Personal injury claims are a complex legal process. Whether you’ve been involved in an accident or injured by someone else’s negligence, you must know your rights and options for seeking justice. For instance, in recent events, a 17-year-old girl was critically injured by a car while walking in downtown St. Louis in February. In such scenarios, what should you do?
This guide will help you understand the ins and outs of personal injury claims so that you can pick the best path forward for your situation. Every other day, such cases crop up.
Understanding Personal Injury Claims
A personal injury claim is a civil lawsuit brought by one person against another for damages caused by negligence, recklessness, or other misconduct. In other words, if you’re injured in an accident that was not your fault, you could be eligible for compensation from the person who caused your injuries.
A tortfeasor is someone who commits a tort. A claimant is a person bringing forth a lawsuit against another party on behalf of themselves or others suffering due to their actions. A defendant is anyone being sued in court. In this case, it would be whoever caused your injuries.
The burden of proof determines whether or not an injured party will receive compensation from their insurer based on how strong their case is against them and whether they can prove the injury occurred through no fault of theirs.
These tort claims are also impacting the economy. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service has reported that the nation’s expenditure on tort claims under the FTCA amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Elements of a Personal Injury Claim
When you have a personal injury claim, the elements of your case are:
- Causation: This means that your injury must be related to the defendant’s actions or lack thereof. If you trip and fall on someone’s lawn because it’s overgrown, then this may not be considered an actionable claim unless there was some kind of negligence involved in creating such an unsafe environment.
- Damages or financial losses: You must show how much money has been lost due to these injuries and/or damages sustained by your loved ones due to losing their caretakers. This includes medical bills and lost wages from missed work days due to doctor visits or therapy sessions.
Personal injury claims can also be divided into different types based on negligence. According to TorHoerman Law, there are three basic negligence types on which a personal injury claim depends. They are breach of duty, breach of contract, and breach of warranty.
The Legal Process
The legal process can be complex and challenging, as the laws governing personal injury claims vary from state to state. Here’s how you can navigate the legal process.
Seeking Legal Representation
First, ensure your lawyer has experience with personal injury cases like yours. If not, they may not be able to provide the level of service you expect from them, or worse yet. They might hurt your case by making bad decisions or missing deadlines.
Recently, many personal injury lawyers from elsewhere have been headed to St. Louis due to the presence of more sympathetic judges, which is clogging courts. So, you could win a good amount of compensation.
It is also essential to understand that you must hire local attorneys. As mentioned above, the personal injury laws can vary from state to state. Hiring a local lawyer will ensure you get help from someone who knows the local rules and regulations. Taking the same example, you must hire St. Louis personal injury lawyers if your injury occurred here, as these attorneys are well-conversant with the rules in the city county.
You should also consider whether or not the attorney has any specialties in this area. If so, ask how those areas might affect their approach toward resolving matters related to personal injuries. Finally, and most importantly, make sure that whoever represents you comes highly recommended by other clients who have been satisfied with their services.
Initial Consultation
After you’ve suffered an injury, you want to know what to expect and how to move forward. A consultation with a personal injury lawyer can help answer those questions by providing an overview of your options and how long it will take to resolve your case.
A consultation is not meant for asking specific questions about your case but rather for gathering information so the lawyer can determine whether they can take on it. During this initial meeting, both parties should be prepared with relevant documents such as medical records or police reports.
The goal of every consultation is similar; get answers and advice from an experienced attorney while establishing rapport so that trust develops between client and attorney before committing resources toward litigation efforts.
Negotiation and Settlement
Negotiation and settlement are the final stages of your personal injury claim. If you have been seriously injured and your case is strong, it’s essential to negotiate a fair settlement with the insurance company. You may be able to reach an agreement without going to court if both sides are willing to compromise.
Your lawyer will help you decide whether or not it’s worth trying to settle out of court before filing any papers with the court system. Only 4-5% of cases go to trial in the US. Some cases can’t be settled because they involve injuries that aren’t as obvious, which means there are no medical bills or physical evidence of how much pain someone has been in since being hurt or traumatized by another person’s actions or negligence.
Litigation and Trial
Litigation is a last resort and should be considered only when it is clear that no other options will yield a satisfactory result. For example, if you have been injured in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, then filing suit may be your only option for compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Litigation also becomes necessary when negotiations between parties break down over issues such as liability or damages. Litigating personal injury claims can take years, and sometimes decades, to resolve fully through trial or settlement proceedings.
Challenges and Pitfalls
A personal injury claim can be complex, and the road to justice is often long. Here are some of the challenges and pitfalls that may arise along your way:
- Understanding the legal process. The first step toward a successful claim is understanding how personal injury claims work. If you’re unfamiliar with how lawsuits proceed, seeking legal representation early on is important so they can help guide you through this process.
- Seeking legal representation as soon as possible after an accident or injury occurs. Your lawyer will advise you on what steps should be taken next, including investigation and gathering evidence, negotiation, and settlement attempts.
Conclusion
We hope you better understand the personal injury claim process and how it can help you get justice. We also want to remind you that this is just a general overview of what happens in these cases. Many other factors are involved, including whether or not the other party has insurance coverage or if they have been found liable by previous courts.
