Car accidents can be life-altering events, leaving victims to deal with physical injuries, emotional trauma, and financial hardships. In the aftermath of a car accident, victims often find themselves overwhelmed by medical bills, vehicle repair costs, and the challenges of dealing with insurance companies. The stress of recovery, combined with the legal complexities, can make the situation even more daunting.
That’s where Chaz Roberts Law steps in. Our experienced Lafayette car accident lawyers are committed to guiding you through this difficult time, providing the legal support you need to pursue fair compensation for your losses. We understand the nuances of Louisiana car accident laws and use our knowledge to build a strong case on your behalf.
If you or a loved one has been involved in a car accident in Lafayette, you need an experienced legal team on your side to fight to pursue the compensation available under Louisiana law. At Chaz Roberts Law, we are dedicated to representing car accident victims with compassion and tenacity, ensuring that your rights are protected every step of the way.
Why Choose Chaz Roberts Law for Your Car Accident Case
After a crash, you may be facing pain, missed work, vehicle damage, and calls from insurance adjusters. Chaz Roberts Law helps injured people throughout Lafayette and Acadiana understand their options and pursue the compensation available under Louisiana law.
Our team can investigate how the collision happened, identify potential sources of insurance coverage, gather medical and crash-related evidence, and handle communications with insurers. Whether your crash involved a distracted driver, a dangerous intersection, an uninsured motorist, or disputed fault, we build each claim around the facts and the impact the injuries have had on your life.
A Lafayette car accident attorney at Chaz Roberts Law can take on the legal work while you focus on treatment and recovery. Call (337) 504-3202 for a free, confidential consultation.
Common Causes of Car Accidents in Louisiana
Car accidents can happen in an instant, but the consequences can last a lifetime. Understanding the common causes of these accidents can help in determining fault and liability.
Some of the most frequent causes of car accidents in Louisiana include:
- Distracted Driving: Distracted driving is a common cause of serious collisions and may include texting, eating, adjusting controls, or other activities that take a driver’s attention from the road.
- Speeding: Driving above the speed limit or too fast for road conditions significantly increases the risk of an accident. Speeding reduces a driver’s ability to react to sudden changes, such as a car stopping ahead or a pedestrian crossing the street.
- Driving Under the Influence: Alcohol and drugs impair a driver’s judgment, coordination, and reaction time, making them more likely to cause an accident. Driving while impaired can significantly increase the risk of a serious crash.
- Reckless Driving: Aggressive driving behaviors, such as tailgating, changing lanes without signaling, or running red lights, contribute to many accidents. Reckless drivers endanger not only themselves but everyone else on the road.
- Poor Road Conditions: Potholes, poorly maintained roads, and inadequate signage can contribute to accidents. While these factors might seem out of your control, understanding them can be important in determining liability.
Types of Car Accidents We Handle
Car accidents happen frequently in Louisiana due to the variety of roadways and traffic conditions drivers encounter daily. From busy city streets to rural highways and interstate freeways, each presents unique challenges that can lead to different types of collisions. Weather conditions, road maintenance, and driver behavior also contribute to the common nature of these accidents.
Some of the most common types of car accidents in Louisiana include:
- Rear-end collisions
- Side-impact or T-bone accidents
- Head-on collisions
- Rollovers
- Single-vehicle accidents (e.g., hitting a tree or guardrail)
- Multi-vehicle pileups
- Hit and run accidents
- Rideshare accidents
Injuries Our Clients Face After a Crash in Lafayette
Car accidents can cause a wide range of injuries that vary greatly in severity, leaving many victims facing significant physical and emotional challenges. Common injuries sustained in car accidents include:
- Whiplash and other neck injuries
- Back and spinal cord injuries
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBI)
- Broken bones and fractures
- Internal organ damage
- Cuts, bruises, and lacerations
- Psychological trauma, such as PTSD
- Wrongful death
The nature and severity of your injuries can affect the damages available in a claim. Medical needs, time away from work, permanent limitations, and the overall impact on daily life may all be relevant.
Dangerous Roads and Intersections Across Acadiana
Busy intersections, multilane corridors, highway interchanges, and rapidly developing areas can create conditions where drivers have less time to react. Heavy traffic, sudden stops, confusing lane patterns, left turns, red-light violations, and distracted driving can all increase the risk of a serious crash.
Drivers may encounter heavy traffic and complex turning movements at intersections throughout Lafayette, including:
- Ambassador Caffery Parkway and Johnston Street
- Johnston Street and East Broussard Road
- Ambassador Caffery Parkway and Kaliste Saloom Road
- West Pinhook Road and Kaliste Saloom Road
- West Congress Street and Bertrand Drive
Conditions can change over time, and every crash requires a fact-specific investigation.
A crash at one of these locations does not automatically establish fault. However, evidence such as traffic-camera footage, witness statements, vehicle damage, police reports, cell phone records, road design, and traffic-signal timing may help explain what happened. Chaz Roberts Law can investigate the circumstances of your collision and pursue the responsible parties.
What to Do After a Car Accident in Lafayette
The steps you take after a crash can protect your health and preserve important evidence for an insurance claim or lawsuit.
- Call 911. Report the collision and request emergency assistance when needed. A responding officer may prepare a crash report that documents initial observations and involved parties.
- Get medical care promptly. Some injuries, including concussions, soft-tissue injuries, and internal injuries, may not be immediately obvious. Follow up with a medical provider even if you initially believe your injuries are minor.
- Move to safety if possible. If your vehicle can be moved safely, get out of active traffic and use hazard lights. Do not remain in a travel lane unless moving would create another danger.
- Document the scene. Take photographs and videos of the vehicles, damage, road conditions, skid marks, traffic signs, signals, and visible injuries. Save any dashcam footage.
- Exchange information. Obtain the other driver’s name, contact information, insurance details, license plate number, and vehicle description. Ask witnesses for their names and contact information.
- Avoid admitting fault. Do not guess about what happened, apologize in a way that could be misunderstood, or accept blame before the facts are fully investigated.
- Be careful with insurance communications. You can report the crash to your insurer, but consider speaking with a Lafayette auto accident lawyer before providing a recorded statement, signing a broad medical authorization, or accepting a settlement offer.
Louisiana Car Accident Laws
Louisiana is generally a fault-based state. That means an injured person typically seeks compensation from the driver, business, government entity, manufacturer, or other party whose negligence caused the crash. The specific facts, available insurance coverage, and applicable statutes can affect the path a claim takes.
Modified Comparative Fault and the 51% Bar
For crashes occurring on or after January 1, 2026, Louisiana follows a modified comparative-fault system. If you are found to be less than 51% responsible for the collision, your recoverable damages may be reduced by your percentage of fault. If you are found to be 51% or more at fault, you generally cannot recover damages from another at-fault party.
For example, if your damages total $100,000 and you are found 20% at fault, the amount you may recover could be reduced to $80,000. For crashes that occurred before January 1, 2026, different comparative-fault rules may apply.
The Deadline to File a Car Accident Claim
Most Louisiana personal injury claims arising from a car accident have a two-year filing deadline, generally measured from the date of the crash. Certain circumstances can change the deadline, including claims involving a government entity, wrongful death, a minor, or a party whose identity is initially unknown.
Do not assume you have plenty of time. Evidence can disappear quickly, including surveillance footage, vehicle data, witness recollections, and physical evidence at the scene. Contact Chaz Roberts Law at (337) 504-3202 to discuss the deadline that may apply to your case.
Louisiana's Direct Action Statute
Louisiana’s Direct Action Statute may allow an injured person to bring a claim directly against the at-fault party’s liability insurer in qualifying circumstances. The statute does not eliminate the need to prove fault, causation, and damages, but it can affect who may be named in a lawsuit and how a case proceeds.
Insurance coverage questions can be complicated, particularly when a crash involves commercial vehicles, rideshare drivers, multiple policies, uninsured drivers, or a driver acting within the scope of employment. A Lafayette car wreck attorney can review the available policies and identify possible sources of compensation.
Texting and Distracted Driving Law
Louisiana law restricts the use of wireless telecommunications devices while operating a motor vehicle, subject to defined exceptions. The law may prohibit conduct such as texting, emailing, browsing, using social media, and holding or manually using a device while driving. It also includes exceptions for certain hands-free uses, emergency communications, and situations in which a vehicle is lawfully stationary.
The penalties depend on where the violation occurs:
- In a school zone or highway construction zone, a device-use violation is a primary offense and carries a $250 fine, subject to possible reduction by the court with community service.
- Elsewhere, the violation is generally a secondary offense, meaning an officer must first lawfully stop the driver for another alleged violation. The fine is $100, with a possible court reduction and community service.
- If a wireless-device violation occurs at the time of a crash, the applicable fine may be doubled, and the investigating officer is required to indicate the device use on the written crash report.
Evidence that a driver was using a phone may be relevant to proving negligence, but each case requires a fact-specific investigation. Chaz Roberts Law can pursue available evidence, including crash reports, witness accounts, video footage, and, where appropriate, phone-use records.
Who Can Be Held Liable for Your Crash
The driver who caused the collision is often the primary liable party, but other individuals or entities may also share responsibility. Depending on the circumstances, a car accident claim may involve:
- A distracted, speeding, intoxicated, aggressive, or otherwise negligent driver
- The owner of the vehicle, when separate from the driver
- An employer, when a driver caused the crash while working
- A trucking company, delivery company, rideshare company, or other business
- A manufacturer of a defective vehicle part, tire, airbag, or safety system
- A repair shop or maintenance provider
- A government entity or contractor, where roadway design, maintenance, signage, or traffic-control issues may have contributed to the crash
- A bar, restaurant, or other party whose conduct may create liability under applicable Louisiana law
Establishing liability may require a detailed review of the police report, video evidence, vehicle data, witness statements, maintenance records, employment records, and insurance policies.
Compensation Available in a Car Accident Claim
Victims of car accidents may be entitled to various types of compensation, depending on the specifics of their case. The damages you can recover may include:
- Past and future medical expenses
- Rehabilitation, physical therapy, home health care, and assistive devices
- Lost income and diminished earning capacity
- Vehicle repair or replacement costs and other property damage
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life
- Scarring, disfigurement, and permanent impairment
- Wrongful death damages when a loved one is fatally injured
The value of a claim depends on the severity of the injuries, the available evidence, the extent of insurance coverage, the impact on work and daily life, and the degree of fault assigned to each party. Chaz Roberts Law can assess the full scope of your losses rather than relying on an insurer’s initial offer.
Punitive Damages in Impaired Driving Cases
Louisiana law may allow exemplary or punitive damages in limited impaired-driving cases. To recover these damages, an injured person generally must establish that the defendant’s intoxication while operating a motor vehicle was a cause-in-fact of the injuries and that the defendant acted with wanton or reckless disregard for the rights and safety of others. These damages are separate from compensation for medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and other losses.corporate.
Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Claims
If the at-fault driver has no insurance or insufficient liability coverage, your own uninsured (UM) or underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage may provide another path to recovery. UM/UIM coverage can be especially important after a serious collision because minimum liability coverage may not fully cover extensive medical care, lost income, and long-term needs.
Insurance companies may still dispute fault, the seriousness of injuries, or the value of the claim, even when you are seeking benefits under your own policy. A Lafayette auto accident lawyer can review your policy and help you evaluate available coverage.
Contact Our Lafayette Car Accident Lawyers Today
If you’ve been injured in a car accident, don’t wait to seek legal help. The experienced attorneys at Chaz Roberts Law are here to fight for the compensation you deserve. Contact us today at (337) 504-3202 for a free consultation. We can review your options, handle insurer communications, and explain the next steps.
Car Accident FAQs
How long do I have to file a claim after a car accident in Lafayette?
In many cases, Louisiana law gives injured people two years from the date of a crash to file a personal injury lawsuit. However, exceptions may apply, and insurance policies can require much earlier notice. Speaking with an attorney promptly can help preserve evidence and clarify the deadline that applies to your case.
Should I release medical records to the other driver's insurance adjuster?
You should be cautious before signing a broad medical-record authorization requested by the other driver’s insurance company. Insurers may seek records beyond those related to the crash and may use prior medical information to dispute causation or reduce the value of a claim. Consider speaking with an attorney before signing releases or providing a recorded statement.
How much will a Lafayette car accident attorney cost?
Chaz Roberts Law handles personal injury matters on a contingency-fee basis. This generally means attorney’s fees are paid from a recovery rather than paid upfront. The specific fee arrangement, litigation costs, and expenses should be explained during your consultation and confirmed in the representation agreement.
