How Much Damage To Your Car Do You Need To Support A Personal Injury Claim in Tarrant County?

In evaluating an auto accident injury claim in the Fort Worth, Texas area as a personal injury law firm we obviously look at the injuries received by potential client. But one of the first things we also look at when evaluating a car accident claim is the damage to the automobiles involved in the collision. When we evaluate a case, we want to make sure that there is enough damage that the insurance company and ultimately the jury, will agree with our client that the force of the collision was enough to cause the injuries.

How Much Damage to the Car is Enough?

It depends on the visible damage to the car and how much it cost to repair the vehicle. It seems that most accidents involve a rear-end collision where the damage to the injured party is on the back part of the vehicle. If the bumper is just barely dented, it doesn’t matter how much it costs to repair or replace the bumper: that is not enough damage to bring a personal injury claim. In the experience of our personal injury lawyers, not only do insurance companies dig in and not want to pay those type of claims, but juries also tend to agree that an accident of that magnitude is not the kind that produces injuries.

Another thing that we look at is the dollar amount of the damage to the car. If the automobile has already been repaired, we look at the estimate prepared by the body shop. If it hasn’t already been repaired, we encourage our potential client to go have an estimate done. While there is no hard and fast line, it is our experience that we need to see over $1,000 in property damage, along with the visible damage, before a case should be accepted and a personal injury claim pursued by our law firm.

But there are other kinds of car accidents in Fort Worth other than rear-enders. If one car impacts another car in a T-bone fashion, it usually produces enough damage to support a personal injury claim. However, if it is not a T-bone, but is instead a side swipe, such as when cars are going in the same direction, it gets more confusing. Often these side-swipe cases will dent more than one body part on the side of the car, as in a fender and a door. The cost to repair these is usually more than a rear ender/bumper repair job. Also, the pictures can look okay as they show a sizeable dent or dents in the cars. However, the problem is that sometimes side swipe dents are the kind that could be done by somebody kicking in the door. If that is the case, then the force of the side-swipe collision is probably not the kind that would involve an injury producing wreck.

Those are just general rules and there are a million exceptions to the rules. At the Anderson Law Firm in Fort Worth, we've handled cases for people who have jostled back and forth on a side-swipe collision and the side swing has caused them severe neck injuries. For instance, if the driver of the not at fault vehicle had a prior neck surgery, the side movement could cause a worsening of that condition and even possibly a second surgery.

Although there are no hard and fast rules as to the amount of property damage you need to support a personal injury claim, hopefully this gives some basic guidelines.

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