According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are more than 8 million licensed drivers in the state of Pennsylvania, more than 7.6 million in Ohio, and more than 1.2 million in West Virginia. With close to 17 million drivers in these three states alone, it is easy to see how more than 32,000 people die each year in car accidents. We fight for our clientsβ rights to recover compensation from individuals or corporations whose carelessness caused their injuries or death.
The car accident lawyers at Shenderovich, Shenderovich & Fishman handle car wrecks including:
Total passenger car crashes in 2019 and fatal crashes in 2019 were the lowest in the last five years.
If you were injured in an accident caused by another driver, your settlement may include compensation for the following:
In Pennsylvania, there are two civil claims that are frequently brought against a defendant who was at fault for the death of a person: wrongful death claim and survivor action. Wrongful death claims are made in an effort to compensate family members of the deceased for damages they suffered due to losing their loved one such as loss of emotional and financial support. Survivor actions are intended to recover for injuries sustained by the deceased between the time that the accident occurred and the time that he or she died such as pain and suffering and medical bills.
Our attorneys have been securing financial recoveries for car accident victims for a combined total of over 170 years. Although many of our settlements are so large that major insurance companies have prevented us from sharing the settlement amounts, we are still able to share some of our settlement amounts. See below for some of our case settlements and verdict amounts:
For over 25 years we have been representing plaintiffs who have sustained injuries and damages in car accidents. There are a number of car accident causes that we repeatedly see in our accident cases that are described below.
Our Pittsburgh car accident attorneys at Shenderovich, Shenderovich & Fishman are victim advocates who want to see that our clients receive maximum recoveries for injuries and damages sustained in car accidents due to another driver’s negligence. We are not interested in fast case turnovers for quick settlements and we are skilled insurance negotiators. If insurance companies are not making reasonable offers to fairly compensate our clients, we take these cases to trial. If you or a loved one has sustained serious injuries or death in a car accident, contact our Pittsburgh car accident attorney to fight for you and your family.
Pittsburgh ranks among the worst U.S. cities in terms of the frequency of car accidents. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, our city came in at number 187 out of the nationβs 200 largest cities for driver safety.
The report, revealed by Allstate insurance company, showed that Pittsburghers were 51.3 percent more likely to get into a car crash than the countryβs drivers as a whole.
There are many different ways car accidents can occur. The most common car accidents include head-on crashes, T-bone wrecks, rear-end collisions, and sideswipes. Sometimes rollovers or pole impacts can happen too. With each car accident, specific forces tend to impact body parts. Due to this, the types of injuries we see will vary. The most common injuries we handle are below.
The most common injury one can sustain from a car accident is the neck, back, or spine. The strength of the force from the collision can cause the spine to bend quickly in one direction. It just as well can cause it to turn in the exact opposite direction too. The back-and-forth motion can damage the spine in numerous ways.
To better understand spinal injuries, though, it is essential to become familiar with the basic structure of the spine. Everyone’s neck, back, and spine consist of bony blocks, or what we know as the vertebrae. Each vertebrae stacks on top of each other. They range from the tailbone to the bottom of the skull. Furthermore, soft discs or intervertebral discs separate each block. Each disc keeps one bony vertebrae from scraping against the vertebrae above and below it. The sole purpose of every disc is to allow for the neck, back, and spine to bend or flex without any pain.
In a car accident, the vertebrae can break or fracture if someone sustains severe neck, back, or spine injuries. In minor cases, the fracture is small. However, a piece of the vertebrae can chip away or break off in more severe instances. When this happens, it is often excruciatingly painful, and the damage is permanent. In a rollover accident, the vertebrae are susceptible to shatter if there is enough force behind the crash. Doctors refer to that as a burst fracture. These injuries are hazardous because the victim will suffer permanent paralysis if the bone cuts the nerves that run up and down the spine.
Car accidents may cause concussions and other traumatic brain injuries. The most obvious way it happens is when the victim’s head slams into the steering wheel, window or B-pillar.
The tell-tale signs of traumatic brain injury are persistent headaches, light and sound sensitivity, disorientation, vertigo, balance difficulties, amnesia, mood changes, or difficulty remembering or concentrating. Anger and personality changes are signs as well.
Hand and wrist injuries are common because the victim driver usually holds the steering wheel when the crash occurs. These types of injuries may happen when airbags deploy during a car accident, or from the trendendous force of an impact.
Although most motorists who get into car crashes cannot think straight at the scene of a car crash, there are certain things you should do in order to strengthen your personal injury case. If you fail to do any of these things, you risk getting your personal injury claim denied, which is why our experienced car accident lawyer in Pittsburgh recommends that you:
In order to answer that question, different factors about your case must be taken into account, including but not limited to:
That is an even trickier question to answer because each personal injury case is unique and there is no formula to calculate the value of your car accident claim without considering all relevant factors (we have mentioned some of these factors above).
Some of the most important factors when determining how much your car accident claim is worth are your type of insurance, the severity of your injury, how much coverage is available, the types of economic and non-economic damages that you suffered due to the car accident, etc.
In Pennsylvania, your insurance coverage will only cover $15,000 worth of damages, so anything beyond that will have to be covered by the other partyβs insurance, which is also $15,000. If the other motoristβs insurance coverage is not enough to compensate for your damages and losses, filing a lawsuit with the help of a Pittsburgh car accident lawyer is the only option you have left.
Speak to our attorneys at Shenderovich, Shenderovich & Fishman to determine how much your car accident claim is worth and help you recover maximum compensation. Call our offices at 888-988-9467 for a free case evaluation.
Make an appointment at our Pittsburgh office for your free consultation. We are confident that you will trust us with your legal needs and fight for what you deserve. We do not charge a fee for personally consulting with you. In every new case, our fee is only 25%. There is no fee unless recovery is made. We invite you to review the significant Pittsburgh, PA personal injury cases we have won.