When you are injured in an accident, you probably don’t expect to have to deal with so many issues at once. To begin with, the accident itself and its accompanying injuries may leave you overwhelmed and worried about your health and the damage to your property, if there was any. You may also worry whether your injuries will take a long time to heal if they will heal completely, and what to do about your professional obligations while you need to focus on the state of your health. Financial worries start adding up as well, and you see no way out. A personal injury lawyer may be precisely what you need at this time, but should you be filing a personal injury claim? It’s time to find out.
Why are personal injury claims filed?
When you suffer an injury due to actions of someone else, you may face massive medical bills, you may lose your job or stop earning any wages while your injuries are healing, and some other expenses may start accumulating as well.
A personal injury lawsuit is filed in order to hold whoever was negligent accountable for their actions by giving you the compensation you need and deserve. This way, you can have more financial stability to deal with the changes to your life that you have been experiencing since the accident.
How is the value of a personal injury claim determined?
It’s easy to let your imagination run wild and imagine the millions that your case is worth. However, the value of a personal injury claim is not determined out of thin air but depends on some key factors, mainly:
- What caused the accident
- How severe and extensive your injuries are
- Limits on insurance coverage
To attach a number to your claim, items such as the following are added:
- Medical bills you have incurred up to this point and those you expect to have in the future
- Lost wages and loss of earning capacity
- Pain and suffering and emotional distress
Your personal injury lawyer will work with these items and assess other evidence such as police records, the progression of your medical treatment, and other evidence to obtain a clearer picture of how much your case is worth.
What are the most common types of personal injury cases?
Accidents Involving Motor Vehicles
Car, truck, motorcycle, and other vehicle accidents are the most common types of incidents that lead to personal injury claims. They cause not only serious and lifelong injuries but result in deaths in many cases as well.
Slip and Fall Accidents
Also called premises liability, they are responsible for plenty of personal injury claims. They cause injuries that tend to linger, piling up medical bills. They happen when people step on slippery or wet floors when there is a floor in need of repair or a change in flooring surfaces, when there is not enough light, such as in a dark stairwell, or when a railing comes loose.
Wrongful Death
When someone dies, it leaves the survivors in shock, often in need of compensation for things like medical costs, burial, expenses, lost earnings, and other items.
If you have suffered these or other types of injuries, Fresno personal injury attorney Grossman recommends you schedule a consultation with a lawyer to talk about your case.