If a car hits you while you are walking, jogging, or running in Colorado, it can cause extreme fear and confusion. Depending on your injuries, medics may take you to the hospital immediately for a doctor to examine, diagnose and treat you.
What happens if the injury is serious?
Sometimes, pedestrians suffer serious injuries when a car hits them. These injuries can cause devastating changes to a person’s life, not only physically but also emotionally and financially, and they can affect their ability to work, live a normal life and strain their relationships.
Your legal rights
If you are in this situation, you may receive compensation for your injuries. Especially in situations where you were following the rules, for example, walking across the street at a crosswalk, respecting stop signs and following the law, the driver could likely be at fault.
Drivers often drive distracted, whether by cellphones, passengers in their vehicles, loud music, eating inside the car or anything that takes their eyes off the road. This can lead to them hitting a person who is walking, jogging or running, even if they are completely innocent.
Compensation
If someone hits you with a car and you get hurt, you may request money from that person. This money can cover your past and future medical expenses, lost wages if you cannot work because of your injury and money for your pain and suffering.
Usually, individuals in these situations secure an attorney to advocate for them because they know how to deal with insurance companies. It is critical to understand that insurance companies are not necessarily your enemies but they don’t always have your best interests at heart and they’re looking to save their company money.
If they can pay you less, they will. However, that may not be enough for what you need, and it may not be just based on the circumstances of the accident. Your attorney can negotiate with the insurance company to get you the compensation you deserve or litigate the issue if the insurance company settlement offer is unreasonably low. In these cases, most people also have attorneys who skillfully craft a strategy that adequately reflects the important facts of the case, as the law sees it, to represent them in court.
The judge or jury can decide regarding the driver’s fault and the amount of money the other party should pay you.
Statute of limitations
In Colorado, there is a time limit for filing lawsuits, which is called a statute of limitations. For personal injuries, you have three years from the date the accident happened to file a lawsuit. If you miss the deadline, your claim will be dismissed and you cannot ask the court for compensation.
It is also important to note that Colorado has “comparative fault” laws, which apply to cases where both the driver and the pedestrian are both at fault for the accident.
In these cases, you may receive a percentage of the award based on how much fault you had in the accident. If you are over 50% at fault, your claim will be denied or dismissed.
If a car strikes you while you are walking in Colorado, knowing your rights can make a vast difference in the outcome of your life and your ability to receive the compensation you deserve.
Knowing how the courts manage these cases and what the law says, as well as how your attorney would approach the case in terms of strategy, can be critical to doing all you can to position yourself for the best possible outcome.
While a win is never guaranteed, having an experienced attorney who deals with these cases specifically and understands what you are going through will not only provide you with emotional support, but you will also have peace of mind knowing that you do not have to worry about managing the case anymore and someone else is working for you to protect your interests.