Personal injury refers to legal cases where individuals seek compensation for harm suffered due to someone else’s negligence or intentional actions. This category covers a broad range of incidents, including slip and fall accidents, vehicle collisions, medical malpractice, and workplace injuries. Victims may experience physical pain, emotional distress, and financial hardship. Personal injury law enables them to claim damages for medical expenses, lost wages, and emotional suffering. It emphasizes the right to be made whole after suffering harm due to another’s fault.
Understanding the Role of Personal Injury Lawyers
When coping with the aftermath of an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, it’s essential to have a skilled personal injury lawyer on your side. These legal experts specialize in cases involving physical, mental, or emotional injuries.
The Scope of Personal Injury Law
Personal injury law encompasses various incidents, including vehicular collisions, medical malpractice, and workplace accidents. Car accident attorneys are particularly in demand due to the frequency of motor vehicle-related injuries. They specialize in navigating the complexities of such cases, ensuring victims receive fair compensation.
Choosing the Right Personal Injury Attorney
Selecting the right attorney is critical in your legal journey. Given the plethora of professionals in this field, it’s important to consider several factors:
- Experience: An attorney with a strong background in personal injury law will understand legal procedures and insurance company tactics.
- Track Record: A lawyer with a history of successful cases is more likely to handle your case effectively.
- Communication: Your attorney should keep you informed and address your queries clearly.
- Accessibility: Choose a responsive lawyer, ensuring your case receives the necessary attention.
- Reputation: Consider the lawyer’s standing in the legal community and feedback from past clients.
- Fee Structure: Understand the lawyer’s fees and any additional costs.
Conclusion: The Impact of a Competent Personal Injury Lawyer
Personal injury lawyers, including car accident attorneys, play a vital role in helping negligence victims. By carefully selecting a lawyer and considering the factors above, you can find the right professional to guide you through the legal process. The right attorney can significantly affect your case’s outcome and your path to recovery.
Car Accident Lawyer
Car accidents occur daily on California roadways and can cause a wide range of injuries. Some of these injuries are relatively minor while others can be life-changing. Our friends at Cohen Legal can tell you that if you were hurt in a car crash caused by another driver, you may be entitled to compensation.
Here are the most common injuries people suffer during car accidents.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Car accidents are one of the most common causes of traumatic brain injuries. These can occur because of a blow to the head or violent shaking. Initial symptoms of a traumatic brain injury include dizziness, headache, nausea, loss of consciousness and blurry vision. Traumatic brain injuries can result in long-term cognitive, physical and behavioral problems.
Broken Bones
Car accidents can involve a lot of force, so broken bones are common. Victims can break bones in their arms, legs, hips, ribs and other body parts. Broken bones are very painful and can impair mobility. While simple breaks may just need a cast, more severe breaks may require surgery.
Whiplash
As a Santa Monica, CA car accident lawyer can confirm, whiplash is one of the most common car accident injuries. Cars that are going at low speeds can even cause whiplash in an accident. The neck injury can cause neck pain and stiffness, headaches, shoulder pain and dizziness. However, symptoms may not always be obvious right away. It is still important to seek immediate medical treatment. If whiplash is left untreated for too long, it can result in chronic neck pain.
Bruises
Compared to other car accident injuries, bruises might not seem like that big of a deal. Bruises are usually minor and heal fairly quickly. However, bruises can sometimes indicate a much more serious injury. If you have other symptoms, like nausea, blood in your urine, loss of motion, greater swelling or racing pulse, you may have a bigger injury.
Loss of Limbs
In a severe car accident, a person’s limb can be removed entirely or sustain such extensive damage that it must be removed through surgery. Amputation is a catastrophic injury and can result in the need for long-term rehabilitation, assistive devices and prosthetics.
Burns
During a car accident, you can come into contact with a hot engine or spraying liquids, which can cause burn injuries. Burns cause excruciating pain and can come with many complications, like infections, breathing problems, fluid loss and disfigurement. You may also require skin grafts.
Facial Injuries
It’s possible to sustain facial injuries during a car accident, like tooth loss, bone fractures, eye injuries and lacerations. These injuries are noticeable and can affect your self-esteem.
Emotional Distress
Car accident injuries are not just physical. Some people can suffer emotional injuries after an accident, like depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. They may lose interest in their favorite activities or even have recurring nightmares about the accident. Attending mental health counseling may be helpful.
If you have sustained injuries in a car accident, you should contact a car accident lawyer as soon as possible.
Car Accident Lawyer
The effects of a car accident can be far-reaching and varied. From physical pain to emotional trauma responses, financial burdens to practical inconveniences, car accidents can affect virtually all aspects of an injury victim’s life. While some of these effects are generally temporary, others are long-lasting. For example, acute injuries – such as bruising and broken bones – will generally heal within a matter of weeks or months. However, car accidents can often lead to the development of chronic conditions, such as knee or back pain that never fully resolves.
Many car accident victims experience injuries to the head, face, and jaw as a result of the force of impact associated with serious crashes. Whether they slam their head on a window, whip it to the side as an airbag expands, or suffer a traumatic blow as debris from the accident flies around the vehicle, it isn’t difficult to understand why so many crash victims experience this particular class of injuries.
As time passes, many injury victims discover that their injuries seem to be manifesting in new ways. What had started as constant headaches has evolved into a significant sensitivity to light. Or neck and shoulder pain has migrated over time to become a chronic headache problem. Many injury victims even start to manifest symptoms that are commonly associated with temporomandibular (TMJ) disorders. Does this mean that car accidents can cause TMJ?
What Is TMJ?
As an experienced TMJ treatment specialist can explain in greater detail, temporomandibular disorders affect the temporomandibular joint, which attaches someone’s jawbone to their skull. Just like knees, elbows, wrists, and ankles, there are two temporomandibular joints that are placed in parallel positions on the body. TMJ disorders affect these joints negatively, often resulting in pain and/or limited range of motion in the joint(s) in question and/or in the muscles near the joint(s) that control the motion of the jaw.
What Causes TMJ?
TMJ can be caused by many influences, from genetics to arthritis to bruxism, which is chronic teeth grinding. With that said, many patients develop TMJ not due to a single influence but due to a confluence of factors. And this is how car accidents can potentially either “cause” or contribute to the causes of TMJ.
Say that you are prone to clenching your jaw when you’re stressed out. You’ve developed some awareness of this challenge and learned, over a period of many years, to be mindful of that clenching so that you can minimize this response when you’re under stress. Yet, in the wake of a severe car accident, your body and mind are both so stressed out that the clenching becomes virtually uncontrollable. You wake up in the morning in pain because you’ve been clenching your jaw all night, through no conscious fault of your own. Eventually, it becomes hard to eat and hard to talk and hard to function during the day because your jaw hurts all the time.
Whether a car accident has contributed to jaw misalignment, clenching or grinding, inflammation associated with arthritis, or a host of other factors, there are – indeed – ways in which car accidents can effectively cause or contribute to the causes of TMJ.
Litigation Law Firm
If you have been hurt in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, you may be entitled to receive compensation. One of the next steps you should take is to set up a meeting with an experienced personal injury lawyer. A lawyer can assess your case and advise you the best way to proceed.
Here are a few tips for preparing for your consultation with a personal injury lawyer.
Research the Law Firm
Before your first meeting with a personal injury lawyer, it is important to know at least something about the law firm he or she works for. Take the time to research the law firm online. Not all law firms are the same. Some have better credentials than others. When you are browsing the law firm’s website, read about the practice area, each lawyer’s credentials and case results. If the website includes client testimonials, check those out as well. In addition, you may want to read client reviews on sites like Yelp.
Prepare Relevant Documents
If possible, you do not want to go to your initial consultation empty handed. The more information your lawyer has to go on, the better he or she can assist you. For example, you may want to bring a copy of the police report, medical records, medical bills and photos of the accident scene. If you wrote down the names and contact information of witnesses, you should bring those too.
Be Prepared to Discuss Your Case
During your first meeting with a personal injury lawyer, expect to be asked a lot of questions about your case. He or she may ask how the accident happened, who was involved, the types of injuries you sustained and the type of medical treatment you have received thus far. Your lawyer may also want to know if you spoke to the at-fault party’s insurance company. Be completely honest with your lawyer and include as many details as you can.
Write Down Your Questions
Your lawyer should not be the only one asking questions during the consultation. It’s always important for you to prepare your own list of questions. You may want to find out about your lawyer’s experience and credentials, for example. You may also want to ask about the strengths and weaknesses in your case and how much it may be worth. Write your questions down on a notepad so that you do not forget them.
Do not Be Afraid to Ask for Clarification
During your initial consultation, your personal injury lawyer may throw a lot of information your way. He or she may also mention legal terms that you do not understand. If you are not clear about something, do not hesitate to speak up. It is important to have the correct information.
Schedule a consultation with a litigation law firm, like Brown Kiely, LLP, to discuss your case.
If you have suffered an illness or injury caused by the negligent or reckless actions of another party, a personal injury lawyer understands that you are likely dealing with some serious medical and financial issues.
Depending on the severity of the injury, you may have required emergency medical treatment for the injury. There was likely diagnostic testing to determine the extent of damage and the injury may have required surgery and a hospital stay, as well as follow-up physical therapy and other rehabilitative services. All of this also likely means you were unable to work while your recovery was taking place, and maybe you still have not returned to work. Not working means no paycheck and no employee benefits.
There are also many emotional impacts the injury may have had, such as pain and suffering, mental anguish, disfigurement, and loss of the ability to perform daily activities.
It is because of all these losses that your state has laws in place that allows accident victims to pursue personal injury cases against the party who was responsible in order to receive compensation for all of these losses.
What Damages May Be Available?
The following is a list of all the economic and non-economic damages a victim may be able to collect:
- Fees for ambulance transport
- Emergency room visits
- Hospital stays
- All diagnostic testing
- Both prescription and non-prescription medication
- Physical, occupational, and mental therapy fees
- Costs of transportation for medical services
- Lost wages and benefits
- Future loss of wages
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Disfigurement
- Scarring
- Permanent disability
- Loss of companionship
Personal Injury Claim Process
Any type of personal injury claim is filed in the civil court system. The case is heard in front of a judge and either the judge or a jury will decide if any compensation should be awarded and how much that compensation should be.
Each state also has set a statute of limitation for how long a victim has to file a personal injury lawsuit. Generally, there is a two-year statute of limitation for personal injury claims from the date of discovery of the injury, although there may be some exceptions. A personal injury lawyer can determine what the statute of limitation is in your case.
In many cases, there is a preference for all parties to reach a settlement agreement rather than litigate the case in court. This is also referred to as alternative dispute resolution.
Contact a Personal Injury Law Firm Today
If you’ve been injured in a car accident caused by another party, contact an attorney, like a personal injury lawyer, from a law firm like Davis & Brusca, LLC.
While it is true that one of the worst parts about getting into an accident is the physical recovery that you will need to do after you were injured, many people report this as being one of the most stressful times in their lives because of everything they have to deal with following an accident. You may feel that you are getting bombarded from all sides, whether it is from the other driver, their insurance agent, your insurance agent, and family and friends who want to know that you are doing okay. When this happens, you may be tempted to just tell everything as much as possible and move on so people stop asking questions. However, this can be a dangerous approach when you are trying to show that the other party was negligent.
Speaking With Your Own Insurance Company
Most people hear that they should avoid speaking with insurance agents after an accident so that they do not destroy their chance of receiving compensation. This is only true to an extent. In fact, as a lawyer, like a car accident lawyer from a law firm like Ward & Ward Law Firm knows, you will likely have a legal obligation to speak with your insurance company to report certain information about the accident. Every insurance company’s policy will be different but if you signed an agreement with an insurance company, you must abide by their policy. That said, it does not mean you have to divulge so much information that you end up shooting yourself in the foot.
But, isn’t my own insurance company on my side?
You would think so, right? Not really. No insurance company is on any side except their own. Even the insurance company you are paying to “protect you” after you have been in an accident still wants to make sure they are covering themselves first and foremost. Many insurance companies will be more than happy to raise premiums after an accident regardless of whose fault the accident was.
What should I avoid saying?
The two most important things you should avoid saying to your insurance agents are these:
- I caused the accident
- I have not suffered from any injuries
If you say these statements, then the case is closed. Even if you are unsure of what happened in the stress of the moment, never admit fault. Further, when you call your insurance agent right after the accident happened, you may be dealing with injuries you do not even know about yet. Give yourself the opportunity to assess your situation. Let your agent know you were in an accident and that you plan to receive prompt medical attention. Once you do this, get medical help and then speak with a lawyer about filing a personal injury claim.
Are you looking for representation you can count on after an accident? Reach out to a local lawyer to see what they can do for you when it comes to insurance agents and receiving compensation from a personal injury claim.
You may be wondering if you can sue someone for a dog biting you. The answer is yes however this is not a straightforward answer because in Texas they have the one bite rule in relation to dogs. The one bite rule is that the owner is not liable for the very first bite. A dog owner cannot be liable for an attack because of the dog’s lack of a history of prior attacks, according to Texas law, and so the one bite rule came into practice.
Dog bites are specifically on the rise across the nation, but more specifically in Texas. According to the CDC, approximately 5 million dog bites every year and of those injuries, at least 800,000 of people bitten need medical care. Over 300,000 go to the emergency room every year as estimated by the Center for Disease Control over a dog bite.
The dog bite issue is a lot bigger in Texas than people realize. Between 2005 and present-day there were 34 fatalities recorded as a result of dog attacks. The fact that 34 people died as a result of dog attacks is huge, and it actually outstripped other states. Another reason that it is disturbing is that most of the targets for dog attacks are children; 52% of all dog attacks involving children are three-year-olds and 68% are under the age of 12.
There are two ways to file a dog by claimant taxes. Strict liability and negligence are those two ways. A dog bite lawyer in Houston, TX is going to be able to answer any and all questions you have about strict liability versus negligence and why one or the other is going to be correct for your case. We got to a dog bite lawyer in Houston, TX, such as the ones available at Zaid Law Offices today.
To proceed on a negligence claim, the victim or plaintiff has to prove that the dog’s owner or the person that was caring for the dog was indeed negligent. You must also be able to prove that the owner’s negligence caused the plaintiff’s injuries. The owner being negligent may involve an improperly restrained dog, an untrained or poorly trained dog, or that the owner made very little effort to intervene during an attack.
Strict liability refers to the defendant and dog owner as being responsible for injuries caused by his or her job provided that the plaintiff and victim can prove the defendant owner was the animals owner and possessor and that the dog question has a history of dangerous propensities compared to other dogs. You must also be able to prove that the owner and defendant knew or had reason to know that the dog was dangerous and that the dangerous dog was the direct cause of the injuries.
When you are working with a dog bite lawyer in Houston, TX there are things to avoid when filing a claim. You want to avoid settling too early, as insurance companies want to settle early for less than you could be awarded in court or by settlement. You should ensure that you call the police and get information from bystanders at the scene, you should not speak to the insurance company without your lawyer present.
There are a variety of damages that may be awarded in a personal injury lawsuit, and while most are meant to compensate the plaintiff for damages they have suffered as a result of their injury there can be extra damages that are awarded when the defendant’s behavior is determined to be especially negligent. Oftentimes these awards are called punitive or exemplary damages.
But what are punitive or exemplary damages? These are damages that are going to exceed simple compensation for the client and are awarded to punish the defendant. Whether punitive damages apply to your personal injury claim will depend on several factors and you can talk to your personal injury lawyer in Houston, TX such as the ones available at Zaid Law Offices to find out if punitive damages will be awarded in your claim.
The main difference between punitive damages and compensatory damages is that compensatory damages which are also cut actual damages are the center of every personal injury claim and likely do not change between claims. Essentially actual damages are awarded to plaintiffs to compensate for damages, injuries and other losses that you have received as a result of negligence of another party during an accident or something else that is led to injuries.
Compensatory damages can include nearly anything, and personal injury cases these are often seen as medical bills, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, pain-and-suffering, and mental distress. The general idea is to collect any damages necessary to make the plaintiff whole even if these damages do not necessarily have a predetermined dollar amount tied to them.
On the other hand, punitive damages are not meant to give the plaintiff back something that was lost, instead they are to punish the defendant for their conduct as well as the terse American duck from other people. This is an example to society that the behavior of the defendant will not be tolerated and is used to create an example of someone.
Punitive damages are awarded when the defendant causes an accident , especially in a reckless or negligent way, however there are going to be legal criteria that must be met before the plaintiff can receive these damages. The plaintiff has to first demonstrate that the actual damages occurred, has been above they would do this through medical bills, pain-and-suffering or lost wages. If there are no actual damages awarded then punitive damages cannot occur. The plaintiff must also demonstrate that the defendant acted with gross negligence such as hating or conducting themselves in a way that a reasonable person in the same situation will not of known or involved in same degree of risk, and that the defendant knew the rest acted with disregard to their own safety as well as others.
An example of punitive damages in a very common case is drunk driving accidents. When a drunk driving accident occurs the plaintiff can argue that a regional person is going to understand the extreme degree of risk driving drunk involves and that the drunk driver got behind the will despite being aware of those risks.
Personal Accident Attorney
It’s understandable if you have a lot of questions after being injured in an accident. When you contact a personal injury attorney, you can typically find the answers to those questions. The following are a few to get you started.
1. Are There Other Charges in Addition to Contingency Fees?
Most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, but there are often other charges that you would need to pay regardless of the outcome. These are known as out-of-pocket costs, and you would be required to pay them either as they arise or when the case is settled, as an attorney such as a personal injury attorney from a law firm like Yearin Law Office, can explain. If you receive no money in the settlement, you would have to find another way to pay for these expenses.
2. Do All Personal Injury Cases Go to Trial?
Not every personal injury case has to go to trial. Some are easier than others, and some defendants are easier to work with than others. Your attorney will probably prepare as if you were going to trial, simply to be ready in the event, but that doesn’t mean you will for sure go to trial.
3. How Involved Is the Plaintiff?
In some personal injury cases, the attorney allows the plaintiff to be very involved. You might be allowed and even encouraged to attend depositions and other similar meetings. Other attorneys don’t want their clients to attend these meetings. They would rather you just received the medical care you need while they work on the particulars of the case. Understanding your role will help you prepare.
4. Who Pays the Filing Fee?
You are responsible for paying the filing fee if you are bringing a case against another party. If you are the party being sued, the other party -the plaintiff- would be the individual who pays the filing fee. Sometimes an attorney handles the filing itself, and other times the attorney allows the plaintiff to do it.
5. How Long Do Cases Last?
If your personal injury case includes a series of complicated events, your case could go on for two or three years or more. If your case is mostly straightforward, you could settle in a year or less. After your attorney has a chance to look over the details of your case, he or she can estimate how long it will take, but you always need to realize that complications could arise that would extend the case.
Getting Your Personal Injury Case Started
Your medical bills could end up costing quite a bit, so it’s best to get your personal injury case started as soon as possible. Contact a personal injury attorney today.
Car Accident Lawyer
After a serious injury that was not your fault, you have to deal with the pain and the financial burden. Proving what caused the injuries and how they happened is an added burden. However, as a car accident lawyer from a a firm like Greenspan & Greenspan P.C. can explain, you will need physical evidence to present in court and when dealing with insurance companies. Photographic evidence is the best tool you can use in a personal injury claim.
How to Gather Evidence
The first thing to do after a serious injury accident is to get medical care, even if you don’t feel like you were seriously hurt. In some accidents, adrenaline is high and you might not feel as much pain as you would normally. Other injuries might not show symptoms right away.
If you are able to, you should also take photos of the accident site as soon as possible. Accident scenes change as things get repaired or moved. Water dries and ice melts. The sooner you (or someone else) can take photos, the better.
It’s best to get photos from various angles. For example, in a slip-and-fall accident, showing the stairs or floor from different angles can better show just how hazardous the situation was. If possible, try to take videos as well. Even standard smartphone images and video clips are better than nothing.
Take photos of your injuries. You can’t expect to get photos at the hospital or clinic. Make sure to get as many images as possible of your bruising, burns, or puncture wounds. These photographs will bolster the medical reports by providing more evidence that your injuries caused significant pain and suffering.
Lastly, medical records are essential if you’re planning on making a case for compensation. Medical reports from a hospital or clinic will firmly establish the nature and severity of the injuries you suffered, whether it was a car accident or a bad fall at a business.
Reasons to Hire a Lawyer
A personal injury attorney can help prove your injuries were caused by the accident by taking a few steps. A law firm will:
- Obtain a copy of the police report
- Interview medical personnel who were on the scene
- Interview witnesses
- Photograph the accident scene
- Obtain and review electronic records and security camera footage
A law firm will also take over all communication with the other party (or parties) and their insurance company. Insurance companies always have legal counsel looking after their interests, which makes it a challenge to pursue compensation for pain, suffering, and medical bills.
Contact a Personal Injury Attorney Today
If you suffered serious injuries in an accident that wasn’t your fault, a personal injury lawyer can help you to protect your rights and pursue compensation.
An expert witness is defined as a specialist in a subject, often technical, who may present their expert opinion without having been a witness to any occurrence related to a lawsuit or criminal case.
If you have filed a lawsuit for a personal injury matter, your attorney will likely retain experts to substantiate your claims about the incident that caused your injuries or your current and future medical treatments and costs. Expert witnesses are instrumental to personal injury cases because their unbiased opinions and findings bring credibility to the plaintiff’s claims and strengthen cases overall.
In this blog, we will take a look at expert requirements in the state of Nevada pursuant to NRCP 16.1.
Expert Requirements in the State of Nevada Pursuant to NRCP 16.1 and Expert Depositions
Parties must disclose the identity of any expert witness they intend to present at the time of trial. NRCP 16.1(a)(2)(A). Such disclosure must be accompanied by an expert report that is prepared and signed by the witness. NRCP 16.1(a)(2)(B). The expert report must contain:
- A complete statement of the expert’s opinions and the basis/reason for those opinions;
- The facts or data considered by the expert witness when developing his or her opinion;
- The exhibits the expert will use to summarize or support the opinions;
- A listing of the witness’s qualifications, including all publications authored in the ten years prior to the disclosure;
- A list of all cases in the 4 years prior to the disclosure in which the expert testified as an expert in a trial or deposition; and
- The billing statements for the expert’s work on the file.
NRCP 16.1(a)(2)(B)(i)-(vi).
As for depositions, a party may depose the opposing party’s expert witness who has been disclosed as one who may be presented at trial only after the expert report is provided. NRCP 26(b)(4)(A). A party may not depose or serve interrogatories on an opposing party’s expert if that expert was only employed in anticipation of litigation or who is not expected to be called to testify at trial. NRCP 26(b)(4)(D). If a party wishes to depose the other party’s expert, the deposing party must pay the expert’s “reasonable and customary hourly or daily fee for the actual time consumed in the examination of that expert.” NRCP 30(h)(1)(A).
Draft expert reports and communications between counsel and experts are protected from disclosure, with the exception of communications related to: compensation for the expert’s work; the facts or data counsel provides the expert; or assumptions counsel provided the expert which the expert then relied upon to form his or her opinions. NRCP 26(b)(4)(B)(C).
The determination of whether an expert will be permitted to offer testimony at trial falls squarely within the district court’s discretion. It is a case-by-case analysis and will depend on the issues presented in the litigation, the particular facts in the case, and the party who is presenting the expert as a witness.
Thanks to Eglet Adams, personal injury lawyers, for their insight into expert requirements.
Personal Injury Lawyer
Many people benefit from hiring an attorney, like a personal injury lawyer from Johnston Martineau, LLP, after an accident. However, that does not mean that it is always the right thing to do. In some situations, the potential downsides of hiring an attorney outweigh the potential benefits.
How You May Benefit From Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney
It is difficult to try to plan a court case while you are still recovering from a serious injury. Hiring a personal injury attorney allows you to concentrate on your rehabilitation and leave your lawsuit in experienced, capable hands.
An attorney’s experience is important when handling a personal injury case. A well-trained, critical eye in evaluating the damage can help identify key evidence that you may miss. Experience filing legal paperwork can prevent a potentially devastating clerical error. Hiring an attorney helps to level the playing field because the other side will almost always have its own legal representation.
When a Personal Injury Attorney May Not Be Required
If you are not injured, or not injured seriously, then there are little to no damages to collect from the party responsible for the accident. If that is the case, then there is no reason for you to hire a personal injury attorney. However, before you make the decision, be sure you get an evaluation from a doctor. Sometimes the symptoms of a serious injury may be delayed, and you may not realize that you are hurt badly until after you have accepted a settlement, at which point it is too late to file a lawsuit.
Before you decide to hire a personal injury attorney, you should understand how you will be billed. Rather than charging by the hour, personal injury attorneys usually bill on a contingency basis. This means that you pay nothing if you lose your case, but if you do win, your attorney takes a portion of your award or settlement. The percentage can vary, but assume that the attorney asks for 33%, or one-third, of the damages you recover. To justify the expense of hiring the attorney, he or she will have to improve your expected results by more than 50%.
If you feel the initial settlement the insurance company offers you is fair, then you can simply accept it without hiring an attorney or filing a lawsuit. However, you should know that the initial settlement offer is almost never really fair, and you might want to think about it before agreeing to it.
Remember that the first offer is almost never the last offer, and once you accept a settlement, you forfeit your right to take any further legal action. A lawyer would be happy to assess your situation and determine what you really deserve when you contact a law office.
Auto Accident Lawyer
Personal injury cases depend on evidence to prove that a careless driver is responsible for paying compensation. Evidence can come in the form of testimony, but when a bicyclist and a driver collide, a jury might have difficulty deciding which person has a more accurate perception of how the injury occurred. Physical evidence, combined with the testimony of neutral witnesses, makes a bicyclist’s injury claim stronger.
To maximize the opportunity to obtain full compensation for a bicycle accident injury, it is important to preserve evidence. Taking some simple steps can help a bicycle accident lawyer bring a successful injury claim.
Making a Police Report After a Bicycle Accident
Every state requires drivers to report a traffic accident to the police if the accident causes an injury. Not every driver follows that rule. An injured bicyclist should either contact the police or make sure that someone else contacts the police. Ask the driver to say at the scene until the police arrive.
It is also wise to ask to see the driver’s license of the person who caused the accident. Making a note of the driver’s name and the license plate will discourage the driver from leaving before the police arrive.
The police will conduct an accident investigation. The officer will gather information to determine how the accident occurred. The accident should take the names of witnesses, but the bicyclist should ask witnesses for their names and phone numbers, just in case they leave before the officer arrives.
The officer might take measurements of the accident scene and will probably draw a sketch. If you think the officer is getting it wrong, make your side of the story known.
Take Photographs After a Bicycle Accident
A bicyclist who is carrying a smartphone should use the camera app to take pictures of the accident scene. Try to take pictures before the car or the bicycle are moved. If the collision dented or scratched the car, take photos of the damage.
Also take some pictures of the bicycle. The photographs will help you prove that the bicycle damage was caused by the collision, not by something that happened later.
If there are skid marks, glass from a broken headline, or scattered debris from the damaged bicycle, photograph them. Since that evidence could be lost with the passage of time, documenting it is the best way to assure that all the facts are known.
Keep Your Damaged Bike for Evidence After a Bicycle Accident
Car crashes often destroy bicycles. Don’t junk the bike. A mangled bicycle makes a powerful exhibit at trial.
Even if the bicycle can be repaired, don’t repair it without first getting legal advice. The bicycle damage can hold clues to how the accident happened. An engineer who examines the bike may be able to draw conclusions that will help you prove your case. For example, if there is a dispute as to which party collided with the other, the nature of the bicycle damage might help you prove that the driver crashed into the bicycle.
In addition, the insurance company that insures the driver must be given an opportunity to inspect the bike. If that inspection might shed light on who was responsible for the collision, you have a legal obligation to maintain the bike in its post-accident condition.
A legal principle known as spoliation allows judges to punish parties who fail to preserve relevant evidence. The judge might tell the jury that it can presume you failed to preserve the bike because you wanted to conceal its condition from the insurance company. A jury might then decide that your failure to preserve the bike proves that you were responsible for the accident.
Before you do anything to alter physical evidence of the accident, talk to a bicycle accident lawyer. Your lawyer can tell you whether and for how long the evidence needs to be preserved.
Personal Injury Lawyer Deer Park, TX
Every now and then, we receive a call from someone who is desperate for legal help, but cannot find any personal injury lawyer to take on their case. Often, these people are feeling hopeless and frustrated because they believe they have a valid case, but yet are only receiving responses such as “We’re sorry, but we are unable to help you at this time. Please consult another personal injury lawyer.”
If you are in a similar situation, we understand that you might be annoyed, but there may be a few reasons as to why you are having a hard time finding a lawyer.
The Reason for Generic Answers
If a lawyer has denied your claim, they most likely did not give you a reason why. In fact, you probably got a very general reply. First and foremost, many lawyers have different expectations for a case. For example, some lawyers will only handle cases that involve large corporations and others will focus on small claims cases. Even if you have been denied by a handful of lawyers, does not mean you don’t have a case. It just means you might be asking the wrong lawyer for help.
To add to this, a lawyer won’t say you have a “bad” case, especially while the statute is running. To say that could mean that you immediately lose hope. It is in the best interest of a lawyer to provide you with a generic response; something like:
“Thank you for contacting our firm. We reviewed your case and are unable to help you.”
If you have received responses like the above, it may be worth your time and effort to keep searching for a personal injury lawyer. Bare in mind, if you were reaching out to any lawyer, such as a general lawyer, it may be a good idea to try talking with a lawyer who focuses on personal injury law. Finally, if you feel like you have exhausted your efforts, the following information may explain why you are unable to find a lawyer for your personal injury claim.
Why Your Case Might Not Have Been Accepted by a Personal Injury Lawyer
- The injuries you sustained were not serious enough
- It is not clear who is responsible
- You were completely at fault
- The anticipated recovery of compensation is not much more than the cost of building your case
- There are relevant damage caps or tort reforms associated with your case
- There are location or proximity issues
- You are not filling a claim for money, but rather as a method of “revenge”
- You have exceeded the statute of limitations
- You did not provide the lawyer with enough information
Potential Problems with Your Medical Care
The lawyer you talk to might ask you about the medical care you have received following the accident. When you received it and through which method can affect the value and strength of your case.
It is your right to seek compensation for your medical care; however, you cannot ask for an amount that cannot be backed up by the doctors’ diagnosis and recommendations. In other words, it has to be reasonable. If you have received any questionable care, a lawyer or defending side may challenge this care. Furthermore, questions might be raised if your medical bills are higher than the average amount of a similar service. If a lawyer is denying your case based on medical care, it may be because:
- You underwent experimental procedures for treatment
- You sought care for unrelated medical issues
- There are significant gaps between your treatment
- You waiting an excessive period of time to get treatment
- You have not followed your doctor’s orders
- You’re being treated by a doctor who has been investigated for fraud
- You have not seen a medical doctor yet, and there is a large gap in time between now and the accident
All lawyers have different expectations. As a general rule of thumb, you should consult 3-8 lawyers before you choose one, or give up. If you would like to talk with a personal injury lawyer Deer Park, TX relies on, call today.
Contact John K. Zaid & Associates for their insight into personal injury claims and why you might be struggling to find a lawyer.
Having a PIP, or personal injury protection, policy while traveling can help the policyholder cover the costs of medical bills and lost wages for himself and his passengers. As opposed to standard automobile insurance, PIP insurance is no-fault auto insurance that covers the driver and associated parties despite who caused the accident. In some states, PIP insurance is a mandatory extension of standard car insurance.
PIP Coverage
Per the particular policy, personal injury protection insurance may pay up to 80 percent of the driver and passengers’ medical bills, including rehabilitation. Sometimes, PIP covers the injuries of other drivers and pedestrians. If necessary, PIP also covers funeral costs.
Personal Injury Protection Versus Medical Payments Coverage
Medical payments coverage, or Med Pay, is another type of automobile insurance. While medical payments coverage and personal injury protection coverage share similarities, they differ in several ways. Like PIP, Med Pay covers the driver and passengers’ medical bills. Unlike PIP, Med Pay will not cover funeral costs, lost wages and other expenses. Therefore, many drivers prefer PIP.
Claims and Settlements
Generally, a policyholder who has personal injury protection insurance receives a settlement faster than a policyholder who has another type of automobile insurance. However, insurance companies do not always handle claims fairly and quickly. Anyone who is tired of dealing with their insurance company should seek advice from one of the personal injury attorneys at zaidlaw.com. Usually, PIP cases can be resolved without going to court, but if necessary, the attorney can file a lawsuit in order to seek a favorable settlement for the client.
Driving is dangerous, and anyone who spends a lot of time behind the wheel should consider personal injury protection insurance. Besides providing coverage for the policyholder, PIP insurance covers any passengers such as the policyholder’s spouse, children, friends or coworkers. The decision to forego PIP insurance is simply not worth the risk.
Many times a person in an auto accident hasn’t clue what to do especially if damages are involved. Oh, sure, medical and the police may be involve but that’s only to insure that the people involved know who to contact. The first step a person should remember is to keep your mouth shut and don’t admit anything. The second step is to contact a personal injury lawyer who handles cases like this for a living. However, in some cases, people are hesitant to contact a personal injury lawyer for many reasons. Here are few myths you should remember that are not true:
When hiring a lawyer who specializes in personal injury cases it will cost a fortune.
The truth is that most cases of this type are taken on a “contingency” basis which simply means if your lawyer loses the case and the judge does not rule in your favor, you owe nothing.
Another myth is that a personal injury lawyer spends his or her time running around town looking for car accidents.
Actually, in most cities a personal injury lawyer is forbidden from contacting any accident victims prior to thirty days. It’s a rule in most states.
A personal injury lawyer can file a false law suit claim.
Oh, please. A personal injury lawyer is not going to file a frivolous lawsuit and lose their license that may or may not have any chance of being awarded a small or large settlement.
Payouts on a personal injury claim is guaranteed.
You wish. Insurance companies will fight your claim, so your lawyer, if they have a case, should build a good, strong case.
As of 2014, there are about 318.9 million people living in the United States. Now, we all know that no human being is perfect 24/7, which means that with all of these people there are bound to be some accidents. However, you are lucky that every person has the ability to protect his/her legal rights after an accident or injury. This article is for those who may be unfamiliar with personal injury law, or how to proceed after an accident or injury occurs.
A personal injury case is a legal dispute that occurs when a person suffers harm from an accident or injury that someone else may be legally responsible for. It can become formalized through civil court proceedings that seek to find others legally at fault through a court judgment. Formal lawsuits are started when an individual files a civil complaint against another person, business, corporation, or government agency, claiming that they acted carelessly in connection with the accident or injury. However, it is common that such disputes are resolved through an informal settlement before any lawsuit is filed. These informal settlements occur among those personally involved in the dispute, their insurers, and attorneys representing both sides. It is a negotiation that is followed by a written agreement in which both sides agree to resolve the matter through an agreed upon amount of money.
If you have had an accident that has impacted your life, you will want to consult with an experienced attorney to see if you should pursue a lawsuit or reach a settlement. It is advised to do so as soon as you can after the accident/injury due to statutes of limitations. Statutes of limitations are like deadlines in which you have to pursue legal action or else you can no longer do so. They are established by state law and often vary by type of injury. For example, in Texas, it is two years for an injury, but five years for sex crimes and one year for libel or slander.
If you believe that you have the potential for a personal injury case, it is very important to consult an experienced attorney. It is good to know as many details as you can about the events that led up to the accident/injury and all that were involved. Gather all the information you can before consulting an attorney. The more facts you can provide him/her, the better they can work to help you out.
The game
The Pokemon game just surfaces weeks ago and already causing injuries due to gameplay. Let me brief you about the game in case you are not familiar with it. This is what you refer to as an augmented reality game, in which players are allowed to hold Pokemon captive (fictional characters based on Japanese franchise, i.e. video game, card game, etc.) in the actual world. These creatures are viewed through the camera of player’s phone as they walk through their neighborhood.
The game itself took some certain preventive measures and warned players to be aware of their surroundings and play safely, but many are not heading to this warning resulting into injuries.
The injuries
Injuries arise as a result of loss of attention in watching the walkway; they are busy staring at their smart phone’s screen resulting in them slipping, tripping and falling into ditches and holes
Thanks to the creator of the game, the game will not start up while traveling at more than 20mph since it is meant to be played while walking and not while driving. Some gamers would have picked up interest in playing while on the wheel.
This is not just a problem for the children, as many of the injured are in their late 20s and 30s.
The positive side
Since the game is played while walking, people get to exercise their legs while playing. People bump into each other at the Pokemon site and get to interact with each other. So also people get to spend time outdoor when searching for pokemon in places such as parks, landmarks and other outdoor location they have never visited.
Precautions to take while playing
• Don’t play while driving. It is tantamount to texting while driving which is against the law and can at the same time be deadly.
• If walking or cycling, keep your eyes on the walkway. You stop to collect your creature once you sight a Pokemon. The game is nor worth an elbow, ankle or head injury, talk less your life.
Be smart and play safe.
