Why You Need Personal Injury AttorneysPersonal Injury AttorneysUpdated on Feb 15, 2022 View more like this | Visit SILVER SPRING, MD | Contact Curated |
If you have been injured and you’re thinking of pursuing a personal injury case, having an attorney on your side substantially increases your odds of success. Let’s talk about the common types of personal injury and whether or not you need a personal injury attorney.
Common Types of Personal Injury
Personal injury is a term used to describe any variety of injury to an individual’s body, reputation, or emotions. These injuries can come from one or more of the following situations:
- Car accidents
- Slip and fall accidents
- Medical errors and malpractice from surgery, diagnostic errors, poor patient monitoring. About 93% of medical errors and malpractice cases are usually resolved before trial.
- Dog bites: There are around 4.7 million dog bites in the U.S. every year.
Insurance companies offer different covers for these injuries depending on what your priorities are. For example, car accidents are covered under car insurance. Most states require minimum liability insurance but this does not cover personal injuries from an accident you cause.
When Can You Claim Personal Injury
In a successful personal injury or tort action, the party at fault for causing an injury or harm will compensate the victim for the injury or loss. Under tort law, there are three potential grounds when you can file a personal injury claim:
1. Negligence
Often, negligence occurs when a person fails to use logic or a reasonable level of care under particular circumstances. Negligence can be
-Contributory: When the plaintiff cannot recall if they were responsible for causing an accident.
-Comparative: When both the plaintiff and defendant can each be assigned a given percentage of the fault.
2. Intentional Wrong
Also known as intentional tort, this occurs when someone intentionally does something to harm another, for example, deliberate accident, assault, false imprisonment, or placing something somewhere to cause intentional slip-and-fall. Intentional tort is a crime and can lead to litigation.
3. Liability
The standard of strict liability holds defendants liable for causing an injury without regard to any negligence or their intent. For example, in tort states, if you're a driver and cause a car accident, liability will be assigned without regard to your negligence or intent.
Most states require drivers to have minimum liability car insurance to cover car accidents, damages and injuries. The standard minimum liability coverage is your bodily injury liability coverage. However, you may buy additional coverages such as property damage to help you avoid out-of-pocket payments.
Pros of Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney
Hiring a personal injury attorney like injury attorneys DuBoff will make sure you get a better representation of your case. Personal injury law is complex to understand, but with an injury attorney, you can be sure of accurate claim amounts.
Typically, knowing the accurate amount of damages you can recover is an essential part of personal injury cases. A lawyer understands the type of claim you should file, and the amounts you are expected to receive. Without a personal injury attorney, you may miss out on enough compensation, or overclaim and put your case at risk of dismissal. This can be detrimental to your future claim cases.
Hiring a personal injury attorney will save you time and stress. While claim cases that settle are usually resolved within nine to 18 months, most cases that proceed to litigation take longer to resolve. This can be stressful and time-consuming, especially if you aren’t familiar with the court system.
Are There Cons of Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney?
According to the U.S. Justice Department, the best odds of succeeding at an injury claim trial stands at 61%. Generally, the only disadvantage of hiring a personal injury attorney is cost, but cost shouldn’t hinder you from hiring an injury lawyer. You can agree with your injury attorney to work on a payment plan or contingency arrangement. Consider discussing this in your free consultation with the personal injury attorney you’re considering.
Don’t shy away from hiring a personal injury attorney. Since having an injury attorney by your side increases your chances of success in the claim, hiring one is a financially wise move.
Endnote
If you’ve been injured and think you have a solid personal injury case, explore your options to ensure you fall within your state’s statute of limitations. You can contact a personal injury lawyer to advise you on appropriate measures to undertake. Your lawyer should help you get the right compensation for the injury and make sure your insurer pays out in time to cover the medical costs.
