Gomez Trial Attorneys Represents Rideshare Accident Victims

The nationally-recognized lawyers at Gomez Trial Attorneys make it their mission to advocate for victims of accidents and incidents caused by someone else’s wrongful, dangerous conduct. Representing El Centro residents, workers, and visitors who suffer injuries in rideshare accidents constitutes an important, growing part of our law practice.

In our years of fighting for justice on behalf of accident victims, we have developed a deep well of knowledge about the ins-and-outs of pursuing full and fair compensation in connection with rideshare accidents. We cannot guarantee that our clients will recover money when they hire us, but we can promise that they will have lawyers on their side who know how to get results in even the most complicated cases against the most well-funded defendants and insurance companies.

El Centro Rideshare Injury Scenarios We Handle

Clients seek the help of the experienced lawyers at Gomez Trial Attorneys after suffering injuries in rideshare accidents in a variety of scenarios.

Among the most common:

• Injuries suffered as a rideshare passenger in a crash.
• Injuries suffered as a driver or passenger in a vehicle that collides with a rideshare vehicle.
• Injuries suffered as a pedestrian or bicyclist in a collision with a rideshare vehicle.
• Injuries suffered as a result of wrongful or criminal conduct by a rideshare driver, such as cases in which a driver assaults a passenger.

No matter how you suffered an injury in an El Centro rideshare accident, however, our team has the skill and resources to hold the parties at-fault to account for the harm their actions caused.

Common El Centro Rideshare Accident Injuries

Victims of El Centro rideshare accidents can suffer a wide range of life-altering, and even fatal, injuries, for which they and their loved ones deserve significant compensation.

Common injuries for which our firm seeks compensation on clients’ behalf include:

• Traumatic brain injuries, which can leave victims of El Centro rideshare accidents in a coma or permanent semi-conscious state, or may leave them struggling with long-term cognitive, emotional, or physical deficits that interfere with every aspect of their day-to-day lives.
• Spinal cord injuries, often resulting in paralysis and total loss of sensation below the site of the injury, which transforms victims’ lives, inflicts severe health complications, and saddles them and their families with immense, unplanned-for costs.
• Crushed and amputated limbs, commonly the result of a person’s arm or leg getting pinned under or inside a damaged vehicle, which deprives victims of functional use of the affected limb, or the limb altogether, causing severe physical and emotional trauma and changing victims’ lives forever.
• Internal injuries, common in violent accidents that occur at high speeds or when a victim gets pinned under or inside a vehicle, which result in lifelong health complications that force victims to change how they go about their most basic day-to-day activities like eating, lifting objects, or exercising.
• Severe lacerations resulting in dangerous blood loss that could cause organ damage, and which frequently result in disfiguring scars that traumatize victims for a lifetime.
• Orthopedic injuries of all types, including broken bones, dislocated joints, torn ligaments, and damaged cartilage, which may heal in time with proper care, but can still leave a victim living with chronic pain and limited mobility that interferes with work, daily activities, and emotional health.

At Gomez Trial Attorneys, our lawyers understand the trauma and difficulty that rideshare accidents can inflict on victims and their loved ones. Our team possesses detailed knowledge of the wide range of injuries our clients can suffer, and we put that knowledge to work in seeking maximum compensation to meet our clients’ current and future financial and medical needs.

Rideshare Insurance as Compensation for El Centro Rideshare Injuries

No one wants to get injured in an El Centro rideshare-related accident. Those who do, however, can often seek compensation for their injuries and losses from relatively large insurance policies that California law requires rideshare drivers to carry.

Under the law, in addition to the ordinary auto insurance that all Californians must purchase, rideshare drivers or the companies they drive for must also carry:

• $50,000 per person and $100,000 per incident coverage for death or injury, $30,000 for property damage, and $200,000 in excess coverage for any accident or incident that occurs at any time the driver has logged in to a rideshare app, but has not accepted a ride request.
• $1 million coverage against death, injury, and property damage for any accident or incident that occurs from the moment a rideshare driver accepts a ride request on the rideshare app until the driver completes the transaction or the ride is complete.
• $1 million in uninsured motorist coverage that applies to any accident occurring from the moment a passenger gets into the rideshare vehicle until the passenger gets out.

In other words, victims of El Centro rideshare accidents and incidents may have potentially significant amounts of additional insurance coverage to help them pay for their injuries and losses. However, as the rules above describe, the availability of that coverage depends in large part on the driver’s status in connection to the rideshare app at the time of the crash or other incident. The distinctions between a driver who is logged-in as compared to not logged-in, or to a driver who has accepted a ride or not, can mean the difference between a full financial recovery and one that falls short of what a victim needs.

At Gomez Trial Attorneys, we know how to find and secure the evidence necessary to establish a driver’s status at the time of our clients’ injuries, so that our clients can benefit from every dollar of insurance coverage available to them as victims of an El Centro rideshare accident.

Other Potential Sources of Compensation for El Centro Rideshare Accident Victims

The extra insurance required of rideshare companies and their drivers under California law often provides the bulk of compensation to our clients who suffer injuries and losses in rideshare accidents and incidents. However, that does not make rideshare insurance the exclusive source of payment for our clients’ damages.

Other legally liable parties may also share legal liability to our clients. In fact, under California law, virtually anyone whose unreasonably dangerous decisions or actions cause an El Centro rideshare accident or other harmful incident can owe damages to a victim.

For example:

• Other drivers who cause accidents in which a rideshare vehicle crashes;
• Employers of those other drivers, if they crash a work vehicle into a rideshare vehicle;
• Manufacturers of vehicles and vehicle parts, if defects in their products lead to a mechanical or electrical failure that causes an El Centro rideshare crash; and
• Local government agencies and contractors, if their unreasonable failure to design, build, or maintain safe roads in the El Centro area contribute to the cause of a harmful crash.

The lawyers at Gomez Trial Attorneys know that although rideshare insurance can serve as an important source of payment of our clients’ damages, it’s our job to find any existing other sources.

Potential Damages for Rideshare-Related Injuries in El Centro

Clients of Gomez Trial Attorneys often want to know what kind of damages they may have the right to receive as compensation for their injuries and losses in an El Centro rideshare accident or incident.

Every case is different, of course, but in an insurance claim or legal action for damages our clients can typically seek to secure payment for:

• Medical expenses related to treating the injuries they suffered in El Centro rideshare accidents or incidents, including the costs of emergency care, hospitalization, long-term care, therapy, medication, and medical equipment;
• Other expenses arising from the accident and the injuries our clients suffered, such as the costs of repairing or replacing damaged property, or of modifying our clients’ living spaces to accommodate disabilities or impairments caused by their injuries;
• Lost income due to our clients missing work while recuperating from their injuries, or from our clients’ inability to return to work because of disabilities or impairments;
• Pain, suffering, and diminished quality of life, including emotional trauma and damage to personal relationships, resulting from the difficulties inflicted by the rideshare-related injuries our clients have suffered; and
• Sometimes, punitive damages, which courts may award when appropriate to punish extreme or outrageous conduct on the part of the individual, corporation, or organization at fault for the accident that harmed our client.

At Gomez Trial Attorneys, we work closely with our clients to understand the full impact an El Centro rideshare accident or incident has had on their lives, livelihoods, and families. Then, we get to work seeking to secure the maximum compensation available to them under California law and their particular circumstances.

How We Help Victims of El Centro Rideshare Injuries

In an ideal world, victims of El Centro rideshare accidents could simply request payment from a rideshare driver’s insurance coverage and expect to receive full and fair compensation within a matter of days. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world. Instead, in reality, it takes legal skill and practical know-how to secure insurance money and other compensation to help pay for injuries and losses in an El Centro rideshare accident.

The rideshare accident lawyers at Gomez Trial Attorneys possess that skill and know-how.

Although every case we handle for a rideshare accident or incident victim in El Centro differs, our team generally can:

• Investigate and gather evidence about the rideshare accident or incident that injured our client, to determine how the accident happened, who bears the blame for it, and the rideshare driver’s status at the time the injury to our client occurred.
• Identify all parties who may have a legal liability to our clients for the injuries and losses they suffered in an El Centro rideshare crash or other incident, and insurance policies carried by those parties that may serve as sources of compensation for our clients.
• Evaluate the scope of our clients’ injuries and losses, so that we can demand appropriate compensation for our clients that meets their current and future financial needs.
• Plan an effective and efficient legal strategy for seeking compensation on our clients’ behalf, which may include preparing insurance claims and lawsuits to serve insurance companies and defense lawyers, or to file in court.
• Communicate with our clients about the strategies we recommend for securing them the maximum compensation available, and about the progress of their case once they have authorized us to advocate on their behalf.
• Negotiate with defense lawyers and insurance companies to secure a fair and reasonable settlement of our clients’ claims, if possible.
• Litigate in El Centro-area courtrooms, including in trials before judges and juries, if that is what is needed to obtain a favorable outcome for our clients.

As we said, we can never guarantee that our clients will receive full compensation for their El Centro rideshare accident injuries. However, we can promise to serve our clients’ interests above all others, and to commit the full resources of our firm to seeing justice done on our clients’ behalf.

El Centro Ridesharing FAQs

Victims of El Centro rideshare accidents and incidents who reach out to Gomez Trial Attorneys for help tend to want answers to a host of important, pressing questions concerning their legal and financial rights. Our team is always happy to answer questions for injured victims and their family members.

Below you will find general answers to the most frequently asked of those questions. For answers to your specific questions about an El Centro rideshare accident or incident that harmed you or a loved one, contact Gomez Trial Attorneys today.

How do I know if I’m entitled to damages for my El Centro rideshare injuries?

The best way to know if you have legal rights to compensation after you or a loved one gets hurt in an El Centro rideshare accident or incident is to speak to an experienced rideshare injury lawyer from Gomez Trial Attorneys.

In the meantime, you can feel reasonably certain that you have a right to damages if you were harmed in an accident or incident involving a rideshare in El Centro if you know or suspect that the harm you suffered was caused by another’s careless or dangerous actions.

In general, that’s virtually always the case if you suffered injuries as a rideshare passenger, as a pedestrian or cyclist struck by a rideshare vehicle, or if a rideshare driver assaulted or otherwise intentionally harmed you. It’s also commonly the case if you suffered injuries as a driver or passenger of another vehicle that got into an accident with a rideshare vehicle.

Can I just file a claim with the El Centro rideshare insurance you mentioned?

Not really. Seeking compensation from someone else’s liability insurance policy—including the extra rideshare insurance described above—differs from filing a claim with your own insurance carrier. You are not the liability insurance company’s customer, so the company has little reason to make things easy for you. Instead, liability insurance companies will do their best to challenge or undercut the value of your claim at every opportunity, because that saves them money and increases their bottom line.

At Gomez Trial Attorneys, we recommend against individuals trying to pursue compensation from someone else’s liability insurance company on their own. It’s just not a fair fight. Insurance adjusters who work for liability insurers will use every trick in the book to try to stiff El Centro rideshare accident victims. The victims, on the other hand, many of whom are recovering from serious injuries, rarely know the rules and risk making costly errors.

To level the playing field, hire an experienced El Centro rideshare injury attorney, like the team at Gomez Trial Attorneys, to represent you in every interaction with a liability insurance company. We speak insurance adjusters’ language. We know the tricks of their trade, and we don’t let them get away with anything short of fair and honest dealing when it comes to paying our clients.

How much is my El Centro rideshare injury claim worth?

It depends on the particular facts and circumstances of your case.

Generally speaking, the value of a claim for damages depends on:

• Your injuries and their impact on your life. As you might expect, the worse your injuries and the greater their overall impact on your life (including your personal relationships, your ability to work or go to school, or enjoyment of activities, etc.), the higher the amount of money you can seek to recover as damages. At Gomez Trial Attorneys, we have years of experience evaluating the many facets of the harm our clients may have suffered, to ensure we seek the most money possible as compensation for them.
• The strength of your case. Your legal right to compensation for your El Centro rideshare injuries and losses depends on your lawyer’s ability to prove someone else’s legal liability to you, and the amount of your damages. Lawyers build cases out of evidence and legal arguments. More evidence and higher quality of the legal argument increase your chances of securing maximum compensation.
• The sources of payment. The value of even the strongest legal claim for damages, however, is also subject to the limits of the financial resources available to pay those damages. Accessing the extra insurance available in rideshare cases may make the difference between a claim in which a victim has a realistic hope of recovering maximum damages, and one in which the victim has little hope of a full financial recovery.

As you might sense from the factors above, the value of your case also depends to a large degree on the quality of the lawyer you have working on your behalf. Choose a skilled rideshare accident injury law firm with the resources and know-how to get you results; a firm like Gomez Trial Attorneys, in other words.

How long will it take to get paid for my El Centro rideshare injuries?

That depends.

First, there is no guarantee you will get paid. Hiring an experienced El Centro rideshare attorney to represent you, however, gives you the best shot at a favorable outcome.

Even if you have a successful claim for damages for the injuries and losses you suffered in an El Centro rideshare accident or incident, the timetable can vary widely.

Factors affecting the timeline of a case include:

• How long it takes to diagnose your injuries and for doctors to give a reasonably clear prediction of what constitutes maximum physical recovery;
• The number of parties—both victims and potential defendants—involved in a legal claim;
• The degree of dispute over whether someone owes you compensation and/or how much compensation you deserve; and
• Court scheduling and other administrative considerations.

Neither you nor your lawyer can do much to control the timeline of an El Centro rideshare injury case. You do, however, have complete control over one of the most important aspects of the duration of your claim: when you speak with an experienced rideshare injury attorney for the first time. Take that all-important step as soon as possible, so that the rest of the process can get underway.

The El Centro rideshare driver offered me cash so that we don’t get insurance involved. Should I take it?

No way.

Never accept any offer of payment in exchange for avoiding insurance claims. Doing so can damage your rights to seek compensation through a lawsuit. It may also violate the law.

More generally, at Gomez Trial Attorneys, we encourage any El Centro rideshare injury victim to say “no, thanks” to any offer of payment or settlement made directly to them, no matter if it’s made by a rideshare driver or by an insurance company.

Quick settlement offers virtually always fall far short of the amount of money rideshare injury victims need and deserve under California law. Agreeing to any settlement offer usually requires the victim to give up important legal rights to sue for damages in the future. In other words, a settlement is a one-shot-deal. Agree to the wrong amount of money, and you could end up getting short-changed.

Leave it to an experienced El Centro rideshare injury lawyer to negotiate all settlements on your behalf. In our experience at Gomez Trial Attorneys, our involvement in negotiations on a clients’ behalf virtually always results in a larger settlement payment than what a party or its insurance company offered our clients directly.

How much will it cost me to hire a lawyer to handle my El Centro rideshare claim?

If you hire us, it won’t cost you anything unless we get you results.

First, an initial consultation with an experienced El Centro rideshare lawyer at Gomez Trial Attorneys does not cost you a penny. Lawyers for victims of El Centro rideshare accidents understand that their clients frequently face extreme financial hardship after suffering injuries. The last thing clients can afford is to pay an attorney just to talk to them about whether they have a case. That is why we always meet with potential clients for no charge—we want to make it as easy and risk-free as possible for anyone to come talk to us about their injuries and legal rights.

Next, lawyers who agree to represent El Centro rideshare accident victims virtually always do so on a contingent fee basis. This is an arrangement in which the lawyer’s only fee consists of a percentage of any money the lawyer secures on a client’s behalf. The client pays nothing to the lawyer at the beginning of the case or as it goes along. In other words, the lawyer only gets paid if the client gets paid.

By working on a contingent fee basis, we make it possible for anyone who needs our legal skills and resources to afford them. Never let your concerns about money keep you from talking to an experienced El Centro rideshare injury lawyer about whether you have a claim.

Can I do anything to help my El Centro rideshare case?

Yes, you can, and it’s simple: always seek medical attention and always do what your doctor says.

Sometimes, El Centro residents, workers, or visitors skip seeking medical attention after a rideshare accident or incident. Maybe they do so because they think they escaped the accident without injury. Maybe they think their injuries are too minor to merit a doctor visit. Or, maybe they just hate going to the doctor.

No matter the reasons, not seeking medical care is a potentially costly mistake. To begin, accident victims tend not to have the ability to assess the severity of their injuries. The stress of getting into an accident can mask pain, and some serious injuries do not always show symptoms right away. Going to the doctor immediately after a rideshare accident protects crash victims’ health by allowing a trained medical professional to spot and begin treating all injuries, before they get worse.

Seeking medical attention as soon as possible also serves the important purpose of documenting the connection between an El Centro rideshare accident and the victim’s injuries. The records the doctor creates become critical evidence to prove the scope of the injuries for which the victim deserves compensation.

Finally, visiting the doctor and doing what the doctor says protects the victim against claims by insurance companies and defense lawyers that the victim’s inaction or inattention made injuries worse.

We may have additional advice to give El Centro rideshare injury victims about other things they can do to protect their legal and financial rights. However, medical care is the most critical step to take. After you receive it, reach out to us, and let’s talk about what else you might do.

Your El Centro Rideshare Injury Attorneys

At Gomez Trial Attorneys, we wish that rideshare accidents did not happen in El Centro, but they do. In their aftermath, injured victims and their families need steady, experienced guidance to help protect and enforce their potentially-valuable legal rights to compensation.

The extra insurance required of rideshare companies and their drivers under California law can represent a significant source of payment of accident victims’ damages. However, victims and their families must act quickly. Waiting to speak with an attorney can put your rights at risk, and may result in you losing your ability to seek compensation altogether.

At Gomez Trial Attorneys, we fight day-in, day-out to make sure that innocent victims of El Centro rideshare accidents and incidents receive the full value of compensation they need and deserve. Our attorneys know where to locate evidence critical to a rideshare case, and how to stand up to the powerful rideshare insurance companies who angle to avoid their obligations to accident victims.

If you or your loved one suffered injuries or losses in an El Centro rideshare accident or incident, contact Gomez Trial Attorneys online or at 866-TRIAL LAW (866 874-2552) for your free case consultation.

Injured in an accident? Get a real trial lawyer. Get Gomez

Gomez Trial Attorneys
2299 West Adams Avenue, Suite 102
El Centro, CA 92243
(760)-259-2166