I'm Rahlita Thornton from the Thornton Esquire Law Group. Have you ever been a witness to an accident? I have. I was a witness to an accident many years ago. I saw what happened, and I was concerned for the person that got hit. I did stop, and I gave him my business card,
But I was thinking, I'm giving them this business card to call me as their attorney. I was actually giving them this business card in case they needed to have me as a witness, and I thought I'd be a good witness. I couldn't solicit and try to get that person as a client. So I made sure that they were safe and called the police and stayed with them.
And of course, like I said, I gave them my card and made sure to talk to the police and gave the officer my card as well. And I got a call months later about it. And I said, "Yeah, I'll be a witness."
The Case Went Smoother Because They Had A WitnessAnd I think that that person's case probably went a little bit smoother than normal because they had a witness instead of not having a witness, and I'm nice. I don't remember all the details about how it happened and who's at fault or whatever.
I just remember saying, I'm going to do the right thing and leave my information as a witness so that if anybody wants to change up their story or say they didn't do something, they could easily reach me. And so I think that it benefited that person to have a witness.
Don't Rely On "Somebody Else." Stop!And so I would just impress something upon you. I know that when accidents happen, we think, "Oh, somebody else is going to call the police or somebody else is going to stop," but sometimes they don't. And so I have clients that come in and say, "Oh, there were witnesses, but nobody stopped."
And so we're thinking that the next person is going to be responsible. The next person is going to stop, and they're going to talk to them, and everything will be all right, but that doesn't happen. Instead, a lot of times, people change up their stories even after it's on the police report.
People Change Up Their StoriesMonths later, they say, "Oh, no, that's not how it happened, X, Y, Z, X, Y, Z, X, Y, Z." So if we had had a witness that had stopped, we wouldn't have to be fussing and fighting with the insurance company because their main goal is to pay as little as possible.
Let's Do Our Civic DutyAnd so, people suffer. We all suffer when we're not able to take care of our families, pay our medical bills, sue, or get our lost wages reimbursed. That's unfair. And so we need to do our civic duty, and we need to stop. We need to try to see about helping the person.
If they're injured, wouldn't you feel bad if you saw the news the next day, and you heard about how somebody got hit and nobody stopped? And then this person was in a coma and they died because nobody stopped. And it could have been avoided. So let's stop and help.