Accidents can happen in the blink of an eye. When they do, they can leave you with physical pain, emotional scars, and a mountain of unexpected bills.
If someone else caused an accident that harmed you, you might be wondering about your next steps. No matter the circumstances surrounding the injury accident, hiring a personal injury attorney can make a significant difference in your case.
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Common Types of Injury Accidents
Hire a personal injury lawyer if you suffer harm in any of the following common types of injury accidents:
- Car Accidents: Car accidents occur when vehicles collide due to speeding, distracted driving, or poor weather. These incidents can result in minor to severe injuries and significant property damage.
- Truck Accidents: Truck accidents involve collisions with larger commercial vehicles that often lead to more severe consequences. These accidents can result from driver fatigue, inadequate training, or equipment failure.
- Motorcycle Accidents: Motorcyclists lack the protective barriers cars offer, making traffic collisions particularly hazardous for riders. Common causes include visibility issues, road hazards, and inattentive vehicle drivers.
- Bicycle Accidents: Cyclists, like motorcycle riders, experience direct bodily impacts during accidents. Helmets and protective gear reduce but don’t eliminate the risk of serious injury for cyclists in traffic collisions.
- Rideshare Accidents: Rideshare accidents are collisions involving transportation services like Uber and Lyft. Both the driver’s and the company’s insurance might apply in these situations, which makes many rideshare accident claims unusually complex.
- Pedestrian Accidents: When cars strike pedestrians, the pedestrians often suffer severe injuries due to the direct impact and lack of protection. Common causes include driver negligence and impaired driving.
- Dog Bite Incidents: While some breeds have reputations for aggressive behavior, any dog can bite under certain circumstances. Dog bites can lead to painful injuries, infections, and emotional trauma.
- Traumatic Brain Injuries: These injuries result from a jolt or blow to the head, leading to long-term cognitive, physical, and emotional impairments. Causes range from accidental falls to acts of violence.
- Slip and Fall Accidents: These accidents occur when someone slips, trips, or falls due to hazardous conditions like wet floors or uneven surfaces. In some cases, property owners are liable for preventable fall injuries.
- Dangerous Product Injuries: Faulty or poorly designed products harm countless consumers. Injuries can result from malfunctioning appliances, harmful medications, and children’s toys without proper warning labels.
How Common Are Preventable Injuries?
Preventable injury accidents are common in the United States.
Below is a summary of the most recent annual nonfatal injury data from the National Safety Council (NSC) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
- The United States saw 224,935 preventable deaths and 62 million preventable, nonfatal injuries.
- In total, the associated costs from these preventable injury accidents amounted to $1.23 trillion.
- The leading cause of nonfatal injuries was unintentional falls, with 6,981,390 reported incidents representing 29.8 percent of nonfatal injuries.
- Injuries from unintentional struck-by or -against incidents numbered 2,373,706, making up 10.1 percent of all nonfatal injuries.
- Unintentional motor vehicle accident injuries affected 1,876,520 vehicle occupants, constituting 8.0 percent of nonfatal injuries.
- Unintentional poisoning incidents caused 1,734,576 nonfatal injuries, or 7.4 percent of the total.
- Injuries due to unintentional overexertion numbered 1,612,781, representing 6.9 percent of nonfatal injuries that year.
- Unintentional cutting or piercing incidents led to 1,540,617 injuries, or 6.6 percent of nonfatal injuries.
- Intentional assaults involving struck-by or -against injuries from another person totaled 917,749 cases in 2021, or 3.9 percent of nonfatal injuries.
- Unintentional bites and stings resulted in 611,729 nonfatal injuries, which is 2.6 percent of the total.
- Cases involving the unintentional presence of foreign objects in the body numbered 483,703, accounting for 2.1 percent of nonfatal injuries.
Benefits of Hiring a Personal Injury Lawyer
If you suffer an injury due to someone else’s wrongdoing, hiring a personal injury lawyer offers considerable advantages.
A Personal Injury Lawyer Knows the Relevant Laws
A personal injury lawyer has the years of education and practical experience necessary to understand the intricacies of the legal system. They spend countless hours studying specific regulations, case laws, and legal precedents in personal injury law.
This deep-rooted knowledge allows them to accurately assess the merits of your case, advise you on the most suitable courses of action, and develop effective strategies tailored to your situation.
Additionally, personal injury laws vary from state to state. A seasoned attorney stays updated on the latest legal changes and nuances specific to their jurisdiction.
They know which laws apply to different injury types, whether from car accidents, medical malpractice, or slip and fall incidents. Moreover, they can identify when someone else has violated your rights and determine the fair compensation you could claim as a result.
By hiring a personal injury lawyer, you ensure you have a qualified advocate on your side to uphold your rights and interests in court. Their knowledge of relevant laws levels the playing field against opposing parties and maximizes your chances of a favorable outcome.
Your Attorney Can Save You Time and Stress
Recovering from an injury often involves a whirlwind of medical appointments, therapy sessions, and missed work days. The last things you want at a time like this are the additional burdens of completing paperwork, deciphering filing requirements, and negotiating with insurance companies.
Hiring a personal injury lawyer can alleviate all these pressures. With a lawyer at your side, you gain a dedicated professional who can manage every aspect of your case while you focus on your recovery.
From the outset, an attorney can gather useful evidence, interview witnesses, and file all necessary case paperwork. They can communicate directly with insurance adjusters, ensuring that you receive fair treatment and avoid the pitfalls of lowball settlement offers that are insufficient for your needs.
Handling the injury claims process requires meticulous attention to detail. Without a lawyer, you might inadvertently miss key steps or deadlines that could jeopardize your case. By delegating these responsibilities to a professional, you free up your time to prioritize healing and getting your life back on track.
In essence, the comprehensive services of a personal injury lawyer mean you don’t have to sweat the small stuff – or the big stuff. You can rest easy knowing a competent professional is handling your case.
An Experienced Lawyer Knows What Your Case Is Worth
Determining the value of a personal injury case is rarely a straightforward task. Multiple factors, including your medical expenses, income losses, pain and suffering, and long-term recovery costs, can all play a part.
An experienced lawyer knows how to accurately evaluate each of these factors to prepare a claim for the compensation you rightfully deserve.
Over time, seasoned injury lawyers develop a keen sense for assessing case values. They routinely analyze various injury cases, studying outcomes and noting trends in local settlements and judgments. This firsthand experience allows them to draw from a reservoir of useful knowledge when determining potential payouts.
Additionally, a lawyer brings objectivity to the process. After suffering an injury in an accident, it’s easy to undervalue or overestimate your claim due to emotional involvement. But an attorney offers a balanced perspective. They can provide an impartial assessment of your claim value and aim for the most favorable settlement possible under the circumstances.
An Attorney Can Identify All Possible Sources of Compensation
After an injury accident, it’s natural to focus on the most obvious source of compensation, like the other driver’s auto insurance if you were in a car crash. But there are often additional sources of compensation to consider.
An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you identify every potentially liable party so you can access all available financial resources.
Consider this: in a car accident, numerous other parties could be liable in addition to the other driver. Vehicle manufacturers could be liable for defects, construction companies for unsafe road conditions, or local governments for missing traffic signs. If you slip and fall on someone else’s property, a third-party carpet installer or escalator manufacturer could be liable in addition to the property owner.
A lawyer also understands insurance inside and out. They can guide you on claims you can make against your own insurance, like underinsured motorist (UIM) claims or claims against your health insurance policy.
They can also advise you in situations where multiple policies apply, maximizing the financial support you can access during your recovery.
Your Lawyer Can Establish a Strong Case To Prove Liability
If you suffer an injury due to someone else’s wrongful behavior, you’ll need to prove their liability to claim compensation from them or their insurance provider. This means demonstrating that the other party injured you and owes you compensation.
This is where an attorney comes in handy.
Attorneys know how to identify, gather, and preserve useful case evidence, from video footage to witness statements. They can review every detail available and fit all the pieces of the puzzle together to build a compelling case on your behalf.
In many situations, multiple parties share the blame. If this is true for your case, your lawyer can identify each one and determine their respective level of responsibility. They can also protect your rights by countering any attempts by opposing parties to shift the blame onto you.
Lawyers also frequently collaborate with experts as necessary to reinforce injury cases. This might include medical experts to attest to the extent of your injuries or accident reconstruction specialists to clarify how a collision occurred. These experts can provide valuable insights into the causes and consequences of injury accidents, bolstering your compensation claims.
A Lawyer Knows How to Negotiate With Big Insurance Companies
If you’ve ever tried to handle an insurance claim on your own, you know that insurance companies are often tough to deal with. They employ subtle tactics to protect their profits by minimizing payouts and denying claims, leaving many injury victims without the support and resources they need.
Your lawyer understands the strategies these companies use. With their knowledge and familiarity, they can confidently negotiate on your behalf and prevent the insurance companies from taking advantage of you. They can present your case with the strongest possible evidence and push for the compensation you deserve.
The mere act of hiring a lawyer boosts your chances of recovering fair compensation. Insurance companies prefer to avoid costly court battles. When they see you have professional legal representation, they’re more likely to offer a fair settlement. Your attorney can evaluate every offer closely to ensure it meets your needs and advise you on the best course of action if it doesn’t.
Remember, insurance companies prioritize their profits. On your own, you might feel pressure to accept a lowball offer. But with an experienced personal injury lawyer by your side, you level the playing field, giving yourself the best chance at a fair and just outcome.
Your Attorney Can Take Your Case to Trial if Necessary
While most personal injury cases settle out of court, some go to trial if it’s not possible to secure a fair settlement. Here’s where your attorney can truly shine.
From the outset, most lawyers prepare your case as if it will go to trial. This thorough preparation often encourages opposing parties to settle once they see just how strong your case is. But if the other party doesn’t agree to a fair settlement, you have an advocate ready to present your case in front of a judge or jury.
Your attorney can handle all the intricate details of trial preparation, from filing the necessary paperwork to deposing witnesses and selecting a jury. They can present evidence, cross-examine witnesses, and articulate your side of the story in a compelling manner before the court.
A good lawyer stands by your side at each stage of your case, fighting for your rights and ensuring all sides hear your voice every step of the way. So, if your case needs to go to trial, you can rest assured knowing you have a seasoned professional advocating for your best interests.
