Car accidents are serious enough when they involve two vehicles.  They are even worse for pedestrians.  With no car or airbags around you, your injuries can be quite severe, even in low-speed crashes.

Work with our lawyers today to get help after a pedestrian accident.  When a car hits you, it can cause serious damage – and when you hit the ground, you can suffer even worse injuries.  Always get immediate medical care, document the accident scene, and then call a lawyer for help.

For help after a pedestrian accident, contact Mitchell Rogers Injury Law’s pedestrian accident lawyers today at (702) 702-2622.

What Does Insurance Cover in a Pedestrian Accident?

A pedestrian accident is still a car accident, and car accidents are usually covered by insurance.  Filing through insurance is one way to potentially get damages covered, but it might not be as helpful as you would hope.

Can You Use Your Insurance if You Have It?

If you do have car insurance, but you were hit while you were a pedestrian, you might wonder if you can tap into your car insurance to help you.  Generally, car insurance only covers you when you were driving, so it would not help when you were on foot.

Instead, you will have to go after the other driver’s insurance.

The At-Fault Driver’s Insurance

Every driver in Nevada is required to carry insurance to cover the injuries they cause others while driving.  This liability insurance has the following mandatory minimums:

• $25,000 for injuries per person
• $50,000 for injuries per accident
• $20,000 for property damage per accident.

Do They Have to Pay?

It is up to the insurance company to decide if its driver was at fault.  This often means they will deny coverage or offer low-dollar settlements, hoping you give up.  You may have to sue to recover full damages from a jury award if the insurance company refuses to pay.

How to File a Lawsuit for a Pedestrian Accident in Las Vegas

After the accident, take the following steps to gather evidence, file your case, and secure the damages you need.

Report the Accident

If you were hurt in a car accident, call 911 right away.  All accidents involving injuries must be reported to the police so they can investigate and create a record of the crash.

Get Medical Care

When you call 911, also request an ambulance.  They can screen you for more serious injuries and take you to the hospital if you need care.  If they release you, but you need additional care the next day, go to the hospital.

Urgent care clinics might not be equipped to treat you or bill car insurance, so they may deny care and send you to the hospital anyway.

Gather Evidence

Take photos and gather information at the scene of the accident.  Get the names, contact info, and insurance info of any divers involved, and get all witness contact info.

Also take notes about traffic signals, signs, weather, lighting, and other details about the accident.

Call a Lawyer

Work with our pedestrian accident lawyers as soon as you can after the accident.  We can represent you throughout the case, help collect evidence, track damages, and file claims.

Do not attempt to file insurance claims on your own.  In fact, do not even talk to the insurance companies without your lawyer.

Gather More Evidence

From there, there may be additional evidence your lawyers can gather for you.  For example, we can seek out police reports, security camera footage, and traffic cam footage that might have caught the accident (if available), and medical records.  We can also subpoena records in the defense’s possession, especially in commercial vehicle accidents.

Submit Complaint

We can then file insurance claims and submit a complaint to the court to start a lawsuit.

Negotiate Damages

After that, we can tell the insurance company what we expect them to pay and negotiate to get you those damages.  If they refuse to cover your accident in full, we can proceed to trial.

Go to Trial

The defense can still settle as the case progresses toward trial.  If they refuse to pay, we can put on a trial and prove their fault to seek the damages you need from a jury award.

Filing Pedestrian Accident Cases Against Shuttles, Buses, and Public Transit

Many of the vehicles in Las Vegas are not personal cars, but local buses, convenience shuttles for hotels, and even the Teslas inside the Vegas Loop.  If you are hit by one of these vehicles, the case may be a bit different.

RTC Bus

The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada (RTC) operates buses in Las Vegas and the surrounding areas.  If you were hit by an RTC bus, you could have a case against the individual driver.  However, you probably also have a case against the RTC, which can be complicated because they are part of the government, and that means cases come with additional rules.

Hotel or Casino Shuttles

If you were hit by a driver working for a casino or hotel, you might have a case against the hotel or casino.  As the driver’s employer, these companies are often responsible for what their workers do.

The casino/hotel might also own the vehicle, making them liable for dangerous vehicle maintenance.

Vegas Loop

The Vegas Loop is publicly operated by the Las Vegas Convention Center, and lawsuits against drivers may be filed against the driver and the LVCC.  Pedestrians are not supposed to be in the Loop itself, but they could be hit while waiting for vehicles or getting into their car.

The Loop goes at a low speed, so this might not involve serious injuries, but you can still seek compensation for mild and moderate injuries.

Filing Pedestrian Accident Claims Against Other Commercial Drivers

Other commercial vehicle drivers may be involved in accidents, allowing you to sue their employer if the following conditions are met:

• The driver is an employee, not a contractor.
• The crash happened within the scope of their work, not while they were off duty.
• The crash was the driver’s fault.

Truckers

Trucking companies are often liable for their driver’s crashes.  These companies can also be held directly accountable for dangerous vehicles, negligent hiring, and dangerous maintenance.

Delivery Drivers

Accidents with drivers working for restaurants, Amazon, UPS, FedEx, etc. may allow you to sue the delivery company.  However, many drivers are ostensibly hired as “independent contractors,” which makes it harder to sue their “employer.”

This is common with delivery drivers for food apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub.  However, companies can be sued when they exert close control over their workers rather than treating them like actual contractors.  This is often the case with FedEx, for example.

Uber/Lyft

Uber and Lyft similarly hires its drivers as contractors.  They refuse to acknowledge their drivers’ crashes as their fault in many cases, but this can sometimes be overcome.

Even so, both companies have extensive insurance coverage that may be able to pay for your damages if their driver crashed into you while they were on duty or actively had a rider in their car.

Damages Available in Pedestrian Accident Cases

The purpose of a lawsuit for a pedestrian accident is to pay you back for all the harm you suffered.  This means tracking the damages you suffered and claiming their total values against the defendant.

Medical Bills

If you were hit and needed immediate medical care, you could have internal bleeding, brain injuries, broken bones, etc.  These injuries are serious, and high-speed crashes could even be life-threatening.

This medical care is likely quite expensive – and even in minor and moderate injury cases can involve thousands of dollars worth of care you need reimbursed.

Lost Wages

If you were seriously injured, you may have had to miss weeks or months of work.  If you now have a disability from the crash, it might be impossible to return to work at full capacity or at all.  These future lost earnings may be a big part of your claim.

Property Damage

While you were not in a car and cannot claim vehicle damage, you may have faced other property damage from the crash.  The clothes you were wearing, a damaged phone or laptop you were bringing to a conference, and things you were carrying can all be claimed as damages.

Other Economic Damages

The aftermath of a crash may see you facing other expenses because of the accident, too.  This could include a rescheduled return flight home after recovering, childcare costs while you are hospitalized, and other expenses you can claim.

Pain and Suffering

Pain and suffering has no specific cost.  Instead, we base this claim on how serious your injuries were to compensate you for emotional distress, mental anguish, pain itself, and more.

There are two general ways of calculating pain and suffering:

• The multiplier method sets a multiplier based on how severe the injuries were, then multiplies that by the economic damages in your case.
• The per diem method sets a daily value for your pain and suffering and claims that amount for every day you face pain and suffering going forward.

FAQs for Pedestrian Accidents in Las Vegas

How Do You File a Pedestrian Accident Case in Vegas if You Live Out of State?

Perhaps your trip to Las Vegas was cut short when you got hit by a car.  If you returned home and are now looking to sue for your injuries, you usually need to file your case here in Las Vegas.

Our attorneys can help you file and handle the case remotely for much of it.  If the case does go to trial, you may have to return, though remote video appearances are more and more common.  If the case settles, we likely do not have to go to court.

What Evidence Do You Need for a Pedestrian Accident Case?

Pedestrian accident cases often involve the following evidence:

• Your testimony and testimony from other eyewitnesses
• Photos of the vehicle and accident scene
• Your medical records and doctors’ reports
• Financial records, including pay stubs
• Evidence of your pain and suffering, which usually consists of additional testimony from you, loved ones, and doctors/therapists.

When Do You Have to File Your Claim?

In Nevada, injury victims typically get 2 years to file their claims.  If you miss this deadline, you might have no ability to sue, so make sure to call a lawyer and file on time.

Who Decides Fault in a Pedestrian Accident Case?

The jury decides fault in a jury trial.  The judge is there for legal decisions, but the judge only decides the facts if you opt for a bench trial with no jury.

In an insurance claim, the insurance company is the one to decide fault.  They usually rule in their own favor, so this is a very biased determination and should not be trusted.

Can Pedestrians Be at Fault for a Pedestrian Accident?

There are rules dictating how drivers need to yield to pedestrians, but there are also rules saying when pedestrians should wait to cross a street.  If you violated these rules and ran into the street, you might be partially at fault.

Otherwise, it is hard to say the pedestrian did anything wrong, especially when the crash was in a marked crosswalk, you were hit while you had a proper signal, or you were hit on the sidewalk.

Do You Need a Lawyer?

Technically, the law permits you to file a lawsuit without an attorney.  However, you would not benefit from our decades of experience handling cases like yours, evaluating the value of injury claims, and negotiating with insurance companies for full payment.

The driver will likely have a lawyer provided by their insurance, so you should have a lawyer of your own.  Never trust them to have anything other than their bottom line in mind.

Can You Use a Lawyer from Back Home?

If you were hurt here in Vegas while you were on a trip, then you might want to use a lawyer from back home to file your case.  This is often impossible if that lawyer is not licensed to practice in Nevada.  Instead, use our local attorneys.

Call Our Pedestrian Accident Attorneys in Las Vegas Today

For a free case evaluation, call the pedestrian accident lawyers at Mitchell Rogers Injury Law at (702) 702-2622.