driver has a duty of care to operate their vehicle in a safe manner and to avoid preventable injury to other motorists and road users, including bicyclists and pedestrians.
- Breach: An at-fault party must be shown to have breached duty of care, either through action or inaction. Speeding, negligence, disobeying road rules or distracted driving are all common breaches of duty.
- Causation: A plaintiff must show that an at-fault party’s breach of duty caused an accident.
- Injury: Injury damages must have resulted from the at-fault party’s actions or inactions.
- Damages: Must have resulted. Determining the full extent of your injuries and the likelihood of future medical issues or other resulting damages, is among the primary responsibilities of your chosen car accident attorney. These include economic damages, such as property damage, medical bills and lost wages, as well as non-economic damages like pain and suffering.
When an at-fault driver is found to have been intoxicated, he or she is presumed to have breached duty of care. However, that does not mean these cases are easier to win justice for families. Insurance companies and defense attorneys understand the liability exposure at the very outset of these cases. Whenever an accident is reported to an insurance company, it is assigned to an insurance adjuster based on complexity and potential exposure. Collisions involving allegations of drunk or intoxicated drivers are immediately assigned to an experienced team of adjusters, investigators and bodily injury experts who will focus exclusively on limiting liability and reducing damages.
Primary focuses of your East Brunswick drunk driving injury lawyer must include:
- Thorough investigation: In addition to alcohol, the permissive use of marijuana and the opioid epidemic have complicated claims against intoxicated motorists. Additionally, intoxication may be only one aspect of a claim. Speeding, distracted driving, and other breaches of duty will strengthen a case for damages, including punitive damages. New Jersey law allows for punitive damages when a responsible party acted with conscious and deliberate disregard for others. These damages are meant to punish a violator by allowing for a financial damage award in addition to awards for economic and non-economic loss.
- Identifying all liable parties: Few motorists carry insurance coverage sufficient to cover the catastrophic losses caused by drunk drivers. That mean your chosen law firm must look for all possible means of recovery, which may also include a vehicle’s owner, other insurance policies in the household, your own insurance carrier through uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, as well as the potential for third-party liability, which may include another motorist, a restaurant, bar or private individual who served an intoxicated driver, an employer or anyone else found to partially at fault for a collision or resulting damages.
- Injuries and damages: Your law firm should have trusted relationships with outside financial and medical experts who can determine the full extent of injuries, including the likelihood of future medical complications or disability, as well as the associated economic costs. This includes lost wages, rehabilitation, home care, the inability to work or to earn at previous income levels, reduced quality of life and other non-economic damages, including pain and suffering.
- Comparative fault: In many cases, a victim may be partially at fault. Or defense lawyers may attempt to prove that a victim shares blame or that some injuries were not a direct result of the collision. While New Jersey law allows a victim to seek compensation for proportional damages in cases where he or she is found at less than majority fault, any defense success in this regard can reduce a damage award.
In today’s age, where a sober rideshare is only a cell phone app away, there is never a reason to get behind the wheel after consuming any amount of alcohol or mind-altering drugs. These selfish decisions ruin lives and change families forever. Your choice of a law firm is the most important decision you can make in the wake of a serious or fatal collision involving an intoxicated motorist. Understandably, families are consumed with concern for loved ones, decisions about medical treatment, and worries about the future. Insurance adjusters and their attorneys know this and will often make quick, even seemingly generous, settlement offers under the guise of helping families in a timely fashion to deal with the aftermath of a collision. You should understand that they have all of the knowledge, experience, resources, and legal help on their side. They know what they are doing and aim only to limit their financial liability.
The law understands this as well. That’s why it affords legal help to families on a contingency fee basis. This means you have access to equally experienced legal help at no upfront cost. An experienced East Brunswick personal injury law firm will take your case on contingency, which means the law firm will only be paid a portion of the legal settlement or trial verdict if it is successful in making a financial recovery on your behalf. But it’s up to you to seek help by reaching out to an experienced New Jersey drunk driving injury law firm as soon as possible after an accident.