Saturday, February 14, 2015

Act Quickly After Your New Mexico Car Accident

By Mark J. Caruso, Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Attorney


I must stress again the importance of acting quickly after your car or truck accident claim.  If there is any question as to the fault for the accident, you need to get evidence quickly to prove that you are not at fault.
After 32 years of handling personal injury and wrongful death claims, I have seen evidence disappear on many occasions.  It's usually a defendant who does whatever they can do to keep from paying money.  Oftentimes it is an insurance company and trucking company.


I was recently hired to represent a very nice family whose husband and father was killed in an crash with a tractor-trailer.  The family hired me two weeks after the crash to represent them on a wrongful death claim against the trucking company and its driver. I immediately notified the tractor-trailer company and its attorney that the evidence on the tractor-trailer should be secured for inspection by my trucking experts. The company moved the vehicle and most all of the evidence lost just 3 days after the crash, when they moved the tractor-trailer over 150 miles away.


Spoliation of evidence is the legal term for altering or destroying physical evidence that can be used at trial.  Claims adjusters often alter or destroy evidence to favor their client. To do so is wrong and in violation of New Mexico law.


Unfortunately, the only way to beat the spoliation of evidence by claims adjusters is to quickly hire an attorney who can quickly write a letter to the adjuster demanding that the evidence be preserved.  In the case above, even though the family hired our firm two weeks after the crash and my letter was on the attorney's desk two weeks after the crash, the evidence was gone.
That's why you need to hire a personal injury or wrongful death attorney quickly after your car or truck accident claim. It's important to hire an attorney who only handles these types of claims--day in and day out.  The attorney will know what kind of evidence needs to be safeguarded and how to safeguard it quickly.
Mark Caruso has been named one of the 10 top personal injury and wrongful death attorneys in the state of New Mexico. I have trained our staff and experts to handle this evidence safely and quickly. My attitude is to cross every "t"  and dot every "i" now, because you won't be able to do it later on.  What that means is that you need to take every action immediately because it may be too late later.


I encourage you to immediately contact me or one of the attorneys at Caruso Law Offices if you have any question as to the fault in the collision.  We have an excellent group of experts that we can send to the evidence as soon as we are hired to gather the evidence to use to show that you are not at fault for the collision.


Please feel free to contact us for a free consultation at 505-883-5000 to discuss your personal injury or wrongful death claim with one of our award winning attorneys.


We have two locations in Albuquerque to serve you--Montgomery and Carlisle (Main Office) and Coors and Interstate 40 (Satellite Office).  We travel the throughout the state and represent clients in almost every county and pueblo.  We can meet you after hours and on Saturday and Sunday, and we do home, hospital and work visits.


Please see our main web site at www.carusolaw.com if you have other questions about our firm.


We look forward to hearing from you.