The civil laws that govern personal injury claims are not always straightforward. At the center is the idea that you have the right to financial compensation when someone else’s actions have injured you. However, getting to the point where an insurance company is willing to write you a check for the proper amount can require some significant work. This is where our Sandtown personal injury attorneys are able to help you.
Accidents can happen in any part of your daily life. From making your breakfast in the morning to driving to work to riding a bicycle in the evening, you never know when you can be hurt by someone else. Nobody has a legal right to be careless or reckless. Making them pay for it is another story.
Our personal injury law firm handles the following types of personal injury cases:
- Car Accidents
- Motorcycle Accidents
- Pedestrian Accidents
- Truck Accidents
- Brain Injury
- Back and Neck Injury
- Slip and Falls
- Product Liability
- Dog Bites
- MARTA Accidents
- Drunk Driving Accidents
- Boating Accidents
- Lyft and Uber Accidents
- Wrongful Death
The Legal Process for Financial Compensation
Your case starts with some kind of injury, whether it is to your person or property. After that, you only have a limited amount of time to begin your legal action against the responsible party. You can work with their insurance company through the claims process or file a civil lawsuit in court. For both, you will need to prove that someone else is to blame for your injuries. Every personal injury case requires evidence of fault of another party.
The legal standard used in every type of personal injury case (except for product liability cases, where you can win by proving that a product was defective) is negligence. There is no strict definition in law of what may be negligence in your case. Instead, the principle of negligence comes from hundreds of years of legal precedent in civil cases just like yours.
Negligence in a Personal Injury Case
When you file a personal injury lawsuit, the burden of proof is on you to prove each element of the four-part test that is used for negligence. The test is as follows:
- The defendant owed you a duty of care (this is usually the easiest part of the case to prove)
- The defendant breached the duty of care by acting unreasonably under the circumstances
- You were injured
- You would not have been injured had it not been for the carelessness or recklessness of the defendant
In any personal injury case, much of the focus is going to be on the second part of the test. Proving that the defendant acted unreasonably means being able to show exactly what they did. While there are some very clear-cut cases of negligence, there are many instances that fall into a gray area if you lack the necessary evidence. If you end up in a position where it is your word against the defendants, you may not win your case. This is exactly why people hire an experienced personal injury lawyer. They know how to gather critical evidence.
Your next step of the case deals with damages. Proving fault is just the first phase. After this, you would reach the damages phase of your claim or case. Sometimes, this may be even more challenging than proving fault.
Getting Full Damages for Your Injury
In any personal injury case, you may be dealing with an insurance company. To be clear, the insurance company is not a judge or jury, but they are a very important intermediary. Settling your case with them could keep you from needing to go through a long trial. Yet, the insurance company is known for being difficult and downright stingy. When you hear lawyers talking about cutting through the red tape, insurance companies are the ones throwing up the barriers.
You are legally entitled to be paid for all the damages that you suffer in an accident. However, the insurance company’s view of your damages will almost always be different from yours. Here is what you may be paid for in a personal injury case:
- Medical bills – All of the costs of your medical care, including surgery, hospital stays, doctor’s visits, prescriptions, medical equipment, and rehabilitation
- Lost wages – If you are unable to work or can do less work than you used to, you can be paid for lost wages. These payments could even include money for promotions that you could not get because of your injury or time missed from work to go to doctor’s appointments.
- Non-economic damages – The defendant must also pay for what you have endured since the accident and will continue to experience in the future. This includes your pain and suffering and emotional distress.
- Wrongful death – If your loved one died from their injuries, your family has its own personal injury lawsuit to pay for what you lost. This includes money that your loved one would have earned, your own grief and trauma, and payment for the loss of love and support.
First, your lawyer will help you place a dollar value on your claim. Not knowing how much your claim is worth could lead to you accepting less than you deserve in compensation. The insurance company definitely knows the value of your case, right down to the dollar.
Call a Sandtown Personal Injury Lawyer
Either you or your family needs to contact a lawyer as soon as possible after the injury. This is not a call that you can afford to delay. What you do in the days after an accident can impact whether you can receive compensation and how much you get.
Spaulding Injury Law are the tough attorneys that you need in your corner when you are trying to recover financially for your injuries. We do not let insurance companies or defendants off the hook. Call us today at (470) 509-5772 or contact us online to discuss your case. You owe us nothing unless you receive a settlement or jury award.
