Probable witnesses include drivers and passengers of other vehicles on the road when the accident took place.
If you have been involved in a car accident, you may like to file a compensation claim. You can file a lawsuit in court with appropriate jurisdiction with the help of an experienced car accident lawyer for compensation if the at-fault driver’s insurance company does not admit the liability or you cannot agree on the settlement amount. Whatever the course of action, you will only be able to get the desired compensation if you can prove beyond doubt that the accident happened due to the other driver’s fault. To prove this, you will need to collect evidence, including photographs of the damage to your vehicle, the place of the accident, and eyewitness testimonies. However, obtaining eyewitness testimonies is a complex matter, and you will do well to hire an experienced auto accident attorney.
Who Is Typically Eyewitness to a Car Accident?
Generally, anyone who is one or near the spot of the accident and has seen the accident happen can testify about what he has seen. However, your lawyer must use his expertise to choose eyewitnesses whose accounts are clear and irrefutable to strengthen your compensation claim. The defendant’s insurance company will try to prove the eyewitness accounts are not credible and that the testimonies are defective.
Typically, a Palermo Law, P.L.L.C of Long Island lawyer will call third parties who have seen the events leading up to the accident and the accident to give their testimonies under oath in a court of law. Follow the map
Probable witnesses include drivers and passengers of other vehicles on the road when the accident took place, pedestrians and other road users, people in homes and workplaces nearby, and people who stopped to offer help. The reason for the vital importance of eyewitness accounts is you can prove to the court the defendant did not exercise due care when driving the vehicle by driving too fast, rashly, under the influence, not signally properly, not paying attention to the road signals, talking, or texting on a mobile phone, etc. In case, you can obtain CCTV footage of the accident, you can use it to support your claim. According to Forbes, lawyers can call for depositions from all people, including witnesses.
Using Testimony from the Passengers in Your Car
While the court will admit testimony by a passenger of your car, the lawyers representing the defendant’s insurance company will try to prove that the testimony is biased in your favor. They will usually try to show that the eyewitness accounts are exaggerated to support the compensation claim and will benefit from such action. However, if you hire an experienced auto accident lawyer, he will use everything in his power to demonstrate the accuracy and credibility of the eyewitness accounts of the passengers.
Conclusion
The best way of preparing to use eyewitness accounts to support a possible compensation claim is to talk to the people present on the scene of the accident and obtain their contact details and their consent to provide a statement of what they have seen. Your lawyer can use this information, obtain affidavits, and, if necessary, summon them to the court to provide the details of the accident.
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