Podcast: What to Do After a Car Accident in Georgia

Philip R. Potter 00:15
Yeah, sure.

That is probably the most common question we get when we meet a client for the first time. The conversation usually takes us there after a car wreck, which we handle a lot.

There are really three main types of insurance we’re looking at. First, liability coverage. Usually, the person coming to see us has been hit or is not at fault for the wreck, so we’re looking at what liability coverage the other driver has.

Then there is uninsured motorist coverage, which also includes underinsured motorist coverage. That is insurance our client has and carries to help protect them if the other driver does not have insurance or does not have enough insurance.

Then medical payments coverage is a common add-on that people buy from their insurance agent. It helps them with medical expenses after a car wreck.

Thomas W. Herman 01:07
What you’re talking about is so important because we’re talking about making sure our clients are protected.

Liability is something the other driver has. What our clients need to focus on is making sure they have sufficient underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage that will step in and provide additional coverage if the at-fault driver’s coverage is insufficient to take care of the injured person’s medical expenses, lost income, and pain and suffering.

It’s a cheap coverage, and it’s something people really should have as an addition to any other coverage they have on their auto policy.

Nathaniel E. Edmonds 01:45
I’ll just add to that as well. Uninsured motorist, obviously, you’ll hear that term, but it’s also underinsured motorist coverage.

The most recent statistic I saw was that 18 to 20 percent of drivers in Georgia do not have any insurance. So if you get hit by an uninsured driver, the only insurance you would be able to get would be the insurance you pay for, which is uninsured motorist coverage.

That is very, very important, and you need to carry as much as you can, particularly with the rising cost of medical care.

Anne Hansen 02:18
What if I have an automobile that’s worth $80,000 and someone only has coverage for, I’m assuming, the $25,000 minimum? Basically, you’re saying I should have the underinsured coverage in order to help cover that amount. Is that how that works?

Philip R. Potter 02:37
Yeah, that’s a good point. We focus largely on bodily injury cases, and that’s where we were going with that.

But there’s another part of these insurance claims, and that’s the property claim. You’re right. Minimum insurance in Georgia, minimum liability insurance, is only $25,000.

You have a large portion, like Nate was pointing out, of people who do not have insurance at all. But you also have another very large portion of people driving around with minimum insurance.

Not only is that important for your ability to collect if you’re physically harmed or have medical expenses or pain and suffering, but as you’re pointing out, cars are expensive. That amount of insurance is pretty insufficient for a lot of cars people are driving.

The way you can protect yourself against that is by having uninsured motorist coverage that would also apply to your vehicle. A lot of insurance policies split that. You have uninsured motorist coverage for bodily injury, but also uninsured motorist coverage for property. Making sure you have both is important.

Thomas W. Herman 03:46
What I would add to that, Anne, is I think what we’re really trying to tell people is that you need to ask a lot of questions when you go in and sit down with your insurance agent.

Ask these kinds of questions: If I have an accident with someone who has minimum coverage, what type of coverage do I need to purchase to make sure my vehicle will be repaired or replaced?

What happens if I have an accident, I have significant medical expenses, and I have an accident with a driver who is uninsured, like Nate talked about, or underinsured, like Philip talked about?

What kind of coverage do I need to buy on top of just my legally required liability coverage to make sure I, my family members, or the people riding with me are protected if, God forbid, we are involved in an accident?

Nathaniel E. Edmonds 04:37
Certainly, no one likes paying for insurance. I don’t like paying for insurance. But insurance is there to protect you when the unexpected happens.

I have never had a client come to meet me on one of the worst days of their life and say they wish they had less insurance. They always wish they had more insurance.

Thomas W. Herman 04:59
The dirty little secret is that once you buy the minimum coverage required, increasing your limit significantly is not very expensive.

You can make sure you have high limits without spending a great deal of money. Now, I’m not an insurance agent. I’m not trying to tell people what their agent is going to charge them. It depends on a lot of factors.

But at the end of the day, buying that extra coverage is very inexpensive, and it’s a great way to protect yourself and the people in your car that you care about.

Philip R. Potter 05:31
To Thomas’s point, there are a lot of ways people are buying insurance right now. Some go into an agent. Some go online. Some call a phone number.

You need to make sure you’re calling somebody who can help give you information, answer those questions, and even give you a quote with multiple different coverage packages.

You can compare minimum coverage to $100,000 in coverage and actually look at it, because you may be surprised at how little difference there is in those premiums sometimes.

Then think long and hard before reducing the amount of coverage you can carry to protect yourself, whether it’s liability coverage in case you make a mistake and cause a wreck, or making sure you have enough uninsured motorist coverage.

You can control how you drive. You cannot control how those around you drive. You certainly cannot control how much insurance those around you are carrying. But you can control how much you have, and it’s a way to provide protection for yourself, your family, and those riding with you.

Anne Hansen 06:45
Yes, so basically, speak to your insurance agent to find out what you specifically need. Maybe $10 extra a month is going to help you in the long run when you’re thinking, “I want to save that $10 or $20,” or whatever it may be.

Moving on from that, let’s talk about Macon in general. If someone is in an accident in Macon, what do they end up doing? What is the safest thing to do?

Let’s start from the beginning. I’ve been in an accident before on South 85. I was sitting still and got rear-ended by someone going 65 miles an hour behind me. It was a four-car accident, and I didn’t want to get out of the vehicle right away.

What would you suggest for people who have just been in an accident? Maybe it’s not catastrophic. Maybe it’s a small accident. What should they immediately do?

Thomas W. Herman 07:45
I’ll jump in to start.

The first thing, obviously, is when the police get there, provide them with your version of what happened. Tell them what you recall. If you’re injured, make sure you note that. If you need medical attention, do not be afraid to ask for it.

At that point, you also want to contact your insurance agent to report the accident. It’s very important that you report it promptly because that can impact your rights.

Then go to the doctor. You may not feel it immediately. The next day is when a lot of people wake up and they are sore and stiff. You need to go get checked out. It may not be anything, and hopefully it is not. But if it is, you need to document it.

Philip R. Potter 08:29
I’ll add a couple of things to that as well.

Be aware of your circumstances. Obviously, if you need to get out of the roadway, get to the side of the road or at least get yourself physically out of harm’s way while you’re waiting on the police.

Police departments are busy. Some of them are understaffed right now, unfortunately, and sometimes it can take a while for an officer to get to the scene. But it is important to get a report.

I had a call just this week where the driver of the car thought everybody was okay, and he allowed the other driver to drive off. Then he got back to the car, and his girlfriend was hurt. She said, “Why did you let him go? I’m hurt. My neck hurts. My back hurts.”

At that point, it became much more difficult to get an accurate police report because the other driver, the one who had caused the wreck, was already gone.

Making sure you get information from the other driver, if they’ll provide it, is important. They are supposed to provide their name and insurance information. Snap a picture of their license plate.

Sometimes, even if you’re willing to wait on the police to show up for a report, the other driver may get antsy and leave for a variety of reasons. So making sure you go ahead and get a picture of their identifying information, if you can, can be helpful.

I’d also say call 911 because those calls are recorded. If the other driver leaves, or if the other driver has to go, or if you are not able to stay as long as you should to get that report, at least information is documented through the 911 system that the wreck occurred and that you were hurt.

Most importantly, I do think getting a police report is valuable every time you’re in a wreck.

Anne Hansen 10:13
What are some of the types of car accidents you are seeing around Middle Georgia?

Nathaniel E. Edmonds 10:21
There is a variety of accidents.

Obviously, we have a good deal of construction going on in Middle Georgia, and with construction comes congestion and quickly reduced speeds. We see a lot of rear-end collisions.

We see a lot of failure-to-yield collisions. That can be stop sign violations, people running red lights, people driving at night without their lights on.

I think we probably handle just about every type of car accident imaginable. Those involving commercial motor vehicles, those involving motorcycles. Macon is not immune to any type of car wreck. Anything is possible.

With the major interstates that run through Macon, we are prepared to handle any type of claim.

Thomas W. Herman 11:06
To follow up on Nate talking about construction, what people sometimes do not realize is they might be in a one-car accident because of the way the road was designed.

With all the shifting lanes and construction on the interchanges, sometimes a person could have an accident because they were not warned sufficiently to know they needed to get over. They may run off the road or run into part of the equipment or part of the roadway and either damage their car or suffer injuries.

Roadway design professionals can be held liable for that type of situation when they improperly design the road or fail to provide warnings when there are changes in the roadway.

People do not necessarily think about that. They think an accident has to involve another car, and that is not always true.

Philip R. Potter 11:58
Rear-end wrecks are by far the most common ones we see.

But as Nate was pointing out, our firm has been around for 60 years. In 60 years, we’ve seen some very normal rear-end type wrecks, and we’ve seen some very unusual wrecks too. We’ve handled them across the board.

I’m down here in Warner Robins, Georgia, a little bit south of Macon. There is a lot of road congestion and a lot of cars on the road. There are several roads that seem to be prone to wrecks.

Russell Parkway, Watson Boulevard, and Highway 41 are examples. Between my office and home, I look at intersection after intersection where I’ve helped people with wrecks over the years. There are certain places where you just have to be very cautious.

Fortunately, Bibb County is experiencing some growth out by the interstate. Houston County is growing rapidly. With that comes a lot more people, and sometimes more people than the roads are designed to handle. With that comes distraction, and unfortunately, wrecks.

Anne Hansen 13:18
I was going to ask, what percentage do you think is due to driver distraction nowadays?

Thomas W. Herman 13:27
That’s a great question. I don’t know that I can give you a hard number, but I think the percentage is certainly higher than it used to be because of cell phones and because of the construction we’re talking about.

There are so many things that pull people’s eyes away from what they should be paying attention to.

As we all know, it doesn’t take but a second. One minute you think everything is fine. Then you look up and you’re about to rear-end somebody, run off the road, or run through a red light because you got distracted for just a second. It happens.

Philip R. Potter 13:59
The sheer fact that dashboards of cars are now sometimes called infotainment centers says a lot.

There is so much going on inside the car that can distract you. Thomas mentioned the phone, but just the cars themselves, with screens and different features that a lot of us enjoy, are easy to turn our attention to while we’re driving.

Anne Hansen 14:28
I have one question that I have personally, and I’ve never looked it up.

I come from the Midwest, so you do not see people making a left-hand turn on green in front of oncoming traffic, including people who are coming through and people who are turning right.

What is the law here in Georgia concerning this? If I’m sitting at the light and I’m going to make a left-hand turn, I know people do this. They see a yield sign and think they have the right of way on a green to turn left when someone else is making a right on green.

Can you answer what the law is on that? I’m sure there are plenty of accidents where people are making a left and someone is coming at them or making a right, and they end up hitting.

Thomas W. Herman 15:30
When you’re turning left, you have to make sure you can make that turn safely.

If you turn in front of someone coming the other direction and you could not make the turn safely, then potentially you are going to be the at-fault driver in that situation.

Philip R. Potter 15:47
I think a lot of times, people who are making that left turn are confused about what light signal they actually have.

There is a very big difference between a green turn arrow, which gives you the right of way, and just a green light where you are still yielding to oncoming traffic.

If you’re not paying adequate attention, that can confuse you. You may think you have the green arrow, but you do not. So making sure the driver is paying attention to what traffic signal their lane actually has is important.

A lot of times, confusion by drivers leads to wrecks in those situations.

Thomas W. Herman 16:31
If you’re making a left-hand turn, whether the car coming toward you is going straight or then slows down and makes a right turn, if you cannot make that left turn safely because of that oncoming car, then you have created a dangerous situation.

Again, Philip’s point about the arrow is huge.

Nathaniel E. Edmonds 16:47
Exactly. To Thomas’s point, the rules of the road are out there to provide organization.

But they do not necessarily translate directly to who was at fault for a wreck. Even if you had the green turn arrow and had the right of way, if you turn in front of a moving car that you saw was coming through the intersection, you could be held responsible for the wreck, even though the other driver also violated the law.

So it can become joint responsibility for the wreck, and that is very important too.

Thomas W. Herman 17:22
Most of the time, those statutes include the idea of reasonable safety. That is the point Nate is making.

Yes, you may have the arrow, and you may be able to make the turn. But if you cannot make it with reasonable safety because someone is violating the law and running through the intersection, then you should not have made the left-hand turn.

What we are really saying is that every case turns on its facts. That is the interesting thing about the law. Every case is different.

Just because you say, “I had the green arrow,” there still may be circumstances that change the analysis of who was at fault and who was negligent in that accident.

You really have to look at each case as it comes and look at the facts of each case. There is no one-size-fits-all answer in the law.

Nathaniel E. Edmonds 18:07
That really pops up a lot in four-way stops.

You’ll have two people come up to a stop sign, and they will both say, “No, we had the right of way.” There may be no easy way to prove it other than looking at who occupied the crossing, where the property damage is, and sometimes getting experts involved.

Both of them may have stopped at the stop sign at the same time. It can be very complicated, and that’s why a lot of times you need to contact an attorney.

If an officer sees a wreck like that, the officer may write it up that both parties were at fault.

Philip R. Potter 18:46
Related to that, there is an important distinction here.

You may have a criminal violation, like a traffic ticket, but you may also have a civil claim involving who is responsible for the car wreck.

Those two things can be related, but they can also be very different.

In the civil cases, which are the car wreck cases and personal injury claims we help people with, it is very common for fault to be assigned based on a percentage.

It is not always 100 percent somebody’s fault. It may be 80 percent one person’s fault and 20 percent the other person’s fault.

Proving that and getting to the bottom of that can be tricky. When you’re talking about a car wreck claim or personal injury claim, that is a common defense insurance companies use.

In reality, it is also a common situation that sometimes people do bear some percentage of the fault, even though they may not be entirely at fault for the wreck.

Anne Hansen 19:52
That is interesting to me.

Backing up just a little bit, I know you said earlier to contact your insurance adjuster immediately or promptly. What is promptly to you? Is it at the scene, or is it when I get home? What would you say?

Thomas W. Herman 20:13
I think it means as soon as reasonably possible.

Again, what is reasonable depends on the situation. If you’re incapacitated and taken by ambulance to the hospital, it is going to be after you regain consciousness and have the ability to contact your agent.

On the other hand, if it was a fender bender and you’re sore but going to wait until the next day before you get checked out, you might call them the next day.

You just do not want to wait too long. There is not a specific time frame. It is as soon as reasonably possible based on your circumstances following the accident.

Philip R. Potter 20:49
Something few of us do is also looking into our policy.

Your insurance policy is probably going to provide some guidance on what their expectation is about being notified of the wreck.

I think Thomas’s advice is correct. As soon as you can safely and reasonably do it is a good time.

If you’re bleeding on the side of the road, probably not a great time. But if you get home after being checked out at the emergency room, that is probably a good time.

Anne Hansen 21:21
Let’s say I am hurt and I end up going to the hospital. They release me, I come home, and then I get a call from the insurance company of the person who hit me.

Should I speak to them, or should I hold off? What should I do in that case?

Nathaniel E. Edmonds 21:43
As far as the insurance company for the at-fault driver, you have no obligation to speak to them.

In fact, we always encourage people to contact a law firm or speak to us, and we can handle those communications for them.

If you just need time to see how you are feeling, you have no obligation to speak to the other party’s insurance company.

Usually, it is a fact-finding mission from the insurance company. They are trying to pin the injured party down on what their injuries are, who is at fault for the wreck, and similar issues.

Usually, none of the information they are looking for is going to help the injured person. I would recommend against speaking to them unless you are deciding to handle the claim without an attorney.

When it comes to your own insurance company, you do have an obligation to speak to them. But we would still recommend doing that with the presence of an attorney.

Philip R. Potter 22:38
I would be very cautious with any amount of pressure you feel from the insurance adjuster.

If they are saying, “You have to give us a statement,” or, “You have to make a decision right now, by the end of the week, or by the end of the day,” we have had clients tell us they get those calls soon after the wreck.

Take a minute to pause and think about whose interests are being looked after there.

If you’re hurt and getting medical treatment, and somebody is saying you have to make a decision right away, I do not think that is true in most situations.

That is a good time to make sure you’re getting good advice. Call our firm or call a good law firm that has experience handling insurance claims and dealing with insurance adjusters. Let us help untangle that and walk you through the process.

Anne Hansen 23:34
When would be the right time to contact an attorney when I’m in a car accident?

Thomas W. Herman 23:42
Personally, I would say after you have had a chance, maybe a week or so, once you’re through the accident.

If you were not immediately taken to the emergency room, give yourself a day or so to see how you’re feeling. If you’re having problems, go get checked out and find out what you’re looking at in terms of potential injuries.

Give your body a chance to respond to what it has been through, then contact an attorney.

One of the first things we’re going to do, and Philip has mentioned this a couple of times, is get the accident report. That is not going to be ready for a couple of days.

To follow up on what we talked about, there is no need to provide a statement to the other driver’s insurance company. You want to contact your carrier and then give it a little time to see how you’re doing because not everybody realizes they are injured immediately after an accident.

Nathaniel E. Edmonds 24:31
I’ll add to that as well.

Our number one goal is that if you’re in a wreck, we want you to get better. Your health and your recovery are the number one priority.

But we have had people call us the same day the wreck happened, and I have had people call me a year after the wreck happened.

In terms of representing your best interests as an injured victim, the quicker I am retained, the better I can serve my potential client.

We may need to get dash cam footage. We may need to get video footage from a gas station to show who was really at fault for the wreck and who ran the red light.

If too much time passes, that footage may be gone, and we may not be able to obtain it.

The quicker we can get involved, the better. But that is subject to your circumstances. If you’re in the hospital and getting better, and you’re just trying to live day by day, you should not be under pressure to try to get an attorney at that point.

Thomas W. Herman 25:34
The sad part is there are attorneys out there who will try to pressure people to hire them.

We’ve heard horror stories of people waking up in the hospital with some lawyer’s card on their chest. That is not the kind of person you want to hire.

You want to take your time, check out the people you are considering, see what kind of experience and qualifications they have, and then make a decision.

To Nate’s point, do it as soon as you feel comfortable doing it so they can get involved and do the investigative work that needs to be done.

Anne Hansen 26:07
What if I just have a property claim? Let’s say I need help working with the property claim. Do you handle that too, or does it always have to include medical issues?

Philip R. Potter 26:28
Most of the time, we’re helping people with physical injury claims, meaning the injury part of the case.

We get lots of calls about property damage. The reality is that a lot of times, if it is just getting a car fixed following a wreck, lawyers can be of limited help.

A lot of times, we are not worth what we would be paid to help with a property-damage-only claim because anything you recover needs to go toward replacing the car or fixing the car, not paying a lawyer to help with that process.

There are always unique circumstances, and not all cars are the same. We are happy to talk to people and point them in the right direction.

Usually, the clients retaining us are retaining us to help with the personal injury claim. Property claims can be frustrating, but they are usually set up so a person can handle them on their own most of the time.

We are happy to walk people through that process when they need it.

Nathaniel E. Edmonds 27:35
Part of it is because it is hard to evaluate pain and suffering for a human being, and that is why we are successful in representing injured people.

Every 2024 GMC Sierra that gets in a wreck and has to have the front bumper replaced is going to involve the same amount of money, regardless of whose vehicle it is.

But the drivers in those wrecks could have two completely different injuries and could have suffered in two completely different ways. They are entitled to be compensated for that suffering.

That is where the valuation of the suffering becomes very difficult. Again, I would encourage someone to call our law firm or another law firm so their interests can be represented.

Thomas W. Herman 28:24
On the property damage issue, a lot of people do not recognize that your recovery for property damage is limited to the value of your vehicle, unless you have the right kind of coverage.

There are limits on what you can get.

If you have an older vehicle, the problem typically is that the value of that vehicle, based on the blue book value, is less than what it would cost to find a replacement vehicle.

People get frustrated, and that is why they call a lawyer. But there is not a whole lot we can do because the value of the car is the value of the car.

Again, it goes back to Nate’s point. A bumper is worth a bumper. A car is worth what it is worth.

If you have collision coverage, you can work with your insurance company to potentially get the vehicle fixed. You pay the deductible, but then they go against the other driver, get the money back, and reimburse you for your deductible.

Sometimes, it goes back to what kind of coverage you have when you’re sitting down with your agent to figure out what you need.

Philip R. Potter 29:24
I’ll add one last thing to that.

Transportation is so important to all of us. A lot of times, there is very little room for error when you depend on your vehicle. You need to get to work. You need to get your kids to school.

I understand that this is an important part of the wreck, and we are happy to shepherd our clients through that process.

To summarize the answer, no, we generally do not handle just property damage claims. But very commonly, we help our clients with an injury claim and then help them walk through and navigate the property damage process.

We do it in a way that allows them to efficiently get their property damage claim done without having the expense of paying a lawyer to help them with that.

It is probably not worth what someone would pay us on the property damage claim, but we are certainly happy to give free advice and self-help advice to help them navigate the process.

Anne Hansen 30:36
I understand. I know a lot of people love their vehicles. It is part of who they are. That is why I asked that.

I know people who had vehicles that were very important to them and worth a lot of money, and I know they were fighting over it. It can be frustrating when you are trying to get your car fixed, and it can become a headache.

I do want to ask, because I know we have limited time, is there anything else you want to add before we wrap up? I know we may have additional questions in the future that we can address, but is there anything you could tell people?

Philip R. Potter 31:30
Piggybacking on what we have already said, our firm and our personal injury team are happy to talk to people.

We take lots and lots of cases, and we have helped lots and lots of people with their claims over the years.

But we have also told people, “We can’t help you,” or, “I do not think you need our help,” or, “Maybe you should think about this or that.”

We are happy to talk to anybody about their potential claims. If we feel like it is something we can help with, we will. If we do not feel like it is something we can help with, we will try to point them in the right direction or refer them to someone better suited for their situation.

If you are in a wreck, take care of yourself. Get better. Work on getting better. Do what you need to do to get well.

Do not fall for high-pressure pitches, whether from law firms trying to get your case or insurance adjusters who may be trying to settle your case quickly and cheaply.

Thomas W. Herman 32:30
I would add, when you get through with this, go look at your insurance policy. See what kind of coverages you have.

If you do not think you have enough, talk to your agent about what you can do to change that.

Anne Hansen 32:41
Good advice. Good advice.

Nate, anything from you? Do you have anything else you wanted to address?

Philip R. Potter 32:45
Thank you for your time, Anne. We appreciate it.

Nathaniel E. Edmonds 32:50
I’ll just echo what Philip said.

We are happy to talk, even if you just want to call and ask a question. If you are watching this and you say, “I still do not know what this stuff means,” and you want to call and say, “Nate, Philip, Thomas, tell me about this coverage,” we are happy to talk to you.

We are here to help. We are here to serve the community. Anybody who has a question or has a potential claim is welcome to give us a call.