Connecticut Car Accident Lawyer

Car accidents occur every day on Connecticut roads, from the I-95 corridor through Fairfield County, to the I-84 and I-91 corridors through Hartford County, to the highways and surface streets throughout every region of the state. The most serious cases the firm reviews tend to involve a series of recurring crash types.

Rear-end collisions

Often caused by distracted, tailgating, or impaired drivers, rear-end collisions can cause whiplash, spinal injuries, and traumatic brain injuries even at moderate speeds. At highway speeds, they can be catastrophic.

Head-on collisions

Among the deadliest types of accidents, head-on crashes typically result from a driver crossing the center line, often because of impairment, distraction, drowsiness, or a medical emergency. The combined speed of two vehicles meeting head-on multiplies the force of impact.

Side-impact and T-bone collisions 

Often caused by drivers running red lights or stop signs, side-impact crashes can be particularly devastating because the doors of most vehicles offer less protection than the front or rear. Drivers and passengers on the struck side are at high risk of catastrophic injury.

Rollover accidents 

Rollovers can result from high-speed maneuvers, tire failures, defective vehicle design, or collisions with other vehicles or roadside objects. They carry a high risk of ejection, head injury, and death.

Multivehicle pileups 

Highway pileups involving three or more vehicles raise complex liability questions and can implicate multiple drivers, road conditions, and even commercial trucking operations. Sorting out who is responsible requires careful investigation.

Drunk and impaired driving crashes 

Alcohol, illegal drugs, and prescription medications can impair driving. Connecticut law allows victims of impaired-driving crashes to pursue claims against the driver and, in some cases, against the establishments that served the driver alcohol.

Distracted driving crashes 

Texting, use of social media, looking at navigation, eating, and other forms of distraction continue to cause a substantial share of Connecticut crashes. Establishing distraction often requires investigation of phone records and other electronic evidence.

Hit-and-run accidents 

A driver who leaves the scene compounds the harm to the victim. Connecticut law and most auto insurance policies provide avenues for recovery even when the at-fault driver is never identified.

Serious car accidents can cause injuries that range from acute and treatable to permanent and life-altering. The firm's cases typically involve the most severe end of that range:

• Traumatic brain injuries, from concussion to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) with permanent cognitive impairment
• Spinal cord injuries, including incomplete and complete injuries that can result in partial or total paralysis
• Internal organ damage from blunt force trauma, often requiring emergency surgery
• Multiple fractures, including pelvic, femur, and spinal fractures that require surgical repair and prolonged rehabilitation
• Burn injuries from post-collision fires or contact with vehicle components
• Amputation of limbs in severe collisions
• Soft tissue injuries that can cause chronic pain long after the visible injuries have healed
• Psychological injuries, including post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression that can persist for years
• Fatal injuries, where the family is left to pursue a wrongful death claim

The first priority after any crash is safety and medical care. Beyond that, a few steps can make a substantial difference in the strength of an eventual claim.

Call 911 and report the crash. A police report is one of the most important documents in any car accident case. If the police do not respond to the scene, file a report with the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles or the local police department as soon as possible.

Get medical attention. Even if injuries seem minor, see a doctor. Many serious injuries do not present obvious symptoms immediately, and a gap between the accident and the first medical visit is something defense lawyers will use against a claim later.

Document the scene. Take photographs of the vehicles, the road, traffic controls, debris, skid marks, and any visible injuries. Note the weather and lighting. Get the names and contact information of every witness.

Exchange information. Get the other driver's name, address, license number, insurance carrier, policy number, and vehicle information. Take a photograph of their insurance card and driver's license.

Be careful what you say. Do not apologize, do not admit fault, and do not minimize your injuries at the scene or to the other driver's insurance carrier. Insurance adjusters often call within days of an accident, sometimes recording the conversation. Statements made before the full extent of an injury is understood can be used against a claim later. It is generally wise to speak with a lawyer before giving any recorded statement to the other driver's insurer.

Notify your own insurance carrier. Most policies require prompt notification of any accident.

Preserve evidence. Do not have your vehicle repaired or scrapped until your lawyer has had a chance to inspect it. The vehicle itself is often the most important physical evidence in a serious case. Many modern vehicles are equipped with “black boxes” that preserve data from the seconds leading up to the crash, including steering angles, gas or brake pressure and speed at the time of collision.

Contact a lawyer early. Evidence disappears. Witnesses move. Surveillance footage gets overwritten. The earlier a lawyer is involved, the more effectively the case can be investigated and preserved.

SGT does not approach a serious car accident case the way most firms do. We only accepts cases where the fault is clear and the client has suffered serious injuries. When we accept a case, we commit the full resources of the firm to that case, and we bring to bear a set of tools most plaintiffs' firms do not have.

The firm has relationships with many experienced physicians who are deeply involved in the investigation of every case. That medical perspective allows the firm to evaluate injuries, identify causation issues, and prepare for the medical questions a defense lawyer will raise long before opposing counsel does.

SGT uses sophisticated trial preparation techniques, including focus groups, to test how real Connecticut jurors react to the facts of a case before trial. Focus group work surfaces the strengths and weaknesses of a case in a way that nothing else can, and it gives the firm an unusually clear picture of what a case is worth before the first deposition is taken.

SGT retains accident reconstruction experts, biomechanical engineers, and other technical specialists to establish exactly how a crash occurred and why. In a serious case, reconstructing the moments before, during, and after the collision is often the difference between a defensible liability argument and an indefensible one. In some cases, an animated recreation of the incident can be crucial in demonstrating to the jury that the other driver was at fault.

The firm maintains a national network of expert witnesses, including leading physicians, surgeons, life-care planners, and economists, who are available to evaluate cases and testify when needed.

These resources are not standard at most Connecticut personal injury firms. They are part of why the firm has secured some of the largest verdicts and settlements in Connecticut history, and why insurance carriers and defense lawyers take cases brought by SGT seriously from the beginning.

Liability in a car accident case can extend well beyond the most obvious defendant. Identifying every responsible party is essential to a full recovery, particularly when the most obvious defendant has limited insurance coverage.

The most direct defendant is usually the at-fault driver. But other parties can share responsibility:

• The employer of an at-fault driver, when the driver was working at the time of the crash
• The owner of the vehicle, in some circumstances under Connecticut's family car doctrine and other theories
• A vehicle manufacturer, when a defect in the vehicle contributed to the crash or to the severity of the injuries
• A maintenance provider or mechanic, when negligent service contributed to a failure
• A commercial establishment that overserved alcohol to an impaired driver who later caused a crash, under Connecticut's dram shop laws
• A state or municipal entity responsible for road design and maintenance, when dangerous road conditions contributed to the crash

Cases involving these additional defendants are often substantially more complex than single-defendant claims, but they can also dramatically expand the resources available to compensate the victim. The firm investigates every case with this breadth in mind.

Fault in a Connecticut car accident is determined by the same negligence principles that govern most personal injury cases. A plaintiff must establish that the defendant owed a duty to drive with reasonable care, that the defendant breached that duty, that the breach caused the crash, and that the plaintiff suffered measurable harm as a result.

Evidence of fault typically includes police reports, witness statements, photographs and video, vehicle damage analysis, electronic data from the vehicles, traffic camera footage where available, and the testimony of accident reconstruction experts. Connecticut also recognizes the concept of negligence per se, under which violation of certain traffic laws (running a red light, speeding, failing to yield) can establish negligence as a matter of law.

Connecticut applies a modified comparative negligence rule. A plaintiff who is partially at fault for a crash may still recover, but only if the plaintiff's share of the fault is 50 percent or less. This is known as contributory negligence in Connecticut. If a plaintiff is found to be contributorily negligent, and the percentage of fault assigned to the plaintiff is 50 percent or less, then the recovery is reduced by the plaintiff's percentage of fault. A plaintiff found to be more than 50 percent at fault recovers nothing under Connecticut law. Because comparative fault is often contested in serious car accident cases, the lawyer's ability to investigate the facts and present them effectively can significantly affect the outcome.

Connecticut law allows victims of car accidents to recover both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages cover quantifiable financial losses: past and future medical expenses, the cost of long-term or lifetime care, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and property damage to the vehicle and its contents. Non-economic damages compensate for pain and suffering, emotional distress, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium for spouses and family members. In wrongful-death cases, damages may include the value of the decedent's lost earnings and the financial and emotional losses to surviving family members.

Connecticut also requires that every auto insurance policy include uninsured motorist (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage. This is some of the most important coverage a Connecticut driver owns, and many drivers do not realize how it works. When an at-fault driver has no insurance or insufficient insurance to cover the harm caused, the victim's own UM/UIM coverage can pay the difference, up to the policy limits. Pursuing a UM/UIM claim involves making a claim against your own insurance carrier, which often resists payment as aggressively as the at-fault driver's insurer would. Experienced representation matters as much in UM/UIM claims as it does in claims against at-fault drivers. How much you may be entitled to recover from your UM/UIM insurance depends on the specific terms of your insurance contract as well as the amount available, if any, from the at-fault driver.

Connecticut's statute of limitations for personal injury claims, including car accident claims, is two years from the date of the injury, under Connecticut General Statutes § 52-584. Different rules apply to certain categories of claim, including wrongful death (which has its own two-year limitations period, with additional outer limits), claims against government entities (which require notice within a much shorter window), and claims involving minors.

Because these deadlines are strict and because evidence is most useful when preserved early, victims of a serious car accident should contact a Connecticut car accident lawyer as soon as possible.