It is the first warm sunny day of Summer. As you drive home from work in your family van, you tap your foot to the stereo as you plan a family weekend outing at the lake. You are driving your usual route down a street near your house when you approach the main intersection you cross each day. You stop at the stoplight in the line of rush hour traffic. The light turns green, and as you accelerate into the intersection, you are rudely introduced to John Smith.

John Smith lives a few miles from your home. He stopped at the convenience store on the way home from work to pick up the local newspaper. The top story headline was intriguing, and he tried to catch the facts while driving down the street perpendicular to yours. He glanced up and saw the light had turned red with no time for him stop, so he attempted to barrel through the intersection. When you meet John at the center of the intersection, there is a tangled mess of metal and spilled fluids. A passerby checks on your physical condition, then calls the police.

After this accident, it is customary to expect the following:

• You may need an ambulance ride or helicopter ride to the hospital.
• You may need immediate, expensive medical treatment or surgery for your injuries.
• You may need extensive follow up testing or rehabilitative therapy. The bills for all of your medical treatment will be charged to you.
• You may be spending a great deal of time traveling to and from doctors offices and waiting in the waiting room for follow up medical treatment.
• You may receive collection notices for overdue medical bills with threatening letters demanding immediate payment of the full amount due.
• You and your family will have to make alternative plans for transportation while your vehicle is awaiting repairs or replacement.
• Your employer may need to find a replacement to perform your duties at work. Although many employers are highly sympathetic when a good employee is injured in an accident, this could sidetrack or end your career.
• Your family may experience an immediate end to or reduction of the family income as you continue to incur costs.
• Your family can suffer the stress and dysfunction which results from having a family member who is seriously injured.
• Your wife, husband, or significant other will be called upon to sacrifice his or her time and energy to assist you in seeking medical treatment, in doing your chores, and in performing daily activities which you may no longer be able to do for yourself.
• You may find that the other driver, who told everyone at the scene that the accident was his fault, now remembers that his light was green and that you were doing at least 20 MPH over the speed limit. His insurance adjuster may now explain that he has "investigated" your claim and that there is no liability on the part of John Smith.
  

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• Often the comfort and security of knowing that the other driver has insurance coverage is shattered when his insurance company begins to deny liability.
• Often the comfort and security of knowing that you had insurance coverage is shattered when your own insurance company locks horns with the other company and no one is paying the overdue bills. Your own insurance company may even decide that the medical treatment you received was unnecessary.
• Often the comfort and security of your entire family is shattered when in a split second, through no fault of your own, nearly every facet of your life becomes altered by an automobile accident.

You will not be water skiing next weekend and you may not be skiing for many weekends to come, depending on the nature of your injuries. Clearly injuries will affect the accident victim's ability to work, but there are numerous daily activities which once seemed insignificant but become difficult and often impossible in the aftermath of an injury.

The goal of the personal injury attorney is to come as close as possible to placing you back in your family van on your way home from work on that sunny afternoon before you entered the intersection. Our goal is to assist you in regaining your health and vitality, and returning your lifestyle to pre-accident level. Anyone who has been in a serious auto accident knows that the person who wrote the slogan on the bumper sticker which reads "Hit Me, I Need the Money" was never involved in a serious accident. There are millions of Americans who bear the scars of past auto accidents who will testify that no amount of money is worth the pain, suffering, inconvenience and chaos caused by a major accident.

It is estimated that one out of four Americans will be involved in a serious automobile accident in their lifetime. In this web site, we attempt to share some general information about auto accidents. However, before you take any action which will affect your rights, please contact an attorney for advice. Just as you would not try to stitch up your own cuts or operate on your own body after an accident, you should not try to negotiate a settlement of an insurance claim without professional assistance. The insurance adjuster's goal is to pay as little as possible to the claimant. The benefits of a knowledgeable, experienced, legal representative can be immeasurable at this time of need.