After a car accident in Arkansas, you should move to safety, call 911, document the scene with photos, exchange information with the other driver, and get medical attention right away, even if you feel fine.
You also need to file a separate accident report with the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration within 30 days.
Avoid admitting fault, giving recorded statements to insurance adjusters, or accepting an early settlement before you understand the full extent of your injuries.
Arkansas is one of the most dangerous states in the country for drivers.
A 2025 report from TRIP found that traffic fatalities in the state increased 30 percent over the last decade, and fatal and serious crashes in 2024 caused a total of $18.7 billion in economic and quality-of-life costs.
Whether your accident happened on I-40 near Little Rock, on I-49 in Northwest Arkansas, or on a two-lane highway in a rural part of the state, the steps you take in the first hours and days after a crash can determine whether you receive fair compensation or end up paying out of pocket for someone else’s mistake.
This guide covers everything you need to know, from what to do at the scene to how Arkansas’s fault laws, insurance requirements, and recent legal changes affect your claim.
What Should You Do Immediately After a Car Accident in Arkansas?
The steps you take at the accident scene protect both your safety and your ability to recover compensation later.
Acting quickly and staying calm can make a real difference in the outcome of your claim.
The following sections walk through each step in order of priority, starting with keeping yourself and your passengers out of harm’s way.
How Do You Stay Safe and Avoid Further Harm at the Scene?
Your first priority after any collision is making sure everyone is out of immediate danger.
If your vehicle is still drivable and you can do so safely, move it to the shoulder or out of active traffic lanes.
Turn on your hazard lights so approaching drivers can see you.
Check yourself and your passengers for injuries before stepping out of the vehicle.
If anyone is seriously hurt, do not attempt to move them unless there is an immediate threat like a fire or oncoming traffic.
On high-speed roads like I-40 or I-30, the risk of a secondary collision is high, especially at night or in poor weather.
Standing in a travel lane or walking along the highway shoulder without visibility is one of the most dangerous things you can do after a crash.
If you have road flares or reflective triangles in your vehicle, place them behind the crash scene to warn approaching traffic.
Stay off the roadway as much as possible while you wait for first responders to arrive.
Why Should You Call 911 After Every Arkansas Car Accident?
Calling 911 is required by Arkansas law for any crash that involves injury, death, or property damage of $3,000 or more.
Even if the accident seems minor, calling 911 ensures that police officers come to the scene, assess the situation, and create an official crash report.
That report becomes a key piece of evidence when you file an insurance claim or pursue legal action.
Without a police report, your claim essentially becomes your word against the other driver’s.
Insurance adjusters rely heavily on the officer’s written account of what happened, including any traffic violations cited at the scene.
If the other driver was speeding, ran a red light, or was distracted, the police report will reflect that.
Skipping this step gives the insurance company room to dispute fault, which can reduce or eliminate your compensation.
Do not let the other driver talk you out of calling the police, even if they offer to “handle it privately” or pay for damages themselves.
What Should You Document at the Accident Scene?
Take photos and videos of everything at the scene while conditions are still fresh.
This includes all vehicles involved (from multiple angles), license plates, visible damage, skid marks, debris, traffic signs and signals, road conditions, and weather.
If you have visible injuries like cuts, bruises, or swelling, photograph those as well.
Look around for nearby businesses or intersections that might have security cameras or traffic cameras, and make a note of their locations.
If there are witnesses who saw the crash, ask for their names and phone numbers before they leave.
A witness who has no connection to either driver can provide an unbiased account of what happened, which carries significant weight with insurers and in court.
If a witness is willing, ask if you can record a brief statement on your phone.
This type of evidence is difficult or impossible to recreate later, so gathering it at the scene is critical.
What Information Do You Need to Exchange With the Other Driver?
Arkansas law requires drivers involved in an accident to exchange certain information at the scene.
You should collect the other driver’s full name, phone number, driver’s license number, license plate number, insurance company name, and policy number.
Write down or photograph the make, model, color, and year of their vehicle as well.
If the other driver has passengers, note how many people were in the vehicle.
While exchanging information, stay calm and factual.
Do not apologize, do not say “I didn’t see you,” and do not speculate about what caused the accident.
Even casual statements like “I’m sorry” or “I think I was going too fast” can be used against you later to assign fault under Arkansas’s comparative negligence system.
Limit the conversation to exchanging the required information and let the investigation determine who was responsible.
What Medical Steps Should You Take After an Arkansas Car Accident?
Getting medical care quickly protects both your health and your legal claim.
Even injuries that seem minor at first can become serious if left untreated, and insurance companies routinely use gaps in medical treatment to argue that your injuries were not caused by the crash.
Why Should You See a Doctor Even If You Feel Fine?
Many common crash injuries do not produce obvious symptoms right away.
Whiplash, herniated discs, concussions, and internal bleeding can take hours or even days to show up because adrenaline and shock mask pain in the immediate aftermath of an accident.
A driver involved in a rear-end collision on I-630 in Little Rock might walk away feeling shaken but physically okay, only to wake up two days later with severe neck pain and headaches that turn out to be a disc injury requiring months of treatment.
Seeing a doctor within 24 to 72 hours of the crash creates a medical record that directly connects your injuries to the accident.
If you wait weeks to seek treatment, the insurance company will argue that your injuries either did not come from the crash or are not as serious as you claim.
Follow all of your doctor’s recommendations, attend every follow-up appointment, and keep copies of all medical records, bills, and prescriptions.
This documentation forms the foundation of the damages portion of your claim.
Do You Have to Pay for Medical Bills Out of Pocket After a Car Accident?
You generally do not have to pay for medical treatment out of pocket while your car accident case is pending.
Arkansas law provides several options that allow accident victims to receive care without upfront costs.
Most auto insurance policies in Arkansas include Personal Injury Protection, which covers medical expenses regardless of who caused the crash.
Under Arkansas law, PIP benefits include up to $5,000 in medical and hospital expenses per person.
Your attorney can also arrange treatment through a letter of protection, which is an agreement between your lawyer and your medical provider that your bills will be paid out of your settlement or verdict.
This means you can get the care you need now without worrying about how to pay for it while your case is still being resolved.
Many accident victims do not realize this is an option, and some delay treatment because they assume they cannot afford it.
That delay can hurt both your recovery and your claim.
How Does Arkansas Law Affect Your Car Accident Claim?
Arkansas has specific laws governing fault, filing deadlines, reporting requirements, and medical damages that directly affect how much compensation you can recover and how quickly you need to act.
Understanding these rules is essential to protecting your claim from common mistakes that can reduce or eliminate your recovery.
How Does Arkansas’s Modified Comparative Fault Rule Work?
Under Arkansas Code Section 16-64-122, you can recover compensation after a car accident only if your share of fault is less than the other party’s.
If you are found to be 50 percent or more at fault, you are completely barred from recovering any damages.
If your fault is below that threshold, your compensation is reduced by your percentage of responsibility.
For example, if a jury finds that your total damages are $100,000 but you were 20 percent at fault for the accident, your recovery would be reduced to $80,000.
Insurance companies understand this rule well and use it aggressively.
One of the most common tactics is to inflate your percentage of fault so that your compensation goes down or gets eliminated entirely.
If you were driving a few miles over the speed limit, briefly looked at your phone, or failed to signal a lane change, the adjuster may try to assign you a significant portion of blame for the crash, even if the other driver clearly caused the collision.
Having strong evidence from the scene, including photos, witness statements, and the police report, is the best way to counter these arguments.
How Long Do You Have to File a Car Accident Claim in Arkansas?
Arkansas Code Section 16-56-105 gives you three years from the date of your accident to file a personal injury lawsuit.
If you miss this deadline, the court will almost certainly dismiss your case, and you will lose your right to recover compensation permanently, no matter how strong your claim is.
Three years might sound like plenty of time, but evidence degrades quickly after a crash.
Witnesses forget details, surveillance footage gets recorded over, vehicles are repaired or scrapped, and the physical scene changes.
The sooner you start building your case, the stronger it will be.
Keep in mind that the statute of limitations deadline is separate from insurance company deadlines.
Your own insurer may require notice of the accident within a matter of days, and failing to comply with those policy deadlines can create problems with your coverage.
Do You Have to File a Separate Accident Report With the Arkansas DFA?
Yes, and this is a step that many Arkansas drivers do not know about.
In addition to the police report filed at the scene, Arkansas law requires you to submit a Safety Responsibility (SR-1) accident report to the Department of Finance and Administration within 30 days of any crash involving injury, death, or property damage exceeding $1,000.
The critical detail is that the Arkansas State Police does not automatically forward crash reports to the DFA.
You must obtain a copy of the police report yourself and use the information in it to complete and submit the SR-1 form.
You can file online, by mail, or in person at a DFA revenue office.
If you fail to file this report, your driver’s license can be suspended.
This is a separate obligation from the police report, and overlooking it is a common mistake that can create unnecessary legal problems on top of your injury claim.
How Does Act 28 Affect Your Car Accident Medical Damages?
Act 28, which originated as House Bill 1204 and took effect on August 4, 2025, changed how past medical expenses are calculated in Arkansas personal injury cases.
Under this law, the amount you can recover for medical bills is now limited to the amount actually paid or owed for your treatment, rather than the full amount originally billed by the provider.
Before Act 28, a hospital might bill $50,000 for your treatment, and that full billed amount could be presented to a jury as part of your damages, even if insurance negotiated the bill down to $15,000.
Now, only the $15,000 actually paid or owed can be used.
This change can significantly reduce the overall value of car accident claims, because non-economic damages like pain and suffering are often calculated in relation to medical expenses.
When your provable medical costs go down, the total value of your case tends to follow.
If you were injured in a car accident after August 2025, it is important to work with an attorney who understands how Act 28 affects damage calculations and can identify other ways to build the full value of your claim.
How Do Insurance Companies Try to Reduce Your Car Accident Claim?
Insurance companies are not on your side after a car accident, even your own insurer.
Their goal is to pay as little as possible on every claim, and they have trained adjusters and legal teams who know exactly how to do it.
Recognizing their tactics early can help you avoid costly mistakes.
What Tactics Do Adjusters Use After an Arkansas Car Accident?
Insurance adjusters use several specific strategies to reduce the value of car accident claims in Arkansas.
The first is rushing you into a quick settlement before you understand the full extent of your injuries.
An adjuster may call within days of the crash and offer what sounds like a reasonable amount, but this initial offer rarely accounts for future medical treatment, ongoing pain, lost earning capacity, or long-term effects of your injuries.
Once you accept a settlement and sign a release, you cannot go back and ask for more money, even if your condition worsens.
The second tactic is requesting a recorded statement early in the process.
The adjuster may say it is routine or required, but there is no legal obligation for you to give one.
Recorded statements are designed to get you to say something that can be used to reduce your claim, whether it is an inconsistent description of how the accident happened, a statement that you are “feeling okay,” or an admission that you may have been partially at fault.
The third tactic is social media surveillance.
Adjusters regularly search your social media accounts looking for posts, photos, or check-ins that contradict your injury claims.
A photo of you at a family gathering or a post about going for a walk can be taken out of context and used to argue that your injuries are not as serious as you claim.
What Should You Avoid Saying to the Insurance Company?
You should avoid giving any detailed statements about the accident, your injuries, or your daily activities to the insurance company without first consulting an attorney.
Do not say “I’m fine” or “I feel okay” in conversations with adjusters, because those words can be used to dispute the severity of your injuries later.
Do not speculate about how the accident happened or accept any blame, even partially.
If the insurance company calls, you can confirm your name, the date and location of the accident, and your attorney’s contact information.
Beyond that, let your attorney handle all communication.
This protects you from the kinds of casual statements that adjusters are trained to use against you.
“The biggest mistakes I see people make in Arkansas come down to three things. First, they call the other party’s insurance company and agree to a minimal settlement for their injuries without knowing the full extent of their injuries. Second, people go on social media and start posting about their lives, but insurance companies use that as evidence that the person is not injured. Third, most people fail to seek medical care with a doctor, which negatively affects their case.”
— Ramez Shamieh, Founder of Shamieh Law
What Should You Do If the Other Driver Is Uninsured or Flees the Scene?
Not every car accident involves a cooperative, insured driver on the other side.
Arkansas still has a significant number of uninsured motorists on the road, and hit-and-run accidents happen regularly on busy highways and in parking lots across the state.
The path to compensation looks different in these situations, and knowing your options ahead of time can prevent costly mistakes.
What Are Your Options When the At-Fault Driver Has No Insurance?
According to Insurance Research Council data, roughly 12 percent of drivers in Arkansas are uninsured.
When the driver who caused your accident has no insurance, your own Uninsured Motorist (UM) coverage becomes your primary source of compensation.
Under Arkansas law, insurance companies must offer UM coverage to every policyholder, and the minimum limits mirror the state’s liability minimums of $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident.
If you purchased higher UM limits, those apply instead.
Filing a UM claim means you are dealing with your own insurance company, but do not assume they will treat you fairly just because you are their customer.
Your insurer still has a financial interest in paying less, and they may use the same tactics that the other driver’s insurer would, including disputing the severity of your injuries and assigning you a higher share of fault.
You may also have the right to sue the uninsured driver directly, but collecting a judgment from someone who does not carry insurance can be difficult if they lack assets.
What Should You Do After a Hit-and-Run Accident in Arkansas?
Call 911 immediately and report the hit-and-run to police, even if you did not get a good look at the other vehicle.
Try to note as many details as you can, including the make, model, color, and direction of travel of the vehicle that fled.
If there were witnesses, get their contact information right away.
Check nearby businesses for security cameras that may have captured the incident.
After a hit-and-run in Arkansas, your Uninsured Motorist coverage is typically the primary path to compensation, because UM policies cover situations where the at-fault driver cannot be identified.
The sooner you file a police report, the stronger your UM claim will be, because your insurer will want documentation proving that the other driver left the scene.
Arkansas also imposes criminal penalties on drivers who flee the scene of an accident, so filing a police report may help law enforcement locate the other driver.
If the other driver is found, their liability insurance (if they have any) would then become available to cover your damages as well.
What Compensation Can You Recover After a Car Accident in Arkansas?
Arkansas car accident victims who were less than 50 percent at fault can recover both economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages cover the measurable financial losses caused by the accident, such as medical bills (past and future), lost wages, reduced earning capacity, vehicle repair or replacement costs, and out-of-pocket expenses like rental cars and prescription medications.
Non-economic damages cover losses that do not have a specific dollar amount but still significantly affect your life.
These include physical pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and, in severe cases, permanent disability or disfigurement.
Arkansas does not currently cap non-economic damages in most personal injury cases.
A previous cap on punitive damages was struck down as unconstitutional in 2011.
However, Act 28’s limitation on provable medical expenses can indirectly lower the overall value of a claim, because insurers and juries often use medical costs as a starting point for calculating pain and suffering.
Building a strong damages case requires thorough documentation of every cost and every way the accident has affected your daily life.
Keep a journal of your symptoms, your limitations, and how your injuries affect your ability to work, care for your family, and do the things you did before the crash.
What Are Your Rights If You Are a Passenger, Undocumented, or Without a License?
You still have the right to pursue a car accident claim in Arkansas even if you were a passenger, do not have a valid driver’s license, or are undocumented.
Arkansas personal injury law focuses on who caused the accident and who was harmed, not on the immigration status or driving credentials of the person filing the claim.
If you were a passenger in a vehicle involved in a crash, you can file a claim against the at-fault driver’s insurance.
In many cases, passengers were not at fault at all, which means their right to full compensation is straightforward.
If you are undocumented, you may be concerned about interacting with law enforcement or legal systems, but your legal right to compensation for injuries caused by someone else’s negligence is the same as anyone else’s.
An attorney can handle communication with insurance companies and the legal process on your behalf while protecting your privacy.
If you were driving without a valid license, you can still recover damages, but the insurance company may try to use that fact to inflate your percentage of fault under the comparative negligence rule.
Having legal representation is especially important in these situations to ensure your rights are protected.
Hurt in an Arkansas Car Accident? Call Us Today.
The right steps after a car accident can protect your health, your finances, and your legal rights for years to come.
From documenting the scene to handling the DFA report, avoiding insurance company traps, and understanding how Arkansas laws like comparative fault and Act 28 affect your recovery, every decision counts.
As car accident lawyers in Little Rock, Shamieh Law has recovered over $300 million for injured clients, and we are ready to get started on your case the same day you call.
You do not pay anything unless we win.
Call us today at 501-361-1334 for a free consultation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the first thing you should do after a car accident in Arkansas?
Move to safety and call 911 immediately. Arkansas law requires you to report any crash involving injury, death, or property damage of $3,000 or more to law enforcement. A police report creates an official record that protects your claim when dealing with insurance companies. After calling 911, document the scene with photos and exchange information with the other driver.
How long do you have to file a car accident lawsuit in Arkansas?
Arkansas gives you three years from the date of the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit under Arkansas Code Section 16-56-105. Missing this deadline means losing your right to compensation permanently. You also must file a separate SR-1 accident report with the Department of Finance and Administration within 30 days of the crash.
Can you still recover money if you were partly at fault for the accident?
Yes, as long as your share of fault is less than 50 percent. Under Arkansas’s modified comparative fault rule, your compensation is reduced by your percentage of responsibility. If you are 50 percent or more at fault, you are barred from recovering anything. Insurance adjusters often try to inflate your fault percentage to reduce your payout.
Do you have to pay medical bills out of pocket after an Arkansas car accident?
No. Arkansas auto insurance policies include Personal Injury Protection that covers up to $5,000 in medical expenses regardless of fault. Your attorney can also arrange treatment through a letter of protection, which means your medical providers agree to be paid from your settlement. This allows you to get care immediately without upfront costs while your case is resolved.
What should you do if the other driver does not have insurance?
Your own Uninsured Motorist coverage becomes your primary source of compensation. Arkansas law requires insurers to offer UM coverage with minimum limits matching the state’s liability requirements of $25,000 per person. File a claim with your own insurer, but be aware that they may still try to minimize your payout. An attorney can protect your interests during the UM claims process.
How does Act 28 change what you can recover for medical bills?
Act 28, effective August 4, 2025, limits past medical expense recovery to the amount actually paid or owed rather than the full amount billed. If a hospital bills $50,000 but insurance negotiated the cost to $15,000, only the $15,000 figure can be presented as damages. This change can significantly reduce the overall value of car accident claims.