I live in the state of Maine and was recently in an automobile accident. The car that i was a passenger in was making a left hand turn on a yellow light when all other traffic was stoped we started to make the turn a car darts into a right turn lane that was clearly marked as right turn only.. car proceeded to go forward through the lane and tboned us i was sent to the hospital and was not contacted by the police.. my girlfriend the driver only had minor injuries and was only asked briefly before being put in the ambulance what happened then come to find out we were put at fault what should i do about it

I live in the state of Maine and was recently in an automobile accident. The car that i was a passenger in was making a left hand turn on a yellow light when all other traffic was stoped we started to make the turn a car darts into a right turn lane that was clearly marked as right turn only.. car proceeded to go forward through the lane and tboned us i was sent to the hospital and was not contacted by the police.. my girlfriend the driver only had minor injuries and was only asked briefly before being put in the ambulance what happened then come to find out we were put at fault what should i do about it

Did the police officer find you at fault? If so, did you get a ticket?

he found my girlfriend at fault and no she didnt get a ticket

I live in the state of Maine and was recently in an automobile accident. The car that i was a passenger in was making a left hand turn on a yellow light when all other traffic was stoped we started to make the turn a car darts into a right turn lane that was clearly marked as right turn only.. car proceeded to go forward through the lane and tboned us i was sent to the hospital and was not contacted by the police.. my girlfriend the driver only had minor injuries and was only asked briefly before being put in the ambulance what happened then come to find out we were put at fault what should i do about it

I would seek the advice of a personal injury lawyer who specializes in auto accidents.

Hi TJ: Hope you're recovering from your injuries. Everyone's suggestions are great. I'd also advise starting to gather together all of your medical records and the evidence showing the property damage you and your girlfriend sustained in the accident.

You might want to take a look at the response I wrote to another poster about saving your attorney time by organizing the records (http://www.laborlawtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1106) involved in your case ahead of time. Both the Nolo Press (http://nolo.com/resource.cfm/catID/73BB194F-C331-4C03-82E96DC64062980C/104/199/) book I mentioned in that thread and this site (http://injury.findlaw.com/personal-injury/) provide excellent summaries of what sort of evidence is needed to ensure that you get the settlement you're entitled to when you have been injured by someone else.

While you can file your own lawsuit, very few people can negotiate an adequate settlement for themselves. The insurance companies hire defense attorneys, like the firm I used to work for, whose best tactics are delay and "snowing" you with dozens of legal documents, all requiring detailed responses within a short period of time. Any adequate attorney will respond to all those documents promptly and in correct form; what you want to find is an attorney who will aggressively pursue your interests, fight for the best possible pretrial settlement, try the case before a jury if the insurance company refuses to budge, and win you far more money than the best insurance company offer.

Once you've chosen an attorney and helped him or her obtain all your evidence, the Nolo book I mentioned in the other thread can answer most of your questions about what will happen next with your case. Since you'd rather your attorney was spending time working on your case rather than chatting on the phone, you want to call only when you have specific questions or needs in mind. You are entitled to regular progress reports about the status of your case, so do make certain you hear from your attorney every several months, either by phone/email or through the mail. While your attorney is the expert in organizing and filing lawsuits, you know far more about your case and injuries. By following the progress of your case, you can sometimes prevent costly errors, such as when a medical expert misreads your chart [or believes an erroneous entry in your medical records - there are more mistakes made in your medical records each day than in your credit report, on average!] and thinks you had a previous accident to the same body part and had been in constant pain ever since.

Good luck. I hope the above information will help you out. Since I'm not yet an attorney, I summarized the above information from the Nolo Press book and Web site I linked to above.