Over the years, RisCassi and Davis, P.C., has handled thousands of claims for motorists, passengers and pedestrians injured in motor vehicle accidents, including automobile, motorcycle and truck accidents. We have experience with all of the recurring accident scenarios: rear-end accidents, intersection accidents, crossover accidents, drunken driving accidents, and defective highway claims. We have handled motorcycle accidents resulting in death, catastrophic quadriplegic injuries and loss of limbs. We have represented families who have lost loved ones as the result of drunken drivers and dangerous commercial vehicles. We have handled several claims in which garbage trucks backed over people, killing or maiming them, in the course of which we advocated for equipment and routing modifications that may reduce the likelihood of similar injuries in the future.

Many of these motor vehicle accident cases present complicated legal and factual issues requiring intensive legal, medical or scientific research. There may be issues involving the proper industry standard for the operation and maintenance of commercial vehicles. Sometimes, corporations other than just the owner and driver are also legally responsible. We have the experience and capability to investigate and pursue these claims and identify the responsible parties. Many cases also present complex issues of insurance law which must be resolved to obtain the best possible recovery for our clients.

When necessary, RisCassi and Davis, P.C., may consult expert witnesses to help prove an automobile accident claim. We may consult accident reconstruction experts to reconstruct speed or direction of travel from measurements of vehicle damage and road markings. On occasion, we have employed biomechanical testimony to show who was driving a vehicle. We have used toxicologists, when necessary, to help demonstrate that a defendant was intoxicated, or that our client was not.

If the driver who injured you was drunk, and we can identify where he or she drank, we may be able to bring a claim against those who served the alcohol. We have been involved in claims under Connecticut's statutory dram shop law and common law claims for the reckless service of liquor or service to a minor. Our Connecticut dram shop statute, Section 30-102 of the General Statutes, imposes liability where someone sells liquor to an intoxicated person and the purchaser, because of the intoxication, injures some victim. The maximum recovery available under this statute is limited, but those limits have recently been increased (as discussed more fully on our page regarding the Liquor Liability practice area). The statute also requires written notice within a short time of the incident, which is sometimes hard to provide if the drunken driver does not volunteer information as to where he was drinking. Sometimes, there may be common law claims available that do not share these limitations, however. Pursuit of these statutory and common law claims may ultimately lead to safer roadways as well as additional compensation for the injured victim of a drunken driver.

When the person who caused the accident lacks adequate insurance, we are often able to turn to our client's own uninsured or underinsured motorists coverage. Michael Jainchill of our office is the co-author of Connecticut Law of Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist Coverage, published by The Atlantic Book Company, now in its second edition. The Connecticut Supreme Court has referred to this book as the "leading treatise" on Connecticut uninsured motorist law.

Call us at 800.344.5297 or contact us online to discuss your legal options.