Wichita Car Accident Lawyers

Wichita Car Accident Lawyers: Experienced Legal Help for Your Injuries

If you’ve been involved in a car accident in Wichita, you may be feeling overwhelmed by the legal process, medical bills, and insurance claims. You don’t just need a lawyer — you need a legal team with extensive experience handling complex car wreck cases.

At Brian and Brian at Pistotnik Law, we specialize in representing individuals injured in car accidents. We understand Kansas No-Fault laws and have successfully helped clients recover compensation for:

• Medical bills (past and future)
• Lost wages (past and future)
• Pain and suffering
• Other economic and non-economic damages
  

We’ve helped countless clients achieve justice and secure the compensation they deserve. Contact us online or call (316) 689-8035 for a free consultation.

What You Need to Know About Car Wreck Claims

Car accidents in Kansas typically involve three distinct parts of the case:

• Property Damage: Repairing or replacing your vehicle.
• Personal Injury Protection (PIP): Benefits under Kansas No-Fault laws to cover bills, lost wages, occupational rehabilitation and essential services (paying for someone to assist with chores due to injuries).
• Bodily Injury Claims: A settlement to compensate for injuries, pain and suffering, medical bills, wage loss, and other damages caused by the wreck.

When the negligent driver has no insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance, there is a fourth part of the case, uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage.

Understanding the legal details of these cases is crucial for getting the full compensation you deserve.

Don’t Wait to File Your Claim: Statute of Limitations in Kansas

In Kansas, you only have two years from the accident date to file a claim for injuries, according to the Kansas Statutes section 60-513. Failing to file within this time could prevent you from receiving compensation. For uninsured motorist claims, there can be up to five years to pursue the claims.

If you’re unsure about whether you qualify for an extension or have questions about your case, contact a trustworthy car accident lawyer in Wichita immediately to discuss your options. We are here to guide you through the process every step of the way.

Understanding Comparative Fault in Kansas

Kansas follows a comparative fault system, which means your compensation can be reduced based on your percentage of fault in the accident. For example, if you were 20% at fault, your settlement may be reduced by that percentage.

This requires an analysis of who was at fault for the collision. Passengers typically have no fault. Drivers are required to follow the rules of the road. The “rules of the road” are laws that have existed under the common law, as well as laws contained in Kansas statutes. A violation of a statute is negligence per se.

The laws impose many duties upon drivers, including but not limited to the following:

• A duty to keep a proper lookout
• A duty to drive at an appropriate speed
• A duty to maintain control of your vehicle
• A duty to keep a safe and appropriate distance between your car and the vehicle you are following
• A duty to yield right of way under certain circumstances
• A duty to use reasonable care while driving

Obviously, there are laws preventing drunk drivers from driving while drunk and laws preventing negligent motorists from texting while driving. Sometimes these extraordinarily dangerous activities can result in punitive damages in addition to actual damages. 

Distracted driving leads to many collisions, and people get distracted for many reasons: 

• Using vehicle equipment like the radio or GPS while driving.
• Animals or children in vehicles 
• Use of cell phones
• Eating/drinking/smoking while driving

Damages You Can Recover in Car Accident Cases

“Damages” is a legal term used to describe the types of compensation injury victims are eligible to pursue in a personal injury case. Three types of damages are available: economic, non-economic, and punitive.

Together, economic and non-economic damages are known as “compensatory damages,” which are damages responsible for compensating the injured party for the losses they suffer. Compensatory damages are the most commonly talked about and awarded. Among other things, these damages compensate the injured party for:

• Loss of income
• Medical expenses
• Pain and suffering
• Pain and suffering, mental anguish, disability, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, inconvenience, loss of time, etc.

Punitive damages differ from the first two in that their primary purpose is to punish the at-fault party rather than compensate the injured party. Because of this, punitive damages are not often awarded in personal injury cases and are usually reserved for cases where the at-fault party knew they were behaving negligently. One problem of pursuing punitive damages is they are normally not covered by insurance.ntly.

Kansas No-Fault Insurance: What It Means for Your Case

Insurance companies like to confuse people about the meaning of living in a no-fault state like Kansas. Kansas is a no-fault state, meaning that your auto insurance provider is responsible for covering medical expenses and lost wages after an accident, regardless of who was at fault. However, there are limitations to this system.

No-Fault Does Not Mean No Case

In the U.S., there are 13 states that have no-fault insurance laws when it comes to car wrecks. Kansas is a no-fault state. These laws are intended to require a person’s auto insurer to provide essential benefits to anyone injured in a car wreck. These benefits are paid up front, instead of having to wait on a settlement or trial.

However, just because you may live in a no-fault state does not mean you don’t have a case against someone else when their negligence causes you to be injured. The no-fault laws are intended to stop people from having cases for non-economic losses like pain and suffering when their injuries are minimal.

In Kansas, this means if your medical bills are less than $2000 and you don’t have a fracture, scarring, or permanence to the injury, you cannot recover for pain and suffering. Most people who go to an emergency room or see a doctor more than a few times qualify as having a case against the negligent driver. You should discuss your situation with a personal injury attorney.

What Are No Fault Benefits?

Under Kansas law, you’re entitled to Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits through your insurance company. These benefits typically cover:

• $4,500 for medical expenses
• Up to $900/month for lost wages (85% of pre-tax wages)
• $4,500 for occupational therapy and 365 days of essential services up to $25/day (if needed)

The benefits under Kansas laws are known as Personal Injury Protection Benefits, but when talking to the insurance companies, these benefits are commonly known as PIP benefits and are handled by a “PIP adjuster.” When you own a vehicle in Kansas, your personal auto insurer is required to provide these benefits to you if you are injured in a wreck or injured in any fashion while using your vehicle (like getting hurt while exiting your vehicle). 

The benefits include a minimum of $4500 that can be used to pay medical bills arising from the wreck. The benefits include wage loss coverage, with a minimum of $900 per month calculated at 85% of pre-tax wage loss. Other less-used benefits include an additional $4500 towards occupational therapy and essential services, where your insurance company reimburses up to $25/day if you are paying others to help with your chores due to the injury.

Which Insurance Company Provides These Benefits?

If you are a titled owner of a vehicle, the benefits come from your own insurance company, even if your car was not involved in the wreck. If you are not a titled owner, the benefits come from the vehicle you were riding in as a passenger. However, you may also be eligible for these benefits through any relative you resided with on the date of the accident through the relative’s auto insurer. 
If you don’t own a vehicle, if the vehicle you were in was uninsured, or if you don’t live with a relative, the State of Kansas has the Kansas Auto Assigned Claims Plan, which provides benefits through the state. If you were a pedestrian struck by a car, and you don’t own a car, the insurer of the vehicle that struck you would provide you with benefits.

Wrongful Death No Fault Benefits

The PIP benefits when someone dies related to a wreck include reimbursement of a minimum of $2000 towards funeral expenses and wage loss reimbursement known as survivors benefits, which pays the dependents a minimum of $900/month up to one year based on 85% of lost earnings of the deceased. If there are medical expenses, the $4500 of medical coverage is available. If the person survives for a time period prior to death, there are wage loss benefits.

When I Get a Settlement, Do I Have to Pay My Own Insurance Back for the PIP Benefits?

The normal injury case settlement requires these PIP benefits to be reimbursed to your insurance company when you are paid in full for your damages. However, your insurer has to pay their share of attorney fees. The reason for the right of reimbursement is that if you collected medical bills and wage loss from your own insurer and then collected again for these same damages from the negligent person’s insurer, you would get a double recovery, and the law doesn’t favor a person getting paid twice for the same damages.

The PIP subrogation lien (right of reimbursement) can be waived, and you don’t have to pay them back if your damages are higher than what you are getting from the negligent person’s insurer. In other words, if you get a policy limits offer and your damages are more than the coverage, it is common not to have to pay back your own insurer.  The PIP lien also gets reduced by your own fault.

Why Hire a Wichita Car Accident Lawyer?

Hiring an experienced car accident lawyer is crucial to ensuring you get the maximum compensation for your injuries. Insurance companies may try to settle your claim quickly, and for less than you deserve, but with the right legal representation, you can fight for a fair settlement.

Here’s why you need a skilled Wichita car accident lawyer:

• Free Consultation: There’s no risk to you.
• Experience and Knowledge: We understand Kansas No-Fault laws and how they affect your case.
• Aggressive Representation: We are ready to fight for your rights and don’t back down from insurers.

Types of Vehicle Accident Cases We Handle

• Car wrecks
• Truck wrecks
• Semi-truck wrecks
• Motorcycle wrecks
• Bicycle wrecks
• Pedestrian versus vehicle wrecks