In a pedestrian accident, victims often face severe injuries. After all, they are not protected by a car, air bags, or seat belts. Our lawyers seek to help injured pedestrian accident victims and their families recover the compensation they need after an accident.
It can be difficult to know what to do next, and working with professional injury attorneys can help get your case on track. From dealing with insurance to collecting evidence to arguing your case in court, we can take care of you after your accident.
For a free case evaluation, call Schoenfeld Law Firm’s pedestrian accident lawyers today at (504) 688-7760.
What to Do Next After a Pedestrian Accident in New Orleans
First, you should call 911, report the accident, and get medical attention. If you can, stay at the scene and collect information about the driver and the surrounding area, such as their contact and insurance info, and whether any signs controlled the intersection where you were hit.
How a Lawyer Can Help
From there, you should work with a lawyer. Do not necessarily start your case by calling insurance and filing on your own. Our pedestrian accident lawyers can advise you on when to file with insurance, what to say to them, how much your case should be worth, etc. We can also collect missing evidence to build a strong case for you.
Things to Avoid Doing After a Pedestrian Accident
As for what to avoid doing:
- Do not talk about your case on social media
- Do not give details of the case to anyone
- Do not settle or accept money for your injuries without talking to our lawyers first.
If you spill excess information, it can hurt your case. So can inconsistent stories told to multiple parties, so avoid having multiple versions of your story out there for the insurance company to use against you.
And lastly, if you settle your case, it is over; so do not settle until you have a good settlement offer before you.
Do I Need to File Through Insurance?
Many cases are filed through insurance claims first. We can send the driver’s insurance company a demand letter detailing your injuries and what payments you need. From there, we can negotiate with them.
Their initial settlement will probably be too low to cover your injuries in full, but if we can negotiate a fair settlement, then taking it is the fastest way to get paid.
If they do not give a fair offer, we can take the case to court.
What Damages Can I Claim?
Injury cases include two broad categories of damages: economic and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
In a pedestrian accident case, your most important economic damages will be medical bills and lost wages. If your injury caused you any time in the hospital or out of work, you can claim these expenses and lost income. Many injury victims face extensive medical care needs and extended periods away from work, or even ongoing disabilities, so these damages can be high.
You can claim other economic damages; these are just the most common.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages cover the rest of the harms you faced, the ones that have no economic value attached. This covers things like your physical pain, the mental anguish of an injury, the emotional distress during your recovery, etc.
These damages have no starting value, so we often calculate them based on overall severity and use your economic damages or your daily wages as a starting place.
Who is at Fault in a Pedestrian Accident?
Most pedestrian accidents are caused by the driver. Even if you were partially at fault, you can potentially still recover compensation for your injuries.
Currently, Louisiana uses a pure comparative fault law. This means that even if you were 99% at fault, you can still recover the other 1% of damages from the defendant. In January 2026, this changes to a “51% bar” rule, meaning that you can only recover if you are up to 50% at fault. Otherwise, the defendant only pays you for their share of the damages if you were partially at fault.
To actually determine the division of blame, courts look at who broke the law. Pedestrian accidents typically only happen when the driver does something wrong, like hopping the curb or hitting you while you are in a crosswalk.
If you did something dangerous like step off a curb into speeding traffic, you could be partially blamed. Otherwise, the driver will likely be at fault.
Pedestrians Hit While Drinking in NOLA
New Orleans’ streets are intentionally set up for pedestrians, with attractions like Bourbon Street and Jackson Square often being closed to cars and protected with bollards. However, drivers sometimes make mistakes and end up in closed areas, which often makes crashes their fault, no matter what state you might have been in at the time.
New Orleans is also an incredibly popular bar, nightlife, and tourist destination, which means many pedestrian accidents on nights and weekends involve intoxicated pedestrians. In some cases, your intoxication might make it harder for you to stay safe, especially if you stumbled or fell into traffic.
However, if you were hit in a crosswalk or while on the sidewalk, then the fact that you were drinking really should not be used to blame you for the crash, and information about your drinking might be irrelevant. The driver must be accountable for what they did wrong.
How Do I Prove My Case?
Your testimony goes a long way toward proving what happened in your case. Many pedestrian accidents are also caught on nearby security cameras, or other witnesses might have been around to see what happened. We can use this testimony and video evidence to prove what happened.
On top of this, we can collect medical records, police reports, and other evidence to help build a strong case.
How Much is My Case Worth?
Every case is unique, and we cannot put a value on your claim without examining the facts and the effects of your injuries. In many cases, we can claim full damages for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. However, we cannot know what that is worth in your case until we talk to you about the details.
Call Our Pedestrian Accident Attorneys in New Orleans Right Away
Call Schoenfeld Law Firm’s pedestrian accident attorneys at (504) 688-7760 for a free case evaluation.
