It’s summer!! School’s out and the weather is great. Time to start preparing for that vacation you planned last winter. And there’s even better news! Gas prices are still the lowest they’ve been in nearly a decade, so it won’t cost you an arm and a leg to take a great trip. But you won’t be alone—estimates indicate that driving will be up as much as 10% this summer. With that many more people on the road, the chances of an accident go up proportionately.
Hopefully, you’ll have a safe and relaxing vacation. But what happens if you are in a motor vehicle accident or suffer some other type of injury while on vacation. You may be hundreds of miles from home. Should you just try to get back home (if you can) and seek treatment from someone you know? Here are some things to consider if you sustain an injury while vacationing in another part of the country.
Don’t Wait to Seek Medical Care
Even if your injury seems minor, it’s always in your best interests to seek immediate medical care. Sometimes, the injuries that appear most insignificant can be the ones that cause the greatest discomfort and interruption in your life in the long run. You might pull or strain muscles in your back or neck and not notice anything for days. Unfortunately, the longer you wait to seek medical treatment, the greater the risk that insurance companies and defense attorneys will argue that your injuries were not that severe. Even worse, they may try to argue that your injuries were caused by some other intervening event.
Retain Local Legal Counsel
If you have been injured and it was clearly a result of someone else’s negligence or carelessness, you’ll have the right to seek damages in a court of law. You don’t ever want to rely entirely on your insurance company or the at-fault party’s insurer to make you whole. The sooner you hire an attorney, the sooner you’ll be able to preserve evidence that supports your claim. Furthermore, with an attorney, you’ll have someone advocating entirely for you.
Because the laws governing personal injury vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and because any lawsuit you file will likely be in the state in which you suffered your injury, you want a local attorney, one who understands the unique characteristics of the law, as well as the judges and local defense lawyers.
Contact Us
At the law office of Bailey & Galyen, we provide a free initial consultation to every client. To set up an appointment with an experienced Texas personal injury attorney, contact us by e-mail or call our offices at one of the convenient locations listed below. We will take your call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
