Being injured by an avoidable accident can be frustrating. Not only are you left with medical bills and other costs, but you know that someone else is at fault and that they could have avoided hurting you if they had only been more careful or been paying more attention. Our lawyers can help you seek justice for this kind of accident.
If you were injured through no fault of your own, our lawyers can take the at-fault party or parties to court and fight to get full compensation from them. If there is insurance to cover your injury, we can negotiate with the insurance company for full coverage, and many of these cases can even be resolved outside of court.
In any case, call our Lehigh Valley, PA personal injury lawyers right away for a free case review by dialing Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945.
How to Get Compensation When an Accident Was Not Your Fault
When someone else hurts you, you can hold them responsible for your injuries. In order to do this, you have to file a lawsuit against them, which requires proving a few important elements.
Determining the Right Parties to Sue
Before you can sue anyone, you have to determine who to sue. Our personal injury lawyers can investigate the facts of what happened to you and identify the right party or parties to include in the lawsuit.
For example, many injury cases are straightforward:
- An at-fault driver hits you
- An irresponsible property owner leaves their sidewalk dangerously icy, and you slip
- A product manufacturer’s defective product hurts you
- A dangerous doctor injures you through carelessness.
In some cases, though, you might be surprised to hear that other parties could be liable. For example, a slip and fall on a sidewalk would conceivably be the property owner’s fault, but if they rent the whole property to someone else, it might be the tenant’s responsibility instead. Their lease agreement might dictate who is responsible. In another example, you might be hit by a truck, but the driver’s employer can often be made to pay instead of the driver.
Elements
Most injury cases are based on claims that the defendant failed to follow a legal duty, thus causing your injuries. This is known as a “negligence” claim.
Some injury cases are based on intentional injuries, but we do not need to prove any intent to hold someone liable for an accident. Instead, we merely need to prove that there was a legal duty that they did not follow and that the injury would not have happened without that mistake.
This legal duty often comes from explicit laws, such as building safety codes, traffic laws, trucking regulations, or other rules. If the rule was meant to keep people safe, and they violated it, we can use that to hold them liable.
Other cases are based on a duty to act reasonably in a given situation. With professional and technical issues like medical malpractice or manufacturing, we might need experts in the field to testify as to what was normal or reasonable.
Who Decides Injury Cases?
Initial injury claims are often filed with the at-fault party’s insurance. They can decide not to pay, and we can take them to court instead. If they eventually agree to settle the case, the parties will ultimately get together and decide how much to pay/accept. If the case goes to trial, neutral parties decide.
In a personal injury trial, the judge and jury both make decisions. The judge decides what law applies and how to interpret and apply the law in a given situation. This can make or break a case, but it usually leaves questions about facts and fault to the jury.
The jury then decides issues of fact. They determine who was at fault, how much their fault contributed to the total damages, and what those total damages are. They also decide if the victim perhaps shares some degree of fault.
Coming back around to the judge, there may be decisions to apply after the jury’s decisions. For example, if the jury decided the victim’s fault was over 50%, then the judge legally has to dismiss the case under Pennsylvania’s comparative fault rules.
How Do I Pay for an Injury Lawyer?
Our personal injury attorneys can typically work on a contingency fee basis. This means that when you hire us, you sign an agreement to pay us from the winnings in your case. This is a great way to get injury victims better access to an attorney if they cannot afford to pay for one outright.
It also means that our success is tied to your success. We only get paid if we win for you. We are already obligated under legal ethics rules to put your best interests first, but this doubly guarantees we will put your success first.
It also means that if you lose, you pay nothing. Our case reviews are also free, so there is no risk in calling us to learn more.
How Much is My Case Worth?
Our lawyers can help you determine the value of your case as part of our case review. Injury cases are not priced by the injury you suffered and are instead based on the value of the damages you suffered.
Personal injury cases can recover all of these damages at their full value:
- Past and future medical care costs (emergency hospitalization, surgeries, physical therapy, etc.)
- Past and future lost earnings
- Replacement services at home (e.g., laundry, cooking)
- Childcare costs during hospitalization, disability
- Physical pain
- Emotional distress
- Mental anguish
Do not accept the insurance company’s valuation of the case; early settlement offers are usually based on their economic considerations, not your needs.
Do I File an Insurance Claim or a Lawsuit?
In many injury cases, you will start with an insurance claim but ultimately file a lawsuit. The defendant’s insurance company is usually the one to pay for damages unless the defendant is independently wealthy or is a company/business entity.
This means that initial claims can be made informally through insurance, but we always have the backup option of going to court if they are not willing to negotiate.
Some cases cannot go to trial. The two most common are…
- Limited tort car insurance cases that do not qualify for a lawsuit under limited tort rules
- Work injury cases where the employer or the victim was at fault. These are filed through Workers’ Comp instead.
Contact Our Catasauqua Personal Injury Attorneys Today
Call Cardamone Law’s personal injury attorneys at (267) 651-7945 for a free review of your potential case.
