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Dealing with injuries, property damage, and other losses that result from an accident can leave you in dire financial straits. If the accident was someone else’s fault, why should you be the one to pay for all of these losses?
At Torgenson Law, our Litchfield Park personal injury lawyers can help you get the compensation you need.
In the United States, unintentional injuries are the number one cause of death for people between the ages of one and 44, with car accidents topping that list. But what do we mean by personal injury, and what can you expect from the process?
A personal injury refers to any injury that one person or entity causes another person because of intentional, reckless, or negligent behavior. In some instances, it can be covered under strict liability law. The injury can cause harm to your physical or mental well-being, or it can affect your reputation.
A personal injury case is a civil one, not a criminal one, but intent can still play a role. That’s especially true when it comes to the kinds of damages you can claim.
Personal injury law, also called tort law, is the body of law that applies if someone has harmed you. You are the plaintiff in your case, while the other party is the defendant.
Accidental injuries are the ones that most commonly lead to personal injury claims. These are injuries that you sustain because of someone else’s negligent actions or from their failure to live up to a professional obligation. Medical malpractice falls into this category, along with premise liability and car accidents.
If someone hurts you on purpose, you can also pursue a claim to recover damages. Examples of these kinds of injuries are those that result from battery or assault.
In certain instances, you don’t have to prove negligence. This applies to product liability claims, in which the party that created the product that caused you harm didn’t want to cause intentional harm or didn’t act in a negligent manner.
Most of the time, you can file a claim against the person or entity that caused the injuries, but some claims can be more complex and involve several parties. For example, in a medical malpractice case, you can file a claim against the physician who harmed you, but you could also file one against the clinic that employed them.
After you deal with your injuries, go through the process of reporting an accident, alert any necessary insurance companies, and fulfill any other legal responsibilities you may have, it can be tempting to just settle the claim on your own or try to move on. That can be a serious mistake. The best thing you can do is reach out to an attorney.
Personal injury attorneys will first assess your claim to make sure you have one and to get an idea of the kind of compensation you may be able to receive. Unless you’ve studied personal injury law, it can be very difficult to get a sense of how much you could recover.
A lawyer brings objectivity to the claim. Suffering serious injuries or dealing with emotional trouble may not allow you to see the claim correctly. When you hire a personal injury lawyer, they will be able to bring years of experience to help you ask for fair compensation.
After an insurance company is notified of the accident you were involved in, it can reach out to you. The representative may claim they want to hear your side of the story to see what happened, but that’s not really what they’re after. They want to get a statement that they can use against you later on to deny your claim.
The insurance company may bully you to sign a release form to get your medical records, claiming that it will verify your injuries. This is another tactic that is meant to hurt you.
When you hire a personal injury lawyer, you can leave all of this to them to handle. They will help you prevent critical mistakes with insurance companies that could result in you missing out on compensation.
Neither insurers nor the other parties involved in the claim are focused on helping you. They want to pay you as little as they can get away with, and they will try everything to invalidate your claim.
Insurance companies are known for sending low-ball offers and then trying to bully you into accepting them by threatening to withhold payment altogether. After dealing with the trauma of an accident, you may accept an inadequate offer just to be done with it all.
When you have a lawyer helping you, you can leave the negotiations to them. They’ll be able to deal with the insurance companies and other parties while you focus on your recovery.
Many times, especially when dealing with companies or other large entities, you will be up against a veritable army of lawyers trying to disprove your claim. Even insurance companies will involve their lawyers in the process. It’s never a good idea to try to file a claim on your own.
Most assume that all personal injury claims in Arizona come with a two-year statute of limitations. However, that’s not always the case. There are many exceptions to this law, depending on the kind of claim, who the defendant is, and more.
If you aren’t experienced in personal injury law, you could easily assume you have time to file a claim when you actually don’t. If you miss the deadline, you won’t have another chance to get compensation.
When you rely on a personal injury lawyer, that’s not something you have to worry about. They’ll keep your claim on track.
If there are disputes about who was at fault, or if the other parties refuse to pay a fair amount, what are your options? If you have a personal injury lawyer helping you, they can file a lawsuit and take your case to court. If you don’t have a lawyer, you won’t have many other options.
Just because you suffered an injury as a result of an accident doesn’t mean that you can get compensation as part of a personal injury claim. For most kinds of personal injury claims, you’ll have to prove that the other party was negligent. To do so, you must meet a few requirements.
The first requirement is to show that the other party has a duty of care. If they own a store, for example, they have to ensure that the shop’s premises are safe for customers. Another example is someone in their car on the road. They owe a duty of care to everyone else, meaning they have to drive safely and follow laws.
The next step is to show that the other party breached that duty of care. In the store example, if there are loose stair steps that can cause someone to fall and there are no warning signs, that’s a breach of care. On the road, if a driver is texting while driving, they’re also breaching their duty of care to everyone else.
You then have to show that the losses you suffered stem from that person’s negligence. If you fell because of loose stair steps and sustained head or back injuries, that helps prove negligence. If the driver who was texting caused an accident that resulted in broken bones, that meets the requirements.
The last requirement is that the losses you’ve suffered can be compensated. If the loose stair steps led to a light scratch, for example, it’s going to be tough to prove that you should be compensated for that. If the driver caused you to get a bruise on your arm, that, too, doesn’t really meet the requirement.
There are exceptions to everything, however, so it’s essential that you reach out to a personal injury lawyer to verify whether you have a claim or not.
After being in an accident in Litchfield Park, you can claim what are called special and general damages.
Special or economic damages refer to those that you can put a price on. The first of these is medical expenses. After an accident, you may need to go to the hospital or receive other types of medical care. This can put a serious strain on your finances. By claiming medical expenses, you can get coverage for these kinds of bills.
For people who’ve suffered injuries that require ongoing care, getting coverage for future medical expenses is also a possibility.
Another type of economic damage is property damage, which often occurs during a car accident. If you have to repair or replace your car, the at-fault party has to cover these costs.
Lost wages is another type of special damage. Getting treatment for injuries can mean missing work, and that results in you making less than you would otherwise have made. You should be able to get compensation for lost wages.
If the injury is severe enough that it prevents you from working in the future or stops you from doing your previous job, you can also get future wages.
After an accident that wasn’t your fault, you also have the chance to claim damages that are more subjective and intangible. These are non-economic damages.
Pain and suffering is the most common of these. When you suffer an injury, you can experience physical and emotional distress that can severely impact your life. Pain and suffering damages compensate you for this.
If the injuries prevent you from living your life as you once did, you may be able to claim loss of enjoyment of life.
For those who have lost a loved one as a result of the accident or whose loved one sustained disabling injuries, loss of companionship is something else you may be able to claim.
Although punitive damages are not often granted, they may be available if the person who caused the accident acted with malice and intended to harm you. These aren’t considered compensatory damages but are instead intended to punish the person.
When you turn to us at Torgenson Law, you can receive help for a number of different case types.
Car accidents are very common throughout all of Arizona. Someone behind the wheel has a duty to follow all traffic laws and regulations — if they don’t and their action leads to an accident, you can get compensation.
Distracted driving, intoxicated driving, and reckless driving are the most common causes of car accidents, but there could be many actions that lead to them.
At Torgenson Law, we help with all types of car, motorcycle, truck, bicycle, and pedestrian accidents.
We also handle premises liability claims. These involve injuries that you sustain at a private or commercial location because of the owner’s negligence. Slip and fall accidents are very common, as are negligent security issues, swimming pool accidents, and more.
At Torgenson Law, we also handle dog bite claims. Arizona has strict liability laws in place to help victims of dog bites, but these laws are complex, so reaching out to an attorney is essential to get the compensation you need.
We offer representation for product liability issues, too. If a product doesn’t work as it should and causes an injury, you can get the help you need to pay for medical bills and more. Product liability includes guns, too, and we’ve represented many cases that involve defective weapons.
If a healthcare provider caused you injuries out of negligence, we can help. We provide representation for medical malpractice claims so that you can get fair compensation for what you’ve suffered.
We also handle workers’ compensation claims. If you’ve suffered an injury at work and workers’ compensation isn’t offering enough money to help you deal with your injuries — or if a third party caused the accident at work — we may be able to help.
As you can see, we offer many services at Torgenson Law. This isn’t an exhaustive list, so make sure to reach out to us if you want to know whether we can take on your claim.
When you are dealing with the fallout from an accident that wasn’t your fault, it can be tough to focus on anything else but healing and patching up the financial gaps that resulted from the accident. Filing a personal injury claim may not be a priority, but it should be.
Personal injury claims offer the chance to receive the compensation you need to pay hospital bills and many other expenses. At Torgenson Law in Litchfield Park, we’re dedicated to helping those who have suffered because of someone else’s negligence.
With years of experience under our belts, we can guide you through the entire claims process. If necessary, we can take your case to trial to get you a fair settlement.
Contact us today to learn more about the ways we can help after an accident.
