Personal Injury
There are many personal injury lawyers available to represent you after an accident. The question is, how do you choose the right one for your case? The most important factor is experience. You need a lawyer who has handled cases like yours and knows what to do. Don’t just go with the first name you find in the phone book or on the internet. Do some research and find out which lawyers have a good reputation and which ones have been helping people win their cases for years.
Personal Injury Lawyer South Florida
Skill and experience are essential for any law firm to be successful. However, the best law firms – the ones that handle high-profile cases, win big jury verdicts, and secure sizable settlements in court – must also have creativity and determination.
Here at Lawyer Connection, we are proud to offer personal injury legal services throughout South Florida. Our attorneys have years of experience representing victims of accidents and their families. We understand what you’re going through and are here to help you get the compensation you deserve.
How to choose a Personal Injury Lawyer
If you’ve been injured in an accident, filing for a personal injury lawsuit will be your first thought. Before you do, however, it is important to find the right lawyer to represent you. The process of finding and hiring a personal injury lawyer can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. When you are looking for a personal injury lawyer in South Florida, it is important to keep the following things in mind:
- Make sure the lawyer you’re going to hire has experience with personal injury cases.
- Make sure the lawyer is licensed to practice law in Florida.
- The lawyer should be a member of the Florida Bar Association.
- Ask for referrals from friends and family members who have had a personal injury case in the past.
Recovering Damages for Your Injuries
Personal injury cases in Florida are lawsuits that are based on the common law and statutory principles of negligence. To recover losses from an incident, the victim needs to show that the defendant owed them a duty of care, that the defendant broke that duty, and that this caused them harm. In short, negligence happens when someone doesn’t act with reasonable care. This can injure the victim or even take his or her life. Potential damages for such injuries often cover amounts including:
- Lost Income
- Disability
- Pain and Suffering
- Medical Bills
- Future Medical Care
- Scarring and Disfigurement
- Funeral Expenses
- Inability to lead a normal life
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
A Personal Injury (PI) is any physical or mental injury to an individual as a result of another’s negligence or harmful act. Many insurance companies refer to Personal Injury as Bodily Injury (BI).
If you have been injured in an accident, the most important priority is getting medical attention. Assuming that you are not taken to the emergency room immediately, you should take photos or videos of the accident scene and get the contact information of any witnesses. You should not admit fault or apologize to anyone else who was involved, even if it seems like a polite thing to do. Anything that you say in the aftermath of an accident can be used against you if you pursue a claim or lawsuit later. If you suspect that someone else may have been at fault, you should set up a consultation with an attorney to discuss your options. The first consultation is almost always free.
In order for a Personal Injury claim to exist, four elements must be present.
- The “at-fault” individual is under a duty to do or not to do something.
- The “at-fault” individual breaches that duty.
- You suffer damages.
- Your damages are the result of the “at-fault” individual’s actions.
You do not need to make this decision on your own. Contact an attorney and set up a free consultation to go over your situation in detail. The attorney will be able to tell you whom you can sue and what you can expect to recover, based on the facts of the accident and the laws in your state. Essentially, in most situations, you will have a case if someone acted carelessly under the circumstances and caused your injuries. Applying this standard is more complicated than it sounds, however, which is why it is important to consult an attorney.
This will depend on the specific nature of your injuries and cannot be ascertained until your case has been thoroughly investigated. The value of your case will depend on a myriad of factors, including the total costs of your medical care, property damage, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and more. It also depends on the severity of your injury, the length of your recovery time, your degree of pain and suffering, etc.
In order to have a successful personal injury claim, you will need to prove that the party that caused your accident was negligent. In other words, you will have to show that the other party had a duty of care and that they failed to uphold that duty by acting as a reasonable person would. For example, if you are struck by a car because the driver failed to stop at a stop sign, the driver’s negligent action would make them liable for your injuries.
Damages are defined as any losses or expenses incurred as a result of an accident.
These can include, but are not limited to:
- Physical and emotional injuries
- Loss of earning capacity
- Outstanding medical bills and out of pocket costs
- Lost wages
- Property damage
When pursuing a personal injury lawsuit, you can seek compensation for any damages that were a result of the accident.
This will depend on the statute of limitations in your state. A personal injury case may need to be filed within a year of the accident, or you may have as much as four years to file. When your injury involves negligence, you generally have four years from your injury date to either settle or sue in Florida. For a medical malpractice victim, the statute of limitations is two years. As a practical matter, moreover, you should try to pursue a claim as soon as possible while the evidence is still fresh. This will help you prove liability and the scope of your damages.
Insurance companies are notorious for diminishing the value of claims or searching for ways to deny them outright. When they know an injured person doesn’t have legal help on their side, they know that they likely stand a greater chance of avoiding a payout or getting away with paying a lowball settlement. This is because they know that injured people are often unwilling to fight them in the stressful aftermath of an accident and are often more likely to accept any offer just to get the process over with. Unfortunately, many injured people come to find that the offers they have accepted are nowhere near what they actually need to cover all of their past and future accident-related expenses. An experienced attorney knows how to maximize the value of personal injury cases and can offer you the support, guidance, and legal muscle you need to pursue full and fair compensation.
Ask these questions to find the best one for your needs:
- How many years of experience do you have?
- What results have you delivered to your clients?
- What percentage of personal injury cases settle out of court?
- How many times have you gone to trial? How often do you win?
These questions aren’t necessary, but can help in making a choice to make your experience easier and more stress free.
Schedule a Consultation with us
If you have been injured in an accident in South Florida, you may be able to get compensated. The legal experts at Lawyer Connection can help you get every penny you deserve. We don’t charge a consultation fee, so contact our successful lawyers today and we can begin discussing your legal options right now.