Overview of the Stewart J. Guss Firm

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Tomball, Texas Car Accident Statistics

More than 35,000 people died in traffic accidents in the United States during 2015, up from nearly 33,000 in 2014. This was a 7.2 percent increase in fatalities, the largest increase since an 8.1 percent increase from 1965 to 1966. The Department of Transportation estimated that traffic accidents injured nearly 2.5 million persons in 2015. Almost all segments of the road-traveling public saw increases in fatalities, including passenger vehicle occupants, passengers of large trucks, pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists, men and women, daytime drivers and nighttime drivers. One of the only groups to not see an increase in fatalities was drivers of large commercial trucks. The DOT’s estimated number of police-reported crashes rose from six-million to 6.3 million, an increase of 3.8 percent from 2014. A traffic accident can take place anytime, on any road. You don’t have to drive on Tomball Parkway—accidents strike everywhere. Whether you’re driving on a major route like South Cherry Street or a side road like South Pine Street, accidents are always possible. If a traffic accident injured you in the Houston area, consult with a Houston personal injury lawyer as quickly as possible to explore your options. For a free case evaluation to see if Texas law might entitle you to compensation for your injuries, contact the lawyers of Trust Guss Injury Lawyers or send us an email through our online contact form.

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Traffic Accidents Can Strike Anyone

Think a traffic accident can’t happen to you? Think again:

  • Passenger car and light-truck occupant fatalities in 2015 hit their highest level since 2009.
  • SUV occupant fatalities in 2015 rose by 10.1 percent from 2014.
  • Van occupant fatalities increased by 9.3-percent.
  • Passenger car occupant fatalities rose by 5.7-percent.
  • Pickup truck occupant fatalities rose by 4.7-percent.
  • Motorcyclist fatalities increased by 8.3 percent.

It isn’t just that raw numbers increased. While vehicle miles traveled rose 3.5 percent from 2014, the largest increase since 1992, the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles increased to 1.12 from 1.08 in 2014.

The Roads Aren’t Getting Safer, and Tomball Is No Exception

While 2015 is the last year for which full statistics are available, the statistics don’t look better for 2016. On October 6, 2017, the Department of Transportation announced that 2016 brought more than 37,000 traffic fatalities, a 5.6 percent increase from 2015. Miles traveled increased by 2.2 percent, but that still yielded a fatality rate of 1.18 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, up 2.6 percent from 2015. Deaths related to speeding, drunk driving, and not using seat belts all rose, and motorcyclist and pedestrian deaths accounted for a large portion of the increase from 2015. Houston is not immune. A recent study by the Houston-Galveston Area Council found that traffic accidents in the area rose 62 percent from 2011 to 2016. The accident rate per 100 million vehicle miles driven also rose, up almost 39 percent. You might consider Tomball a fairly safe area as far as traffic accidents go, but everyone has seen or heard about accidents on Tomball Parkway or Huffsmith-Kohrville Road, or even fender-benders after a movie at Main Street Crossing. Whether you head to Lone Star College or just to Goodsons for a bite to eat, every trip carries some risk. And you know how hectic the roads can get during the Tomball German Heritage Festival. Houston and its suburbs are infamous for traffic. Heavy traffic comes with accidents.

The Roads Aren’t Getting Safer, and Tomball Is No Exception

While 2015 is the last year for which full statistics are available, the statistics don’t look better for 2016. On October 6, 2017, the Department of Transportation announced that 2016 brought more than 37,000 traffic fatalities, a 5.6 percent increase from 2015. Miles traveled increased by 2.2 percent, but that still yielded a fatality rate of 1.18 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, up 2.6 percent from 2015. Deaths related to speeding, drunk driving, and not using seat belts all rose, and motorcyclist and pedestrian deaths accounted for a large portion of the increase from 2015. Houston is not immune. A recent study by the Houston-Galveston Area Council found that traffic accidents in the area rose 62 percent from 2011 to 2016.

The accident rate per 100 million vehicle miles driven also rose, up almost 39 percent. You might consider Tomball a fairly safe area as far as traffic accidents go, but everyone has seen or heard about accidents on Tomball Parkway or Huffsmith-Kohrville Road, or even fender-benders after a movie at Main Street Crossing. Whether you head to Lone Star College or just to Goodsons for a bite to eat, every trip carries some risk. And you know how hectic the roads can get during the Tomball German Heritage Festival. Houston and its suburbs are infamous for traffic. Heavy traffic comes with accidents.

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Steps You Can Take to Avoid Accidents

You can’t eliminate the risk of accidents, but you can reduce it. And there is good reason for wanting to do so. According to the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration, someone dies every 12 minutes in a traffic accident. Someone suffers an injury every 10 seconds, and every five seconds another traffic accident takes place. Interestingly, different driving safety experts have slightly different takes on how to avoid traffic accidents, each based on an editorial perspective. Nonetheless, the different viewpoints seem equally valid. For example, EHS Today advises:

  • Pull into traffic slowly, paying attention to other drivers’ blind spots and objects that might obstruct other drivers’ vision, including highway road signs.
  • Look both ways at least twice before you go when turning right at intersections.
  • At traffic signals, beware of red light runners. Make sure no one is running the red or pushing through the last milliseconds of a yellow light before you proceed into the intersection.
  • Take care when passing commercial trucks, which have large blind spots on their right-hand sides and behind them.
  • Always keep at least one hand on the steering wheel, and try to avoid distractions, including changing radio stations, tapes, or CDs; using a cell phone; eating; or taking both hands off the wheel.
  • Watch for children, pedestrians, and animals.
  • Maintain your vehicle, including the engine and safety equipment, such as brakes and brake lights, and position lights and headlights. Keep your tires properly inflated.
  • Be vigilant when backing up. Don’t rely on mirrors—turn and look to make sure you hit nobody or nothing.
  • Maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you.
  • Behave courteously to other drivers and don’t do anything that might spark road rage in another driver.

Obviously, nothing can prevent all accidents, but you can reduce your risk of traffic accidents, which, really, is all you can do. Driving requires constant attention and vigilance. Maintaining that attitude might offer the best step you can take to avoid traffic accidents. Whether you merge into traffic on I-45 or drive 20 miles per hour on Main Street, vigilance is your best defense. Automobile accidents clearly remain a serious risk. While federal statistics deal primarily with fatalities, far more injuries obviously take place in traffic accidents than fatalities. If an automobile accident injures you, explore your rights to compensation. When you suffer an injury in an accident, for most people the first thought is not to sue someone. The focus stays on medical treatment and recovery, maybe getting back to work, and other practical, immediate concerns. However, practical concerns can and should include whether your injuries entitle you to compensation. While you might consider simply negotiating with the responsible party’s insurance company yourself, that insurance company might not want to play ball and admit responsibility. The People’s Law Library of Maryland contends that personal injury accidents do not lend themselves to self-representation. The complex circumstances surrounding personal injuries from accidents tend to require investigative and legal experiences most people simply don’t possess. Different aspects of the law can apply to the many different types of personal injury cases. Different types of accidents involve different standards and determinations of negligence. Automobile negligence, products liability, premises liability, medical malpractice, and other situations that result in personal injuries may involve different standards of what constitutes negligence. Proving a case may require knowledge of medicine, building codes, physics, engineering, or other fields of expertise. An attorney experienced in a particular type of accidental injury will bring knowledge of the kind of proof and expert testimony needed to win the case, and know how to provide such proof.

Questions to Ask Your Lawyer

If a traffic accident injured you, find the best lawyer you can. But how do you do that? The first thing you should look for is someone who knows how to handle an automobile injury case. Most people don’t suffer through many traffic accidents that involve substantial damage claims. When you do, though, it pays to hire someone who knows how to evaluate the true value of your claim and with experience in car accident injury negotiations. To that end, ask prospective attorneys these questions:

  • How long have you practiced personal injury law?
  • Do you frequently handle cases involving traffic accidents like mine?
  • What traffic-accident injuries do you have experience handling?
  • What are your professional credentials? Where did you go to law school? What bar memberships, and professional awards, and recognition have you earned?
  • About how many traffic accident injury cases do you handle every year? How many settle, and how many go to trial?

Realistically, those are just the first questions you should ask. You should ask many others. You should also want to know whether your case is viable and whether another person’s negligence entitles you to damages. Once you establish your satisfaction with the attorney’s competence to handle your case, ask questions that will let you know how your attorney will handle your case. One important area for questions involves your attorney’s style of working with clients—will the lawyer simply tell you what to do, or give your options and let you decide? Neither approach is wrong, but many people prefer one over the other. Some want input into decisions. Others hired an attorney to serve as the expert. Consider which approach works best for you.

Other questions about case management could include:

  • Will you manage my case, or will another attorney in your firm handle things?
  • Who will make court appearances, and who will represent me at negotiations?
  • Who will serve as my day-to-day point of contact?
  • What other attorneys will work on my case?
  • Will my case require expert witnesses, and, if so, who are they and what will they do?
  • How often will you give me progress reports, and what information can I expect those reports to include?
  • How do I reach you and how quickly will you respond?

Ask About Your Case’s Strengths and Weaknesses

You need to know how good of a case you have. What are the likely outcomes? Ask for an honest assessment of your case’s strengths and weaknesses—what works against you and what works in your favor. Ask about your chances of a settlement, or whether your case might go to trial. If your case is likely to go to trial, ask about your chances and whether the case is worth pursuing. Find out whether mediation or arbitration are better options.

Finally, ask for a timeline and an estimate of how long your case might take to conclude. Having suffered damages, including medical expenses, you need to know how to manage your finances while awaiting a conclusion of your case. When litigation is possible, the estimate grows more difficult to provide, and your attorney might not offer a definite answer. Still, it doesn’t hurt to ask.

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What Will My Case Cost Me?

Finally, you need to address what your legal representation will cost. You need to know the basis of how your attorney will charge you, whether your case will cost you money up front and, if so, how much. Questions to ask include:

  • Will you charge me a contingency fee or an hourly rate? (A contingency fee is a percentage of whatever damages you recover. Obviously, you will want to know that percentage. Usually, a contingency case means you don’t have to pay lawyer’s fees if you don’t recover compensation.)
  • If you charge me an hourly rate, how much is that rate, and am I required to pay if I don’t recover compensation?
  • Will I have to pay a retainer fee?
  • Will I have to pay anything if you fail to obtain a settlement or win a judgment?
  • What expenses will I need to pay, and will I need to pay them even if I lose and receive no money?

In general, your insurance company will pay for your actual expenses, both medical and property damages, even if you are at fault for the accident (within your policy’s limits). The key to recovering compensation beyond that is whether the other party caused the injuries. Then, the law may entitle you to more. Asking the above questions can help you determine the possibility of those outcomes, and what it will cost you.

If a Traffic Accident Injured You in the Tomball Area, the Attorneys of Trust Guss Injury Lawyers, Can Help

If a traffic accident injured you in the Tomball area, consult with a Tomball personal injury lawyer as quickly as possible to explore your options. For a free case evaluation to see if Texas law might entitle you to compensation for your injuries, contact the lawyers of Trust Guss Injury Lawyers or send us an email through our online contact form. Remember, you pay nothing at the time we take your case, and you pay us nothing unless and until we’ve won financial recovery for your damages.

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Testimonials

They are not too pushy but provide you with the information to make an informed decision.

Heka

Guss, has a phenomenal Team and has hired great staff that is very caring! They are not too pushy but provide you with the information to make an informed decision. They are also really resourceful! Some of the staff have had real experiences that happened to them and were also taken great care of which prompted them to begin working for such a great law firm. Thank you Guss and Associates.

Stewart J. Guss and his team did an outstanding job handling my case.

James

From start to finish, they were professional, attentive, and incredibly effective. I was thrilled with the results – they secured a settlement that was twice what I expected! Their expertise and dedication truly set them apart. I highly recommend Stewart J. Guss for anyone in need of top-notch legal representation.

Mr. Stewart Guss is such a kind and caring attorney.

Ben

Mr. Stewart Guss is such a kind and caring attorney. In a world of attorneys that is very difficult to maneuver these days he stands out from the crowd not only for his expertise but for his integrity. Should you need a personal injury attorney to help you with a case do not hesitate; Run and get his help. You won’t regret it!!

I had the best experience with this firm. I have never gotten in an accident, so I didn’t know the process or what to expect at all.

Sabrina

I worked with Whitney and Kristen and they explained everything thoroughly from start to finish. They were always prompt in responding to any questions or concerns I had, and always kept me updated. My sister had also used them and I didn’t even know, but they said they liked working with them so that put me at ease. They honestly made a really great impression on me. And I would definite...

I recommend Mr. Guss to anyone who seeks hard-working staff.

Amanda

The law office of Stewart J Guss has very friendly staff, and is always accurate and reliable.  They got me what I deserved and was fast and on point with the whole case. They keep you up-to-date with your case and return any calls you place to them in a timely manner.  They answer your questions and concerns appropriately for all parties involved.  I recommend Mr. Guss to anyone...

I made the right decision to choose Stewart J Guss law firm.

Khanh

I made the right decision to choose Stewart J Guss law firm. Especially thanks to Ms Andrea Yoss and Whitzney. They were professional and communicative. Though it took time longer than expected but it was finally settled well. I highly recommended the law firm to anyone whom need help with auto accident cases!

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