New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are associated with celebrations and new beginnings, but they’re also known for a significant increase in drunk driving crashes. Each New Year’s holiday, thousands are injured, and hundreds die in car wrecks involving alcohol-impaired drivers. 
Far too many of these accidents occur right here in Kentucky—the Commonwealth consistently ranks among the states with the highest number of New Year’s crashes—leaving victims and their families wrestling with serious injuries, unexpected expenses, and other consequences.
If you were hurt or lost a loved one in a New Year’s wreck caused by an intoxicated driver, you could be entitled to compensation for your injuries and losses. Our skilled injury lawyers can help you navigate the legal process, recover fair damages, and get the justice you deserve.
Our Central Kentucky Injury Lawyers Help Clients Hold Drunk Drivers Accountable for Damages
Skeeters, Bennett, Wilson & Humphrey has served Central Kentucky for more than 40 years, providing honest answers, common sense advice, and peace of mind to accident victims and their families during difficult times. We’ve helped numerous clients hold the drunk driver who harmed them accountable. Here are some of the ways we could assist you if you suffered losses in a New Year’s accident you didn’t cause:
Explaining Your Legal Rights and Options
Understanding your legal rights and options is essential after any accident, especially one that involves another driver’s negligence and potentially criminal conduct. If a drunk driver caused a crash that harmed your family, you need to talk to a knowledgeable and experienced Kentucky injury lawyer you can trust as soon as possible. Our dedicated attorneys offer free initial consultations to discuss your rights and options, assess your case, and determine if we can help.
Monitoring a Parallel Criminal Case
In some cases, the intoxicated driver could face criminal charges for driving under the influence (DUI) in addition to any civil claim for damages that you might bring. We closely follow any parallel criminal case, informing you of major developments and how they could affect your recovery. While a criminal conviction makes it much easier to satisfy the burden of proof in a civil matter, it isn’t required. Our team can pursue a recovery on your behalf and work to hold the drunk driver responsible in the civil justice system, even if they were never criminally charged or convicted of a crime related to your crash.
Proving Your Damages
Recovering damages in a Kentucky drunk driving personal injury lawsuit requires that we establish the following elements:
- Duty of care. The defendant had a duty to drive safely and exercise reasonable care to avoid injuring others.
- Breach of duty. The defendant breached the duty of care by driving under the influence of alcohol.
- Causation. The defendant’s negligence in driving under the influence was a substantial factor in causing the crash and resulting harm.
- Damages. You suffered injuries and financial losses as a direct result of the defendant’s negligent actions.
Depending on the details of your drunk driving injury case, you could recover compensation for a wide range of damages, including related medical expenses, lost wages or earning capacity, physical pain and suffering, mental distress, and punitive damages. Families who lose loved ones in New Year’s drunk driving crashes might also be entitled to compensation.
Building a Winning Case
From conducting a thorough investigation into the cause of the accident to arranging for experts to offer opinions or testify on your behalf, there’s a lot that goes into building a winning case—and Skeeters, Bennett, Wilson & Humphrey’s highly skilled injury lawyers are prepared to meet the challenge.
We gather vital evidence, estimate your damages, interview witnesses, handle communication with insurers and opposing counsel, negotiate and evaluate settlements, and fight for a fair resolution. More importantly, our team protects your rights, offering sound, trustworthy legal advice and guidance when you need it the most.