Burlington Pedestrian Accident Lawyer

Hit by a car while walking in Burlington, VT? Contact the trusted Burlington pedestrian accident lawyer who fights for full compensation.

A walk to work along Church Street, a jog down the Waterfront path, a quick crossing at Main and South Winooski, these are ordinary parts of life in Burlington. When a driver looks down at a phone, rolls a right turn without checking, or misjudges a snow-narrowed intersection, an ordinary moment becomes a life-altering one. Pedestrians have no bumpers, no airbags, no crumple zones, and the injuries that follow are often severe.

Promoting Justice Personal Injury & Car Accident Lawyers has long stood exclusively with injury victims in Vermont, holding careless drivers, their employers, and their insurers financially accountable for the harm they cause. We handle the investigation, the paperwork, and every conversation with the insurance company, so you can put your energy where it belongs: healing.

Get a free consultation and discover how our Burlington pedestrian accident attorneys can help you pursue full compensation.

Why Hire Our Burlington Pedestrian Accident Lawyers?

Since 1980, Promoting Justice has taken one side: yours. We have never represented an insurance company, a corporation, or any defendant, and we never will.

Our founding attorney, Dennis O. Shillen, carries an AV Preeminent rating, the highest peer-reviewed recognition for legal excellence and ethics. Attorney Linda Fraas spent years on the insurance defense side before joining our team, and she now uses that insider knowledge to expose every tactic insurers deploy against injured pedestrians. Our experienced attorneys know how these cases are built, and how they are won.

We take every case on a contingency fee basis, advancing all costs, expert witnesses, crash reconstruction, court filing fees, and you owe us nothing unless we win.

What to Do after a Burlington Crosswalk Crash

The actions you take immediately after being struck by a vehicle directly affect your ability to recover full compensation. Follow these steps to protect both your health and your legal claim:

• Call 911 and seek medical care right away. A police report and same-day medical evaluation create an official record tying your injuries to the crash, documentation no insurer can easily dismiss.
• Document the scene before leaving. Photograph the crosswalk markings, the vehicle’s position, traffic signals, and your injuries. Note nearby businesses with security cameras, and arrange to preserve any footage quickly before it may be overwritten or lost.
• Collect driver and witness details. Write down the driver’s name, license plate, and insurance information, and gather contact information from any bystanders, impartial witnesses can make or break a case.
• Decline recorded statements. The at-fault driver’s insurer may contact you. Be polite, but do not give a recorded statement or accept any settlement offer before speaking with us.
• Contact us immediately. We open cases right away, preserve disappearing evidence at our expense, and handle all insurance communications so you can focus on healing.

Who Is Financially Responsible for Your Injuries?

Liability in a pedestrian crash can extend well beyond the driver who hit you. Identifying every responsible party, and every available policy, is where a thorough legal investigation earns its value.

Potentially liable parties include:

• The negligent driver and their bodily injury liability policy
• The driver’s employer, when the driver was on the job, a doctrine called respondeat superior, holds employers legally responsible for employees’ on-duty conduct.
• The vehicle’s owner, if they entrusted the car to an unfit or unlicensed driver
• The City of Burlington, when a defective crosswalk design, broken signal, or missing signage contributed to the crash

When the driver was uninsured or underinsured, your own Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist coverage, commonly called UM/UIM, may step in to fill the gap.

What Vermont Pedestrian Laws Protect You?

Under Title 23 of the Vermont Statutes, drivers are legally required to yield the right-of-way to pedestrians in both marked and unmarked crosswalks at intersections. This duty applies whether or not a traffic signal is present. In Burlington’s densely trafficked downtown core, along the UVM campus corridor, and near the Waterfront, drivers have every reason to anticipate foot traffic, and the law holds them accountable when they fail to act accordingly.

How We Prove the Driver Was at Fault

Insurance adjusters do not show up with fair offers. They investigate looking for reasons to reduce, or deny, what they pay, including arguments that you played a role in your own injury. We build cases that close every door they try to open.

Our investigation draws from four core evidence sources:

• Scene evidence: Crash photos, skid marks, debris patterns, and crosswalk visibility establish what the driver could see and how much time they had to stop.
• Digital evidence: Traffic signal timing data, subpoenaed cell phone records, and footage from dashcams, business cameras, and doorbells confirm exactly what the driver was doing at the moment of impact.
• Witness accounts: Independent bystanders and first responders often provide the clearest, most credible version of what happened, and we track them down before memories fade.
• Medical documentation: Records from your treating physicians tie every injury, fractures, head trauma, nerve damage, directly to the collision, preventing insurers from arguing your harm was pre-existing.

Because Linda Fraas spent years constructing these exact defenses for insurance carriers, she knows every angle the other side will try. Now she deploys that knowledge against them, on your behalf.

What If the Driver Fled or Had No Insurance?

A hit-and-run does not strip you of your legal rights. Vermont law treats a driver who flees the scene as legally uninsured, meaning your own UM (Uninsured Motorist) coverage, standard in most Vermont auto policies, can compensate you for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering even though you were on foot when the crash occurred.

We work both angles simultaneously: pursuing your UM claim right away while coordinating with Burlington Police to identify the responsible driver. You should not have to wait on a criminal investigation to begin your recovery.

How Vermont’s Comparative Negligence Law Affects You

Vermont follows modified comparative negligence under 12 V.S.A. § 1036. In plain terms: you can still recover compensation as long as your share of fault is 50% or less, but your total award will be reduced proportionally by your percentage of responsibility.

If your damages total $100,000 and you are found 20% at fault, you recover $80,000. Insurers routinely inflate a pedestrian’s share of blame, pointing to dark clothing, headphone use, or crossing mid-block, to shrink what they owe. We challenge every overreach.

How Long You Have to File a Claim in Vermont

Vermont’s statute of limitations, the legal deadline to file a lawsuit, gives personal injury victims three years from the date of the accident. Wrongful death claims must be filed within two years of the date of death.

Do not treat that window as an open invitation to wait. Surveillance video disappears within days, witnesses relocate, and physical evidence deteriorates long before any legal deadline arrives. The earlier we open your case, the stronger our position.

What Damages You Can Recover

A serious pedestrian injury touches every part of your life, your body, your finances, your ability to work, and your sense of security. Compensation must reflect the full picture, not just the emergency room tab.

Recoverable damages may include:

• Emergency treatment, surgery, and ongoing rehabilitation
• Future medical care and assistive equipment
• Lost income and diminished long-term earning capacity
• Physical pain, emotional distress, and mental anguish
• Loss of enjoyment of daily life and personal activities
• Damaged personal property, clothing, phone, mobility devices
• Wrongful death damages for surviving family members

Non-economic losses like pain and suffering are often the largest component of a pedestrian injury claim, and the first category insurers try to minimize. We document them thoroughly and fight for every dollar they are worth.

Where Burlington Crosswalk Accidents Happen Most

High-risk areas in Burlington include the Church Street Marketplace crossings, the College Street and Main Street intersections near UVM, and heavily traveled corridors along North Avenue, Pearl Street, and Riverside Avenue. Vermont winters sharpen the danger, snowbanks cut driver sightlines, and black ice extends stopping distances far beyond what most drivers anticipate.

One pattern we see consistently in Church Street Marketplace crashes is a driver blaming winter sightlines for a turn they made without checking at all, when traffic camera footage shows the crosswalk was clearly visible the entire time.

What Our Results Show

Our documented recoveries include a $2,000,000 settlement in a combined workers’ compensation and automobile accident case and $425,000 for a client who suffered a traumatic brain injury caused by a property owner’s negligence. No attorney can guarantee a specific outcome, but every case we take gets the same relentless pursuit.

Your Free Consultation Costs You Nothing

Our team is available to review your case at no charge, answer your questions honestly, and tell you exactly what we can do for you. As Dennis Shillen puts it, we pursue our clients’ rights the way a crusader pursues a noble cause, and we genuinely hate to lose.

Call us today to speak with a Burlington pedestrian accident lawyer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Sue if I Was Hit in a Burlington Crosswalk?

Yes, when a driver fails to yield at a marked or unmarked crosswalk, that is a direct violation of Vermont law and strong grounds for a personal injury claim.

Can I Recover Compensation if I Was Hit Outside a Marked Crosswalk?

Being outside a marked crosswalk does not eliminate your claim. It may factor into your assigned percentage of fault, but under Vermont’s modified comparative negligence rule, you can still recover as long as your share of fault is 50% or less.

Does Vermont’s UM Coverage Apply When I Was on Foot?

Yes, Vermont’s Uninsured Motorist coverage extends to pedestrians struck by uninsured or hit-and-run drivers, regardless of whether you were in a vehicle at the time.

Who Covers My Medical Bills While My Case Is Pending?

Your MedPay coverage or health insurance typically handles treatment costs during the case, and we can negotiate with providers to defer billing until your settlement is finalized.

What Should I Do if the At-Fault Driver’s Insurer Already Called Me?

Do not give a recorded statement or accept any offer before speaking with us, early settlements rarely account for the full extent of your injuries, future care, or pain and suffering, and accepting one typically closes your claim for good.