Understanding When the Law Favors You in Sideswipe Car Accident Cases

There are all kinds of car accidents. There are head-on collisions where vehicles hit head-to-head. There are rear-end collisions where you hit a car from behind with your vehicle.

Then, there are sideswipe collisions. These occur when you brush along a car that's next to your vehicle, potentially damaging both cars.

If a car does this to your vehicle, you might decide to sue them. If so, it helps to know whether the law is on your side as you try to sort out the matter in court. Let's talk about some factors that should go into your decision whether to sue if this happens.

Will You Receive Appropriate Compensation if You Don't Sue?

Most people are not overly litigious. They will not make a point of suing someone else since it can be a time-consuming process. If you sue someone, you must disrupt your usual schedule, and your work and home life might suffer.

The time when you might choose to sue someone if they sideswipe you in their vehicle is probably if their insurance policy will not cover your vehicle's damage, your medical bills, and what you perceive to be your pain and suffering after the accident. The term "pain and suffering" often refers to your mental state after a car crash if you feel depressed, anxious, or traumatized.

If you do live in one of the states with mandatory driver personal injury protection insurance, that policy might be enough to cover the damage we mentioned and the accompanying costs. In Florida, for instance, you must carry a minimum PIP insurance amount.  

If the other driver's insurance doesn't cover the vehicle damage or your injuries, or if they don't have any insurance at all, that's probably when you'll want to sue.

How Bad Are the Typical Injuries in Sideswipe Collisions?

If you look at sideswipe collisions, you'll often see that the injuries and the vehicle damage don't tend to be as bad as with some other accident types. That's because the vehicle is not striking you from behind, which often causes whiplash or concussions. They're also not hitting you from the front, which can be just as bad.

A sideswipe collision might not harm you and may only damage your car. However, if someone sideswipes your vehicle, that might cause you to run off the road and into a ditch. You might hit another vehicle in what car insurance providers sometimes call a chain reaction crash.

While some sideswipe collisions don't result in serious injuries or accident damage, each one is entirely different and unique. If you feel like what happened to you justifies suing the other driver, there is no reason not to hire an attorney and pursue the matter in court.

When is the Law on Your Side?

This brings up the question of when the law is on your side if you choose to sue the other motorist. Several factors will go into answering that question.

The biggest one is whether you can prove the other driver caused the crash. You might feel like you were driving along and minding your own business, but the jurors were not in that car with you to see what happened.

You will need to produce abundant evidence that the crash happened like you said it did instead of how the other driver portrays it. Maybe they don't dispute what you say happened, but perhaps they tell a story that's entirely different from what took place.

What Evidence Can You Produce?

You're liable to win a jury trial, if it comes to that, if you can come up with traffic or store camera footage that shows the sideswipe collision. Maybe you will luck out, and an individual will have smartphone footage if they were taking some selfies by the crash site.

The police report should help tell the story as well. You can get it and enter it into evidence during the trial. You can also subpoena any witnesses who you think can help you.

You might ask a crash scene reconstructionist to give their expert testimony. Expert witnesses will help your case.

The point to remember is that the law may be on your side, and you may be sure the other driver caused the crash, but it's all about what you can prove with material evidence and testimony. If your lawyer can produce enough of those things, that's when you're most likely to walk away the winner.

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