Leon Car Accident Injury Attorneys

The legs, knees, and nerves are all at risk of injury during a car accident near Leon, and some crashes involve an additional complication: a drunk driver. Understanding these injuries and your legal options can make a significant difference in your recovery.

Understanding an ACL Tear From a Leon Car Accident

The ACL is the ligament found in the center of the knee. It is responsible for stabilizing the knee joint and works in concert with the posterior cruciate ligament to keep the femur and tibia from sliding out too far over one another. When an ACL injury occurs, a person may have difficulty performing even basic movements like walking and jumping and will require medical intervention. An ACL tear is often accompanied by other injuries, such as a fibula fracture.

Causes of an ACL Tear

An ACL tear occurs as a result of trauma to the ACL. In terms of a car accident injury, an ACL tear can be the result of the knee changing direction quickly, such as when an object pushes the knee one way or the other swiftly and unexpectedly, or as a result of a direct collision, such as an object or vehicle part making contact with the leg.

Treatment for an ACL Tear

An ACL tear is one of the most painful injury types and is characterized by loss of full range of motion, tenderness, swelling, and the inability to walk or move the leg comfortably. To treat an ACL injury, both surgical and nonsurgical options may be pursued depending on the severity of the injury. Nonsurgical options usually include the use of a brace and physical therapy. When an injury to the ACL is severe, surgical intervention may be necessary, and the ACL will usually have to be completely reconstructed. Most people are able to return to their regular lifestyle activities around six months after surgery.

It takes time and money to repair a soft tissue injury. Leon car accident victims may have to miss work and may face significant medical expenses. When the cause of an ACL injury is a car accident that was not the fault of the victim, the victim deserves to be compensated for lost wages, medical expenses, and suffering.

Nerve Damage From a Leon Car Accident

Just as an attorney can help sort the legal mess left by a careless driver who caused your crash, a doctor or chiropractor should be sought for pain treatment. One injury that slows many accident victims near Leon is nerve damage. These injuries may lead to such debilitating pain that the victim can no longer participate in activities they enjoyed prior to the accident.

What Is Nerve Impingement?

Nerve impingement, also commonly known as a pinched nerve, is a condition that develops when a nerve is damaged from being compressed by hard tissue such as bone or cartilage. Some common compressors include a bulging disc, bone spur, or misaligned joint in the spine. Nerve impingement is not only painful at the site of the pinched nerve, but it can also hinder the function and mobility of adjoining muscles and joints. A pinched nerve can result in a wide variety of uncomfortable sensations, including tingling, numbness, muscle weakness, and pain that may radiate to other parts of the body.

Think of your nervous system as a superhighway comprised of many exit ramps that allow nerve signals to freely move to other parts of the body. If one of those exit ramps is affected by a pinched nerve, it may disrupt proper function and cause pain or numbness. Although not one of the more apparent signs of trauma from a crash, nerve impingement may be debilitating because of the constant pain the victim experiences.

What If You Were Injured Near Leon by a Drunk Driver?

Unfortunately, drunk drivers kill and injure more than 1,500 Iowans each year. These are different than a normal car accident because the other driver was under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Often the other driver will be charged criminally, and you could be required to testify in court against them. Questions our clients often face in these cases include what happens if the drunk driver only carries the state minimum of $20,000 per crash, whether there is a way to collect more than just the policy limits, and how punitive damages against the drunk driver work.

Unfortunately, the drunk driver is often not financially responsible and may have had drunk driving charges before. They will often carry the cheapest insurance available, which frequently means the state minimum in policy limits, sometimes as little as $20,000 in personal injury coverage per crash if they are on high-risk insurance.

What Can You Do if the Drunk Driver Does Not Have Enough Insurance?

There are really two different ways to go. First, hopefully you have purchased a significant amount of underinsured motorist coverage, known as UIM, which is the only coverage that protects you and your family financially from drivers with low policy limits. Second, you could sue the drunk driver, get a judgment, and then try to collect on the amount of the judgment above the policy limits. As a general rule, if the drunk driver is convicted of OWI in relation to your crash, they are not allowed to discharge a judgment related to the crash in bankruptcy. However, even with a judgment, it can be difficult to track down assets, garnish wages, and ultimately collect the money you are owed.

You do not want to just accept the policy limits offer from the drunk driver's insurance company without first providing information and requesting permission from your own insurance company. Failing to do this properly can result in your insurance company taking the position that even though you have the coverage, they do not owe you anything because they were prejudiced. You also have to deal with subrogation claims, which can come from hospitals trying to get paid in full, your health insurance company, or even your own car insurance company if you used the medical payments portion of your policy.

What an Attorney Should Do in Your Case

Hiring a qualified Iowa car accident attorney to lead you through the process will not only relieve your stress but also will likely result in more money for you. Once an experienced attorney has the accident report, your medical records, and various other documentation, they should be able to give you a good idea of what to expect. An attorney should deal with the insurance adjusters on your behalf, investigate your case, obtain your medical records and bills, talk to your doctors to make sure all of your injuries are properly documented, handle subrogation claims to put the most money in your pocket, deal with any collection companies your medical bills may have been sent to, explain the legal process, and help you decide the best way to move forward with your case.