Understanding What Personal Injury Means and What a Personal Injury Attorney Can do for You
“Personal injury” is legal term relating to a classification of law involving any sort of physical injury along with any and all “damages” suffered by the injury victim. Taken altogether, damages include physical and emotional distress, and other elements that can be considered compensatory that produce the victim’s personal loss.
The person or entity that caused the accident can be legally required to pay to the victim. This person’s liability for the damages can be the result of an overt act on the liable defendant’s part (known as willful action) or inaction (negligence). When someone suffers an injury, Texas Law states that person, or plaintiff, who suffered the injury has the legal right to seek monetary relief from the defendant responsible for the injury.
However, the personal injury laws in Texas are based on rules known as the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code. And nowhere in the code does it say that an injured party (or plaintiff) is automatically owed anything by the defendant. Or to put it another way, just because someone hurt you, doesn’t mean you can’t get the money without a fight. Where do you think the popular words “sue me” came from? This most important, aspect of Texas personal injury law is also the most generally misunderstood. Just because someone owes you money for damages and harm done to you that they are responsible for, doesn’t mean they’ll just say “sure, how much do I owe?” Instead, according to these laws, the victim only has the right to seek fair and satisfactory compensation from the perpetrator (or defendant), for the injury they suffered. And that’s why you recover your damages through a civil lawsuit.
Personal injury laws in our state, like all civil and criminal laws in every state throughout the US, assume the innocence of the accused until proven guilty. This is why defendants are not automatically forced to give up their money. Rather, the laws require the plaintiff to convince the jury that the other person guilty. This is called “burden of proof.” It is also necessary for the plaintiff to disprove the defense tactics of defendants as they try to avoid paying the damages the plaintiff seeks. And some call this “burden of dis-proof” the other half of the plaintiff’s job in a personal injury case. And until your burdens satisfy the jury, you won’t be paid a dime.
Many Have the Right to File a Personal Injury Claim of Lawsuit
The only people who can successfully sue another person or business entity for their injuries are those who were owed a legal duty that the defendant has somehow violated. Legal Duty is also a legal term that essentially states we all owe each other a certain level of responsibility to exercise a “reasonable amount of care and good judgment” in order to avoid harming others. Take, for example, yourself when one is driving a car. We are all expected to operate our vehicles in a manner that best protects not only us, but everyone else within the path of our autos and not cause an accident. Driving recklessly, even if it’s just a few seconds, or making the decision to get behind the wheel of our car after having too much to drink, then getting into a wreck likely means we have violated our clear legal responsibility to not harm others and we will probably be asked to pay legal damages to anyone we hurt..
When someone harms us, just like burden of proof, it is up to us victims to gather enough relevant evidence to show that the defendant who harmed us owed that legal duty, and then violated it, in order for our personal injury case to have the best possible outcome. But there are different levels of legal duty that depend on the circumstances of the accident. And there are some areas of duty that are much higher than the traditional form we have just discussed. An example of this difference might be effectively illustrated by imagining the standard of care owed to you by your neighbor, and that of a doctor. Although you probably trust your friend and longtime neighbor with the keys to your house while you are on vacation, a doctor holds your very life in his or her hands. So, according to Texas law, the standard of care is much higher for that physician than it would for you friend and neighbor.
The degree of legal duty can also be different depending on the circumstances. Let’s say that same doctor walks up to you in the grocery store and for some unexplained reason, pulls out a pocket knife and slices your hand. In this event, he has violated a lower legal duty because the encounter had nothing to do with a doctor/patient encounter, than he would have if you were on the operating table, and he performs malpractice by operating on your left leg when he should have performed surgery on the right one. Legal duty is about circumstance and context.
Most personal injuries occur when someone clearly violates their acceptable legal duty depending on the environment and circumstances. Some legal duties can be clear-cut. Others can be a bit more obscure. Imagine, for example, if one company’s employee drops a hammer on the head of another. The legal duty of the employer to the injured employee has been violated because the work site was not safe, since that employer allowed that employee on the job site to cause the injury that he caused. But another portion of that same legal duty can be found in a legal concept in Texas law called “respondeat superior.” It states that employers of those found to be liable for an accident of any kind may be ultimately held responsible for the actions or inaction of their employees. But on the other hand, if the same exact injury situation occurred to a contract laborer or subcontractor of that employer, the company that hired them would not owe anything to the victim because there is no legal duty owed to individuals hired as contractors.
As a rule, the most proper and efficient way to decide if your case is a valid cause of action against the perpetrator or not, is to speak with a Texarkana injury lawyer at Grossman Law Offices. We clearly understand the various legal duties that people and other legal entities owe one another. We can clearly explain them to you and help you determine if a specific injury event warrants a personal injury lawsuit.
The Three Ingredients That Make up a Successful Personal Injury Case
When it comes to successfully litigating personal injury cases the elements that must exist in order to win damage compensation are very clear. The first aspect is liability, either through negligence or another violation of legal duty. Second are damages to the victim’s estate. And finally you must have a solvent defendant who can be made to pay the damages owed you.
A more detailed explanation of these elements would include:
1) Liability: Once a defendant has violated his their legal responsibility to another person, it is grounds for some liability, either a percentage along with other defendants or complete liability if that person or entity is completely responsible. In legal terms, they are responsible for any damages incurred on the plaintiff in proportion to their involvement in the harm suffered by the plaintiff. The main situation in which a defendant breaches their legal duty towards a plaintiff is through negligence, which is primarily considered irresponsible or brash actions, that has caused an “accident,” which can take on many shapes and forms.
It’s easiest to think of negligence as the means to the end, or to method through which the violation of the legal duty occurred. And there are degrees of that negligence. The most common form of negligence is simply not paying attention. When “gross negligence” breaches the defendant’s a legal duty, then it is not a careless accident but in legal terms is called “willful intent.” A defendant who caused injury through gross negligence has behaves in a way he or she knew could likely result in some kind of harm, such as drinking and driving. But he or she just didn’t care. On a different note, “intentional or deliberate torts” (a tort is the legal term for the violation of a civil duty) are constituted by intentionally inflicting trauma on another human being, including assault. This brief explanation should illustrate to you how negligence is often the most common form of violations against others’ legal rights. However, it doesn’t alter the fact that the victim/plaintiff must prove negligence, or some other form of disregard of their legal duty, was the cause of the plaintiff’s injuries from which the defendant is liable.
2) Damages: This is another word for any monetary loss of value that the plaintiff has a legal right to legally claim because of the defendant’s negligence. Damages do not include the specific injuries to the victim. It is a general legal term that sums-up all of the harm done to the plaintiff to denote financial injuries, as opposed to physical injuries. In the instance where the victim fractured his collar bone, the collar bone is the injury. For the examples, the damages would be any monetary costs and, or, losses that result from the injury. Damages will either fall into the category of General Damages, or Special Damages.
General damages are of those deemed to be non-economic. This means they are much more subjective and should be handled and presented very carefully before a jury if you want to have the best chances of winning your civil trial. Some common examples of General Damages include:
- Pain and suffering
- Disfigurement
- Loss of consortium (or partnership, this can be classified as either a professional or marital partnership)
- Emotional distress
- Physical disability (either short-term, long-term or permanent)
Because of the subjectivity of these damages, a clear and effective explanation of your general damage suffering, to the degree that you sustained any, is a vital aspect of filing (and winning) a personal injury claim. General damages and the amount awarded for them differ with every case, even when the injuries are alike.
To better understand the subjectivity of general damages, imagine that two victims are in a blowout accident caused by defective tires where the vehicle rolled over and exploded. Both were badly burned. But one plaintiff was unconscious during the explosion. And though he suffered horrible burns, in his unconscious state he was not alert to experience the pain as it happened. But the other plaintiff was just as badly burned, and was fully alert enough to experience the full and terrible agony of being burned. So even though both of these victims may end up with similar injuries and medical expenses, each experienced a different level of pain and suffering. So it is quite likely that the monetary damages each victim is entitled-to would be different.
Hopefully, you better-understand why every accident will be different from the next and you should get a Lubbock injury lawyer to help you correctly establish the rightful amount to demand, based on the details of your suffering and background.
Special damages involve the actual the economic cost of your accident, which makes them much more objective because the amounts are easy to assess, although this is not always the case. In an event where the resulting injuries are absolutely disastrous to the victim’s state of well-being, the attorney will not be capable of determining how much longer their client will live, which makes a lost wages damage extremely difficult to calculate based on their previous salary earnings and what they might have expected to earn through future promotions, or leaving that job to take a better one. So great consideration must be given to the more technical nature of the victim’s earning potential, like changes in job description, pursuing higher education levels or more specialized certification. All of these variables, and others would inevitably lead to a higher pay scale throughout the years.
Some examples of general damages are listed below.
- Wages or earning capacity lost
- Court costs
- Medical costs, incurred in the past and future
- Damages to the family’s property
Since winning compensation from the defendant is proportionate to special damages, it is very crucial to the plaintiff’s recovery for these damages are handled with care because they will most often take the form of monetary expenses previously paid or owed by the plaintiff, or maybe even the defendant if the injury is work-related or the plaintiff has some form of insurance to defray these costs; in which case, once the plaintiff wins damages, some of those monies might be owed the insurance carrier who paid those initial medical bills.
All of the damages that the plaintiff claims to have suffered from must be accounted for. The Lubbock injury attorneys at Grossman Law Offices spend a large amount of time on each case creating what is called a demand packet. This is an itemized account of all the client’s damages, which is generally submitted to the defendant’s insurance company, plus a request for a specified amount of compensation.
Solvent Defendant: Though liability and damages are elemental in building a successful personal injury case, probably the most important is to have a financially solvent defendant. Without someone who can afford to pay your damages, it makes little sense to sue them in court. Financial solvency means they have the means to reimburse you for their negligent liability that caused the wrong you are now suffering. For example, if a driver accidentally crashes his car into you while swerving to avoid hitting a homeless person who was jaywalking, there is certainly provable liability and damages to your vehicle. But there is no way to sue the homeless person who caused the accident because he has no financial worth. Ans id the driver who hit you has no insurance, then you’re out of luck when it comes to collecting damages from those who caused the accident. It is unfortunate that some cases involving defendants without monetary resources will leave victims hurt and with no way to seek compensation for the damages suffered. You don’t like it but sometimes compensatory justice falls through the cracks of our legal system.
But such instances are more the exception than the rule which is why identifying solvent defendants is an area where an experienced attorney can be a great asset to you in getting the justice you deserve. While many defendants often attempt to shed their financial liability by claiming hardship and the lack of monetary means, many of them are simply trying to hide their true worth by stashing their money in separate, maybe even offshore, bank accounts, or closing all their accounts and hiding the cash in a safe deposit box, or falsifying their lack of insurance. We see many insurance falsifiers because some defendants are fearful that their carrier, having recently paid a claim or two, will drop them if they have to pay one more.
Regardless of what liable defendants do to prevent you from finding out their true worth, our experienced legal team won’t be denied from identifying, then recovering all possible monies that they may be trying to hide from you (and the court). An intensive asset check of all defendants is the most effective way to discover financial means that they try to hide. Luckily for our clients, many of these asset investigations turn up money that the defendant hoped we would never find, and often enough to pay your fair damage claim. Coupled with an equally stringent investigation of the events leading up to your accident, the asset check produces all the evidence necessary to bring your injury claim or case to a successful conclusion.
There Are Many Benefits of Having an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer On Your Side?
Most Texans commonly assume that state law will magically deliver to them equitable financial recovery for their injuries. This assumption, in and of itself, is actually false. Personal injury victims have the right to ask for financial recovery. But they must secure it for themselves. It’s never given to them outright.
Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Codes state only that personal injury victims in the case of an accident may seek out compensation. They must follow specific legal guidelines and accept the fact that the burden of proof is on them, the victims. In order to be compensated, they must convince the jury that the defendant’s decisions can be considered the proximate cause, or reason for the injuries that they sustained and by doing so, justify the amount of damages they ask the court (and the civil jury) to award them. Personal injury cases can get extremely touchy, especially if there are very large sums of defendant money (or defendant’s insurance money) at stake. It takes a special kind of attorney to be successful in this law environment. And until you hire an experienced Texarkana injury lawyer, a host of less than knowledgeable friends and family are more than willing to give you “free legal advice” (which is rarely worth its no price tag value.)
You also might have a relative or friend who is a lawyer who wants to protect your best interests and represent you in a personal injury claim or lawsuit. And though we don’t want to stick our nose in your personal relationships, we must tell you that when it comes to legal representation of any type, it is certainly in your best interests to avoid retaining anyone who might have a difficult time emotionally disassociating him or herself from your case. Personal injury law can become quite passionate at times. And your attorney must be pragmatic, focus solely on the facts of a case and be cool under fire in order win your case, or successfully negotiate a just and fair settlement on your behalf. What happens if that friend or relative attorney doesn’t win the case, or accepts a less-than-fair settlement and leaves even more money on the table due to that inexperience, or thinking more with their heart than their head? How will you feel about your friend of relative then? Very rare is the case where family members or friends belong in your legal business. And you would be wise to keep this in mind.
Knowing the Law is Only Half the Battle
One of the reasons why there’s a lot of “free legal advice” from people who think they know the law, is that many feel that all one needs to do in order to represent themselves effectively in a lawsuit is to simply have the knowledge. So they think all they have to do to be a good lawyer is to read the law. Well, contrary to what you might think, knowing the law itself is only about 25 percent of the equation that will lead to a successful personal injury case. Let us ask you this, if you know how to do math, work a 10-key calculator and are a whiz at using bookkeeping software, does this qualify you to be a CPA? Of course not. There’s more to success than just knowing the tools to use. Most legal triumphs are a result of experience, and knowing how to execute the procedures, proving the damages properly and establishing a strong tie between the defendant’s actions and the victim-plaintiff’s injuries. Most importantly, however, your lawyer must have the knick of being able to convince a jury in injury liability case. This is how to win a personal injury trial. Knowing the law is one thing. Applying it is altogether different. When it comes to any profession, from CPA to personal injury lawyer, experience wins every time.
Now you might be able to read a law book (although you’ll quickly learn that such reading can get awfully boring to non-lawyers). You might even have pride in your ability at being a tenacious negotiator in life, and in your gift for “doing deals.” But when it comes to personal injury law, someone on your side must know how to apply the law by using the proper procedural methods. Without it, you’re a legal accident waiting to happen and you will be lucky if your lawsuit isn’t thrown out on some obscure technicality long before your day in court
Sadly, many people don’t call an attorney until they learn, often by experience of botching their case, that their chances of winning have become extremely low. Those who are successful in their personal injury case will tell you that if you call us quickly, you have a much better chance of winning your damage claims and cases than if you call us as a last-resort, after too much time has passed. By first attempting to represent themselves, and handle the issue alone victims are often mislead by the insurance companies they have been corresponding with. Insurance companies know how to shed injury claimants and entice them with low-ball compensation amounts. We are aware of many people who have settled, and then called us, too late, when they realize they’ve been fooled into thinking they won, when not only did they lose, they got slaughtered. And after you sign that release attached to that check, the defendant (and his insurance company) simply skates away, with big smiles on their faces after victimizing you. You only get one shot at fair compensation. An experienced personal injury attorney helps you make it your best shot.
Insurance companies and their or the defendants are motivated by only one thing, to settle with you, hopefully for pennies on the dollar. But if you are represented by lawyer who has a winning track record and commands their respect and fear, your settlement magically becomes dollar-for dollar. Non-attorneys rarely, if ever, create fear in the minds of an insurance company, despite their empty threats. Insurance companies have many ways to defeat you and your inexperienced legal counsel.
Do you know how you would need to respond to a motion for summary judgment or how you’re supposed to answer interrogatories? Can you effectively take witnesses depositions that get to the bottom of the facts in your case? Can you investigate an accident scene? Can you follow the paper trail of defendants who try to hide their assets and appear insolvent so they can avoid paying damages? What recent rules of Texas personal injury law apply to your situation? What should you do if a counter suit is filed against you, which calls for quick and proper action to prevent your civil damage suit from being dismissed? These scenarios are only a sampling of the common obstacles to a personal injury liability lawsuit we see every day. And they’re the same challenges your, or your attorney’s inexperience can bring doom to your damage case long before it’s time to appear in court.
Call the Texarkana Injury Lawyers at Grossman Law Offices to Help You
If you or someone you love has suffered from a personal injury, the Texarkana injury lawyers at Grossman Law Offices will assist you and bring to you the justice and fairest reimbursement you deserve. We have been fighting for our injury clients for over 20 years and won thousands of personal injury damage claims and case. And like those we have won judgments for, we’ll do whatever it takes to help you, too
Put our years of experience to work for you. If you want to know what your rights are, how to proceed with your claim and how much compensation you can secure from your personal injury case, regardless of how it happened or who is liable, we can answer all of your questions. Call Grossman Law Offices now at 1-855-239-1290 (toll free), or fill out the form at the top of this page for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.