What You Need To Know About Personal Injury Cases

Jack is a manager at a local superstore and gets up early each day to open the store and prepare for the day’s business. Each day he leaves his home at 5:30 AM sharp and begins his 20 minute commute. While on the highway, a tractor trailer merges into his lane blindly causing Jack’s sedan to be pinned against the left guardrail and the entire right side of his car crinkled like a smashed soda can. Everything happened so fast and now Jack finds himself talking to a doctor while in a hospital bed. The doctor found that he has broken his right arm and hip; both of which will require surgery. In addition to the unfortunate breaks, Jack also suffered serious head trauma that calls for high doses of pain medication that comes with a host of unpleasant side effects.

Every part of Jack’s life has now been completely transformed. His doctor ordered him to be on bed rest for the next 12 weeks while his hip heals and 4 weeks from his arm surgery he’ll need to begin a physical therapy regimen to gain strength back. Jack made his livelihood by proudly working as a manager of that superstore. He walked the aisles in the 20,000 square foot building daily for quality checks, greeted customers, helped unload the trucks when the team was shorthanded and also took care of paperwork. Now, he cannot complete more than half of his job’s duties. The job aside, simply being at home is difficult and he cannot provide the same level of care for his young daughter. Jack’s family will be fine for a few weeks, but the savings account was already low from recent purchases of much needed appliances. The savings account will be drained well before Jack would even start his physical therapy.

Jack’s wife stayed up for hours one night looking at spreadsheets, crunching numbers, finding places to cut back and looking for a solution that would show them all will be okay. As hard as she tried, her efforts found that the budget cuts would only save $100 or so a month. This was less than a quarter of what they needed to continue living their modest lifestyle in their home. Her searches lead her to a local attorney that was generating buzz on social media for his work in the community. She read through reviews left by people who were involved in unfortunate workplace safety hazards and accidents like her husband’s. It was almost 1:15AM, so she wrote the number down and made it a point to call promptly in the morning.

The attorney Jack and his wife spoke with was caring and attentive. They listened closely to his story, showed compassion and were motivated to do everything the firm could to ensure his family was taken care of. Like many working families, Jack was an honest person with a family to support. After some research, the firm was able to prove that the truck driver was driving recklessly and found compelling evidence to support this based on his not so pretty driving record. With the firm’s hard work and dedication to the case, the trucking company was forced to pay a settlement that is worth everything Jack deserves. His family will be taken care of while he recovers, he doesn’t have to worry about the mortgage and he can focus on getting better in physical therapy before returning back to work. Each night, Jack, his wife and daughter will sleep a little easier.

We hope that this story has enlightened you on what personal injury cases really are and how individuals just like yourself could benefit from speaking with a professional about the situation. Personal injury cases go well beyond the typical car accident. They run the gamut from work related accidents, animal bites, wrongful death and slip/fall injuries. To start, some of the basics must be accounted for. Think damages (Jack’s car) and negligence (the trucker’s reckless driving history).

Damages

In the story above, the damages included Jack’s totaled car, his ambulance ride to the hospital and co-pays that the insurance company didn’t cover for physical therapy costs and prescriptions.

Negligence

The negligence portion of a valid personal injury case isn’t always as straight forward. Our team of experts will be able to best advise you on the intricate process of discovering negligence. A tangible start is to consider your injury. Your injury must be a direct result of someone else’s poor or careless actions. The truck driver who hit Jack wasn’t checking his blind spots and was going 20mph over the speed limit. These pieces of information are exactly what’s needed to support a case. In addition to those elements, a public record search showed his sketchy driving history, placing even more fault on the company for hiring such a reckless driver.

If I have a case, what would that entitle me to?

As your team of attorneys, we know the personal injury system extremely well. We start by assessing the factors and knowledge that is available for your case. If your medical bills and car repairs cost $5,000, the goal of the case is to cover those expenses plus damages for your time away from work or family to deal with medical concerns or the repairs. For more extensive cases, this could include the time that you had to be absent from work because you couldn’t perform all duties safely.

We want to hear about your specific case.

Personal injury cases are not just black or white. It is our years of experience with working on these cases for hardworking community members that we have honed our skills and can confidently advise you. Please reach out to us to discuss your case further. We are happy to provide our thoughts and proposed plan of action to move your case forward should there be a case.

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