Personal injuries can happen at any point in your daily life, even when you are sleeping. Someone else does not even intentionally need to try to harm you. While accidents do happen, some things are not accidents in the true sense of the word. They would not happen if someone else took the proper amount of care.
If you have suffered a personal injury, you need legal help from our Chattahoochee Hills personal injury attorneys. We can help you as you seek to hold someone accountable and get paid for the damages that you have suffered. We can help in the following types of cases:
- Car Accidents
- Motorcycle Accidents
- Pedestrian Accidents
- Truck Accidents
- Slip and Falls
- Product Liability
- Dog Bites
- MARTA Accidents
- Drunk Driving Accidents
- Boating Accidents
- Lyft and Uber Accidents
- Brain Injury
- Back and Neck Injury
- Wrongful Death
Proving Your Personal Injury Case
If you or a loved one has been harmed by someone else’s carelessness, you have a legal right to financial compensation. Before you can even begin to discuss the money that you deserve, you must prove that another person or company was responsible for your injuries. This is not always easy. It is one thing to say that something happened to you. It is another thing to prove it.
Proving liability for your personal injury case requires facts. If your case goes to court, you need to show the jury that it is more likely than not that someone else was negligent. Gathering the necessary evidence is difficult when you are dealing with injuries, and the defendant will do everything possible to keep you from the records and proof that your case requires.
You must satisfy all four elements of the test for negligence to receive personal injury compensation. They are:
- The at-fault party owed you a duty of care, meaning they were required to act reasonably.
- They breached the duty by doing something that a reasonable person would not have done under the circumstances. It is assumed that reasonable people exercise a degree of caution and follow applicable rules and regulations.
- You suffered some type of injury, whether it was physical or to your property.
- You would not have been injured had it not been for what the at-fault party did or did not do.
Evidence in Your Personal Injury Case
Your lawyer could use the following to prove that should else is legally obligated to pay for your injuries:
- Witness testimony from someone who saw what happened
- Video camera footage at the time of the accident
- Pictures of the scene of the accident
- Documentary evidence, including the defendant’s own records
- Expert witness testimony that could establish that the defendant acted unreasonably
Regardless of what evidence you use, your lawyer will work to avoid a situation where it is your word against the defendant’s.
Damages in Your Personal Injury Case
Proving fault is just the first part of your personal injury case. You must also obtain the right amount of compensation to pay for all of the damages that you have suffered. The concept of personal injury damages is that you must be put in the same exact position as if the accident never happened at all. It is impossible to restore your physical health and situation to what it was beforehand, so money is used as a shorthand.
Your personal injury damages are broken down into two categories (along with a possible third category).
- Economic damages – these pay you for the financial costs of your injury. They include money that you could have made but did not (lost wages) and money that you had to pay out because of your injuries (medical bills and property damage)
- Non-economic damages – these pay you for the experience that you have lived through and will endure in the future because of the accident. These damages include pain and suffering, emotional trauma, and the loss of enjoyment of life.
You may also be able to get punitive damages if a jury is outraged by the defendant’s behavior and wants to send a sharp message to them. However, punitive damages are very rare in a personal injury lawsuit.
The Personal Injury Process
The first things that you should do after your injury are:
- Get medical help – in order to file a claim, you must know the exact extent of your injuries. In addition, you may not even know that you have an undiagnosed injury until you see a doctor.
- Contact a personal injury lawyer – your legal rights are at stake from the moment that you are injured. An attorney would learn your case, investigate your accident and let you know how you can obtain financial compensation.
You have several options after you have suffered a personal injury. The first is to work directly with the responsible party’s insurance company. You would file a claim that would include the facts that establish someone else’s fault and your exact damages. The insurance company would review your claim. They would either deny the claim or make you a settlement offer. You can expect that their initial offers will be low, and you would need to negotiate over a period of many months.
The other option is filing a lawsuit against the defendant and letting the jury decide the matter. In reality, you would still continue to negotiate a settlement while your case is pending. Going to trial has its risks, and it will add time to your case, but it may be your best option in some cases. Your personal injury lawyer will work with you on the most effective legal strategy.
Call a Hills Personal Injury Attorney
An experienced personal injury lawyer at Spaulding Injury Law can assist you throughout the legal process. Not only will financial compensation give you the money that you need, but it will also give you a sense of justice when you have suffered because of someone else.
Call our Chattahoochee Hills personal injury attorneys at (470) 509-5772 or contact us online to schedule your free initial consultation. We will learn more about your case and explain your options for your personal injury case.
