A car accident can change your life in seconds. You’re left with medical bills, a wrecked car, and an insurance company that wants to pay you as little as possible. A car accident lawyer in Pine Hills can deal with the insurer for you. That frees you up to focus on healing.
Van Sant Law has done this for Georgia drivers for many years. We’ve recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for people hurt by someone else’s carelessness. We work on contingency, so you pay us nothing unless we win money for you.
If another driver caused your crash, Make the Right Call and contact our Pine Hills personal injury lawyers today for a free consultation.
Common Causes of Car Accidents in Pine Hills
Pine Hills is a quiet, mostly residential area in northeast Atlanta. It sits on the Buckhead-Brookhaven border, right along the Fulton and DeKalb county line.
The problem is the roads around it. Busy streets like Buford Highway, Lenox Road, East Paces Ferry Road, and East Roxboro Road carry heavy traffic all day. State and city crash data flag these corridors again and again. A few causes show up over and over:
- Distracted driving, like texting or checking a GPS
- Running red lights and stop signs
- Following too closely, which leads to rear-end crashes
- Unsafe lane changes on busy roads like Buford Highway
- Drunk or drugged driving, especially at night and on weekends
Figuring out what caused your crash is important. It’s the base your whole case is built on. It’s one of the first things we look into.
Types of Pine Hills Car Accident Lawyers
Every crash is different. The details of yours affect both your strategy and how much you can recover. Our Pine Hills car accident lawyers handle claims including:
- Pine Hills drunk driving accident lawyer: We help victims hurt by impaired drivers.
- Pine Hills hit and run accident lawyer: We investigate hit-and-run crashes and look for ways to recover money.
- Pine Hills fatal car accident lawyer: We help families seek justice after a deadly crash.
- Pine Hills distracted driving accident lawyer: We build claims against drivers who weren’t paying attention.
- Pine Hills texting while driving accident lawyer: We pursue claims when phone use causes a crash.
- Pine Hills rear-end accident lawyer: We help drivers and passengers hurt in rear-end crashes.
- Pine Hills head-on collision lawyer: We represent victims of serious head-on crashes.
- Pine Hills intersection accident lawyer: We handle crashes caused by drivers who ignore signals or fail to yield.
- Pine Hills highway accident lawyer: We handle crashes on Buford Highway, I-85, and other nearby highways and major roads.
- Pine Hills T-bone accident lawyer: We help victims of side-impact crashes.
- Pine Hills aggressive driving accident lawyer: We represent people hurt by speeding, tailgating, and road rage.
- Pine Hills multi-car accident lawyer: We sort out who’s responsible in crashes with several vehicles.
- Pine Hills rollover car accident lawyer: We help victims hurt when a vehicle flips over.
Don’t see your type of crash here? Reach out anyway. We’ll give you a straight answer about your options.
What We Do in the First 72 Hours
As founding attorney David M. Van Sant puts it: “When someone else’s negligence causes a crash here, we move fast to lock down the evidence. That early work often decides how the whole case turns out.” Here’s what we do in the first 72 hours:
- Investigate the scene while skid marks and debris are still there
- Preserve the black box data before your car gets repaired or scrapped
- Interview witnesses while the crash is fresh in their minds
- Send a hold letter to the other driver’s insurer, so they can’t lose or toss key evidence
The sooner we start, the harder it is for the other side to twist what happened.
How Georgia’s Fault Rules Affect Your Claim
Georgia is an at-fault state. That means the driver who caused your crash, and their insurer, have to pay for your losses. But insurers rarely pay up without a fight. Georgia also uses a rule called modified comparative negligence. In plain terms, any blame placed on you lowers what you get. And if you’re 50% or more at fault, you get nothing.
What if the other driver had no insurance, or not enough? Your own uninsured motorist coverage (O.C.G.A. § 33-7-11) may step in to cover the gap. And if an insurer treats you unfairly, that can cost them. Georgia’s bad faith law (O.C.G.A. § 33-4-6) can add penalties when an insurer denies a valid claim or drags its feet for no good reason.
There’s one more thing many people don’t expect: medical liens. If your health insurer or a hospital paid for your care, they may want to be paid back out of your settlement. We find these liens early and work to lower them, so you keep more of your money.
What a Serious Crash Can Cost You
A crash costs you in more ways than one. Georgia law lets you recover for both. First are economic damages. These are the costs you can add up, such as:
- Medical bills
- Future care you’ll still need
- Lost wages
- A lower ability to earn money going forward
- Repairs to your vehicle
Serious injuries can mean treatment at hospitals like Grady Memorial Hospital, a Level I trauma center, or Emory University Hospital. Those bills can pile up long after the crash. Future costs like these belong in your claim too.
Then there are non-economic damages. These cover losses with no price tag, like pain and suffering, emotional distress, and losing the activities you used to enjoy.
Insurers fight these hardest, because there’s no bill to point to. That’s exactly why it helps to have a Pine Hills car accident lawyer prove what your experience is really worth.
Don’t Wait Too Long to Act
In Georgia, you usually have two years from the crash date to file a lawsuit (O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33). Miss that deadline, and you typically lose your right to recover anything, no matter how strong your case was.
Where you file also matters. Pine Hills straddles the Fulton and DeKalb County line, so your case may belong in Fulton County State Court or DeKalb County State Court, depending on exactly where your crash happened. In DeKalb County State Court, for example, a case is opened by filing a complaint with the clerk and receiving a stamped civil action case number formatted by year, such as 26A12345-2.
The timeline is much shorter if a government vehicle was involved. In that situation, you first have to file an ante litem notice (O.C.G.A. § 50-21-26), often within just a few months of the crash.
You should also request your official accident report, the SR-13, from the Atlanta Police Department or DeKalb County Police Department, whichever responded to your crash. It documents the officer’s findings and often becomes a starting point for building your claim.
The sooner you call a car accident attorney in Pine Hills, the more time we have to preserve evidence and protect your case.
Speak With a Pine Hills Car Accident Lawyer
A crash can upend your life in seconds. But you don’t have to face the aftermath alone.
The car accident lawyers at Van Sant Law will handle the insurance calls, build your claim, and fight for everything you’re owed. You pay nothing unless we win.
We never settle a case unless the client is happy with the result; that is the Van Sant Law client satisfaction guarantee. Reach out today to get started.
