Your Boca Raton Personal Injury Lawyer
Suffering an injury can not only cause physical damage to your body but also be a significant disruption of your life. The negative effects of a personal injury can impact your health, your job, your relationships, your mental health, and your quality of life in general. When you suffer a severe personal injury due to the negligence of another party you may be able to seek compensation from them. This is typically accomplished by filing a claim with the insurance company of the at-fault party or by filing a personal injury lawsuit. Pursuing compensation through either of these avenues can be difficult and risky if you do not have the resources and know-how to handle your case. This is why it is essential that you speak to a personal injury attorney.
Can You Seek Compensation For a Personal Injury?
Personal injuries are defined as an injury to the body, mind, or emotions, as opposed to an injury to property. Personal injury law deals with private disputes between parties over damages caused by a certain party’s actions or lack of action.
Personal Injuries and Your Case
Just because you suffered an injury and you believe it is someone else’s fault does not mean that you are immediately entitled to compensation from them. Personal injury claims first require that you suffer an injury severe enough to warrant filing a claim. Milder injuries can often be covered completely by personal injury protection coverage or they may simply not do enough damage to be worth the trouble of filing a claim or a lawsuit over.
Personal Injury Liability
There must also be a party that can be considered liable for your injuries. Certain parties may owe you a duty of care which means they have an obligation to minimize the risk of injury to you in certain circumstances. For example, property owners have a duty of care towards those they invite onto their property, and employers have a responsibility to ensure work conditions are kept as minimally dangerous as their power allows.
Negligence and Personal Injuries
Also, your injuries need to be caused by a breach of a liable party's duty of care in the form of negligence. Many people suffer personal injuries but there is nothing that could have been to stop it. In order for someone to be considered negligent, they need to have been aware of a potential danger and should have had the power to address it but instead failed to act or acted improperly.
Filing a Personal Injury Claim
If you satisfy the aforementioned criteria then you might be able to file a personal injury claim. In most cases, compensation for personal injuries is attained through a liable party’s insurance. Injured parties typically file a claim with this insurance company or sometimes several insurance companies to start the process. The insurance company then investigates the accident and the resulting injuries a claimant suffers and determines the validity and value of the claim so that they can provide the appropriate coverage. While this all sounds quite straightforward, the fact that insurance companies do everything in their power to limit coverage makes matters significantly more complex.
It is within the insurance company’s best interests to limit the amount of compensation they pay out to claims since it keeps money in their pockets which increases their profits. This leads to many claimants ending up having their claims denied or the amount of compensation they are owed significantly decreased. It is up to a claimant to make sure that they have proof of their injuries, the at-fault party’s liability, and the negligence that caused their injuries. This can give a claimant leverage at the negotiating table where they can attempt to reach a settlement with the insurance company to cover their damages.
Personal Injury Lawsuits
In the event that one can not reach a settlement then someone that has suffered a personal injury may not have any option but to file a lawsuit against the party liable for their injuries. A formal lawsuit is typically a last resort since it can be a very long demanding process and comes with a degree of uncertainty regarding its outcome. This is because personal injury lawsuits involve going through the civil court system and consist of a trial where the matter of owed compensation is determined with the assistance of a jury and judge after each side makes their respective cases. Personal injury claims are generally preferred over personal injury lawsuits since each side has more control over the outcome, there are no court costs, and compensation can be attained faster.
Common Causes of Personal Injuries
The following are some of the most common causes of personal injuries. While these are the most common causes of personal injuries that result in lawsuits, there are many other unique circumstances that lead to personal injuries that can also be the basis of a lawsuit. Consult with an attorney about whether or not you may have a case even if your personal injury cause is not among the more common types.
Motorcycle Accidents
Truck Accidents
Construction Accidents
Common Types of Injuries
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Back and Neck Injuries
Broken/Fractured Bones
Psychological Disorders
Internal Injuries
Scarring/Disfigurement
Severe Lacerations and Contusions
What Damages can I recover from a personal injury claim?
The losses that occur because of a personal injury are known as damages and are a critical component of any personal injury case. Knowing exactly what damages you can claim as well as their value can make all the difference. Most of the damages one can claim after suffering a personal injury are fairly obvious. For starters, economic damages are the damages that consist of losses directly tied to finances. Common economic damages people suffer as a result of a personal injury include medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity, rehabilitation costs, etc.
There are also a whole host of damages that do not have a direct financial value and are considered non-economic damages. These can include pain and suffering, mental anguish, loss of consortium, loss of guidance, and more depending on the details of the case. In personal injury lawsuits that involve gross negligence that leads to particularly severe harm, punitive damages may be awarded. These damages do as the name indicates and serve as a punitive measure to set an example and help ensure that such negligence does not occur again.
To summarize, the types of damages you can recover in a personal injury case include:
Past and future medical expenses
Physical Rehabilitation
Lost wages and lost earning capacity
Funeral expenses
Pain and suffering
Emotional distress
Loss of enjoyment of life
Loss of consortium
Punitive Damages, in very specific rare cases
Additional costs caused by the injury, like in-home nursing care
Why Should I Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer?
After suffering a personal injury, it is easy to get swept up in the wave of problems that arise as a result of an accident and the harm you suffered. Hiring a personal injury lawyer is the best step you can take in the aftermath when it comes to getting your life back on track. Hiring a personal injury lawyer can be a daunting prospect but the benefits that they can provide are invaluable if you want to give your case a proper chance at getting you the compensation you need.
Attempting to Handle a Personal Injury Lawsuit On Your Own
Apprehension when considering hiring a personal injury lawyer is normal. After all, when someone hires a personal injury lawyer they are generally not in a state of financial prosperity. So many fall victim to the belief that they can simply handle their case on their own with some legal research and their own negotiation skills. This more often than not ends up going poorly and many end up doing significant harm to their case when they accidentally admit fault, give the insurance company more information than they have to, or fail to correctly value their case. Hiring a personal injury attorney is how you ensure that you are properly appraised of your rights and that you are not taken advantage of by better educated, funded, and supplied insurance representatives.
Personal Injury Lawyers and Your Lawsuit
Personal injury lawyers can help you through every step of the claims process. They can contact the insurance company and inform them of your demands, investigate the accident that caused your injuries, help you with all the assorted paperwork you will need to file, get in contact with experts and witnesses, negotiate with the insurance company, and even represent you in a trial if you cannot reach a settlement. A good personal injury lawyer will have access to resources that are unavailable to the average person and they can provide legal insight drawn from years of experience handling personal injury cases.
Without this, you theoretically can get a settlement to pay for your personal injury’s damages but it will be significantly less than the compensation attained with the help of a lawyer specializing in personal injury law. This is true even when you consider your lawyer’s fee which comes in the form of a contingent fee taken from the compensation they get you. This means that they are directly invested in the success of your case and in the event they fail to get you compensation, then that fee is forfeit.
Speak to Arye Corbett About Your Case
If you or a loved one have suffered a personal injury as a result of gross negligence then do not hesitate to contact the law offices of Arye P. Corbett. We are more than happy to sit down with you and talk about the details of your case so that you can get an idea of what legal options you have and what Corbett Personal Injury Law can do for your case.
Arye P. Corbett is nationally recognized as one of the preeminent personal injury attorneys in the state of Florida and has provided legal representation to those that have suffered severe personal injuries for over a decade. Consider Arye P Corbett, P.A. not just your lawyer but an ally in your fight for compensation for personal injury damages. Corbett Law emphasizes close communication with clients balanced with specialized and aggressive legal representation that has resulted in a long history of successful case results.
To contact Corbett Law Firm about your case you can either call our office at (561) 948-3700 or fill out our contact form online.
2101 NW Corporate Blvd., Suite 410 | Boca Raton, Florida 33431
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