Most of us equate car accident claims with personal injury. While that’s certainly true, any experienced California car accident lawyer will tell you that product liability can be just as important – and is something that should never be overlooked.

How does product liability relate to California auto accident cases?

To answer that question, we asked Matthew Nezhad, a California attorney whose practice is dedicated to handling personal injury claims and cases for injury victims throughout California. Here’s what he told us:

There are a lot of cases where you’ve got airbag, brake, tire or seat belt issues. There are many things that are not manufactured properly – and when that happens, attorneys must consider a product liability case against a manufacturer. In those situations, it’s not enough for an attorney to just accept the minimum amount of the policy and move onto the next case.

Increase your chances of prevailing in a California car accident case

Whether your claim involves personal injury, product liability or both, there are certain actions you can take to increase your chances of prevailing in a California car accident, according to Nezhad.

• Collect information. That means obtaining information from the other side. If there are any witnesses that may have seen the accident, get their information as well. You definitely want to preserve evidence immediately because, as time passes by, you may lose the witnesses that may have seen the accident and would have helped you with your case or claim.
• Take photographs. Take pictures if you have a camera with you. If you don’t have one, buy one of those disposable cameras and keep it in your car so you can take pictures of the scene and of the cars that were involved in the accident. A cell phone camera works, too.
• See a doctor. It’s important to have a doctor exam you – even if you have minimal injuries that you think may just be stiffness or headaches that will eventually go away. Hopefully, your injuries won’t be severe or significant, but you want to make sure that it’s documented because months may pass and you still may have the injuries, the neck pain or the back ache.