If I was ticketed for my wreck, can I still recover
If you received a ticket for your wreck, the likelihood is that you did something wrong. And if you did something wrong in Virginia, there is a theory called contributory negligence. If your negligence contributed in any way to the accident, then you are not entitled to recover at all.
What if I Was Ticketed Improperly?
There are times that people are ticketed improperly. The trooper or the officer should not have given you a ticket, but he did anyway. Situations like this get a little bit more complicated. I always tell people that if you are going to dispute whether you were liable in any way, shape or form for this accident, and you received a ticket, you need to hire a traffic attorney to go to court with you to defeat that traffic ticket. If you don’t do that, the likelihood of you recovering against an insurance company or a trial is minimal. If you just pay the ticket, it is presumed that you are guilty. If you show up and you plead guilty, then it is an admission of guilt and you should not do that. You should always hire a traffic attorney to go with you and dispute that traffic ticket. Once you do that and if you prevail, then it is time you need to focus on talking to a personal injury attorney to determine whether the standard for traffic tickets and personal injury cases lineup.
Dismissed Does Not Mean Not Negligent
Just because your traffic case was dismissed does not mean that you were not negligent in the creation of this accident. Those are two very different standards and only a personal injury attorney would know, or be able to advise you properly, that your negligence or what you were ticketed for is in fact a proximate cause of the accident and you do not have a case. You should hear that from a personal injury attorney.
My recommendation is if you get a ticket, first thing you do is go to a traffic attorney, defeat the ticket, and then go talk to a personal injury attorney to determine if you have a case.
