Were you recently injured in a accident in Lake Worth, FL? Our experienced Lake Worth personal injury lawyers at Shiner Law Group are ready to help fight for your legal rights and get the compensation you deserve. Call us today at (561) 777-7700 to speak with an attorney for a 100% free consultation.
You may be entitled to seek compensation for medical bills, loss of income, pain, and suffering, and more. Contact our Lake Worth, FL law offices to discuss the legal options that might be available to you following your personal injury accident. The next steps are very important. Let Shiner Law Group help you with your accident case today.
Were You Injured in an Accident in Lake Worth?
If you or someone you love experiences injuries because of someone else’s wrongful, reckless, or careless actions, you have the right to seek monetary compensation. Being involved in a sudden and unexpected accident may leave you unable to work with medical costs that add up. You may also never fully recover from the injury you experienced.
Even if you do recover, your quality of life and losses may be extensive. Hiring a personal injury lawyer is highly recommended if someone else’s negligence caused your accident and injuries. Our team understands how this type of accident can impact your life and will fight to help you recover compensation from aiding your recovery.
Don’t wait to take action after an accident. The longer you wait to acquire legal representation, the harder it will be to recover the compensation you deserve. Keep reading to learn more about personal injury cases in Lake Worth, Florida and your rights. Being informed is half the battle and will help ensure you are prepared for the situation you will face.
Steps to Take After A Lake Worth Personal Injury Accident
After you are injured in an accident you may be confused and unsure what to do. While this is common and expected, it’s important to remain calm and take the right steps to protect your right to compensation.
These steps include:
Seek Medical Care
It’s important to get medical attention right after an accident. This may include going to the ER, your doctor, or another healthcare provider. You need a record of your injuries directly after they occurred.
Don’t Talk About the Case
The only people you should talk about your case to are your attorney and doctor. If you discuss your case with anyone else, your attorney needs to be present. Also, be careful when talking about the case to your co-workers or friends. Make sure you don’t give away any important details.
Gather Documentation and Evidence
You have to prove you were injured by someone else in a personal injury case. Because of this, you need to gather any related documents and evidence that will help prove what happened and that someone else was responsible for your injuries.
Determining if You Have a Viable Personal Injury Claim in Lake Worth
When you contact our legal team, one of the first things we will do is discuss your situation to determine if you have grounds for a claim. Some of the factors considered include:
Intentional Behavior
If a person intends the outcome for an event to result in some specific consequence, it means you have a personal injury case. Some examples include conversion, invasion of privacy, fraud, false imprisonment, trespassing, assault, and battery.
Negligence
Negligence means someone did not act in a relational manner or exercise reasonable care. Based on the law, each person must act in a sensible, ordinary, levelheaded manner based on their situation.
Strict Liability
This occurs when someone else’s direct action results in your injury, no matter who is at fault. Usually, this applies to situations where dangerous activities are involved. Examples include manufacturing explosives, fumigating, and others.
If you find yourself in any of these situations, our legal team can help.
How A Lake Worth Personal Injury Attorney Can Help
After being injured in an accident and to recover financial compensation, you must meet the burden of proof. This means that you have to prove you suffered an injury because of the other person’s negligence.
Unfortunately, proving this is often easier said than done. That’s why it is so important to have our legal services advocating and fighting for you and your rights. Our team has helped countless clients in the past and can provide the same high level of service we are known for.
To help satisfy the burden of proof, our team will gather evidence proving your injuries’ origin. Some of the evidence we use to help prove this includes:
- Videos of the accident
- Police report filed at the scene
- Pictures of the accident
- Medical documents related to your injuries
- Witness statements that corroborate your claim
Understanding Negligence in Lake Worth Personal Injury Claims
When working to defend a personal injury claim in Lake Worth, determining who is at fault is the first step. Knowing who is at fault helps us figure out if negligence was involved.
If you suffered an injury because of an accident, having a successful claim depends on proving the other party’s negligence. That’s why calling us right away is so important. It’s also essential that you are completely transparent with us from the beginning of your case. The more details you can provide about the situation, the stronger your claim will be if the other party is at fault.
Comparative Negligence
Negligence is the top factor to consider when looking at a personal injury claim. If you were at fault for your incident, in any way, it would impact the damages you can recover. However, if your attorney can prove the other person or entity was at fault, it can help strengthen your claim and improve the likelihood of recovering damages.
For someone to be considered at fault, it has to be proven that the defendant acted unreasonably. The actions resulted in the accident or incident, which caused the injury because of negligence. There are three elements of negligence in a Lake Worth personal injury claim. These include:
Duty of Care
This concept refers that every person has some responsibility to everyone else. The responsibility includes not putting them in harm’s way or causing an injury. Even though this may seem straightforward, details about how far the obligation stretches are more complex.
Breach of Duty
This is established once we have proven that someone had a duty of care to you and did not take action that upheld this level of care.
Causation
If we successfully prove there was a duty of care and a breach of this duty, the next step is to prove an injury or accident occurred because of it. Since what is conserved as “reasonable” varies in the eyes of the law, this can be complex to prove.
Also, someone may be negligent in an incident and not considered responsible. This is why it is so important to hire an attorney to help with your case.
Helping You Recover Compensation for Your Injuries
After fulfilling the burden of proof, we will negotiate with the at-fault party’s insurance company to help you recover the financial compensation you deserve.
You can recover two types of damages in a personal injury lawsuit. These include economic and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
These include all damages that we can quantify. They are not subjective, and hard proof can be given to them. These include:
- Cost of surgeries
- Lost wages
- Cost of overnight stays at a hospital
- Cost of rehabilitation
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages mainly deal with intangible damages resulting from an accident. Some examples of these include:
- Loss of consortium
- Pain and suffering from the accident
- Emotional distress or trauma
- Loss of guidance or companionship
- Loss of life enjoyment
Damage Caps in Lake Worth Personal Injury Cases
If we can prove negligence in your case and you receive compensation for your personal injury claim, you need to understand there are damage caps regarding how much you can receive in Florida.
This means that there is a limit to the recoverable amount for your personal injury claim.
Florida Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Cases
The statute of limitations refers to the timeframe a person who has been wrongly injured has to take legal action against the person who caused their injuries. For the state of Florida, in most situations, this statute of limitations is two years. This means you have two years from your accident’s date to sue the person or party who was responsible for your injuries. If you wait longer than these two years, there’s a chance you may lose your chance to sue permanently.
With that in mind, if someone suffers an injury on government property, they have less time to file the Notice of Claim. When dealing with personal injury claims, time is important. Because of this, you can’t wait too long to file a claim. It is important to contact us right away. Calling us means we, can begin the legal proceedings to help you recover the compensation deserved.
Steps To Take After A Lake Worth Personal Injury Accident
If you have been injured, it is important to take the proper steps after the accident. Unfortunately, this can be daunting and overwhelming if you are trying to recover. Our team is here to help. Along with providing the legal services, you need, here you can learn about each step in the claim process.
- File the Claim: Make sure all involved parties are listed in the claim. This step lets everyone know you are seeking compensation because of your injury.
- Negotiate a Settlement: Our attorneys will step in and communicate with the other party to help reach a favorable agreement.
- File a Lawsuit: This only occurs if you cannot reach a settlement with the other party. Many at-fault parties try to “low-ball” the amount they pay you, which means you must file a lawsuit to get what you deserve.
- Defend the Case in Court: At this point, we must prove negligence, which is difficult and taxing. When defending your claim, we will prove your injury occurred because of negligence and that you deserve compensation.
- Try Your Case in Court: If no agreement is reached, we will go to trial. Our team has defended hundreds of cases in court and can provide you with the same legal services.
Each step that is listed above depends on the outcome of the step above it. It is hard to know how your case will turn out from the start since there are so many factors at play with any personal injury claim we take on. Because of this and several other reasons, it’s highly recommended that you have a personal injury attorney representing you from the beginning.
Speak With A Lake Worth Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me Today
We are ready to help you with your personal injury case. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation or ask any questions you have. Our goal is to ensure that our clients get the defense they need to ensure they receive the compensation they deserve. Don’t settle without talking to us. We will ensure you get what you need to make a full recovery after an accident caused by someone else.
