Riverside Car Accidents

Car accidents can have consequences that span the range from frustrating to devastating. If you are involved in a crash, it is likely that you will experience stress about taking time off work and paying medical bills. In the event that you are seriously injured, you may be concerned about whether you can continue working in the same job, take care of any dependents, and recover from scarring or disabilities that resulted from the accident. You may also be in significant pain. If you are hurt in a collision caused by someone else's negligence or misconduct, the Riverside car accident attorneys at Sharifi Firm can help you try to hold that person or entity accountable for the harm done to you.

Most car accidents in California arise due to negligence rather than deliberate or intentional actions. To establish negligence, a plaintiff must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant owed him or her a duty, the defendant breached this duty, the breach caused the plaintiff's injuries, and actual damages resulted.

All drivers in California owe a duty to others on the road to use reasonable care while operating a vehicle. This duty may be breached in many different ways. One of the most common ways is distracted driving, in which a driver's attention is elsewhere. This includes texting while driving, eating while driving, fiddling with the radio tuner, or talking on the phone, among other behaviors. A driver who takes his or her attention off the road is more likely to run a red light, rear-end another car, or fail to check a blind spot before switching lanes.

In order to find negligence, the breach must be the actual and proximate (legal) cause of the plaintiff's injuries. In other words, the accident must have been a direct, foreseeable result of the defendant’s carelessness.

Often, both the plaintiff and the defendant are partly to blame for an accident. In California, courts follow the doctrine of pure comparative negligence. This means that a plaintiff's degree of fault will reduce his or her damages by an amount equal to that proportion of fault. For example, if a jury finds that you are 30 percent at fault and the total damages are $100,000, you may be able to recover up to $70,000.

After a car accident in California, you can usually recover both special and general damages. Special damages are economic damages, such as medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity, household services, and other tangible losses. General damages are noneconomic damages that can vary significantly depending on the jury’s analysis. They include pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment.

Riverside is where the California citrus industry was born, home to the University of California at Riverside, and where the first screening of the movie Gone with the Wind took place. If you have been struck by a careless driver in this area, the Riverside car accident lawyers at Sharifi Firm, APC can help you seek the compensation to which you may be entitled. For a free consultation, call us at (866) 422-7222 or contact us online. Our motor vehicle collision attorneys also represent people in Los Angeles, Temecula, Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernardino, and other cities throughout Southern California.