If you are hurt by the negligence or carelessness of a third party, personal injury laws may allow you to recover damages. However, a successful case depends on understanding the many factors involved.
These include negligence, comparative fault, and damages. Damages are compensation for your losses, including short and long-term medical expenses, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, and pain and suffering.
Damages
Recovering from an injury can be costly and time-consuming. A person’s day-to-day schedule becomes altered, and keeping track of deadlines and to-do lists is challenging. A personal injury attorney is crucial to an accident victim’s success.
An experienced Texas personal injury lawyer can evaluate your claim and determine what compensation you might be entitled to receive. This may include compensatory damages for short and long-term medical expenses, loss of earnings, reduced earning capacity, physical pain, and emotional anguish.
Like FrancisTXLaw.com personal injury attorneys, they will also assess any outside parties liable for your accident. This is important because it may increase the damages you are awarded. This can include employers of individuals who caused the accident, deep-pocketed investors in a dangerous product, and others.
Negligence
When another person or party fails to behave as a reasonable person would in a given situation, and their failure causes injury or harm, the victim may be eligible for damages. Personal injury lawyers must have a firm understanding of negligence laws to secure fair compensation for their clients.
Negligence is the legal basis for many injury claims, and proving it requires evidence of several elements. The first is duty: The defendant was legally obligated to act in a particular manner, and their breach of that obligation caused your injuries. The next element is proximate cause: Proximate cause means that the defendant could have foreseen their behavior would lead to their injuries. The final element is economic and non-economic damages like pain and suffering.
Statute of Limitations
When someone suffers a personal injury, they generally have two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. If they miss this deadline, they will lose their right to seek compensation for their injuries and other damages.
However, depending on the circumstances, this two-year window may be subject to exceptions or delays. For instance, if an injury victim was underage (18 or younger) at the time of the accident, the statute of limitations clock does not start ticking until they turn 18.
In addition, there are special rules and shorter deadlines for cases that involve government agencies. Fortunately, an experienced attorney can help navigate these complicated issues. By acting quickly, a lawyer can collect and preserve evidence and improve the chances of a full financial recovery.
Comparative Fault
In Texas and other states, comparative fault – or sometimes called “proportionate responsibility” – rules apply to personal injury cases. This means that how much you are awarded for your case is based on how much of the accident or injuries you were responsible for.
Insurance companies will look for any evidence that shows you are even partially at fault to reduce the amount they have to pay out in compensation. That is why having a qualified personal injury attorney is essential to fight for your right to fair compensation.
The state of Texas follows modified comparative fault rules, meaning that you can still receive compensation if you are less than 51 percent at fault for the crash that caused your injuries. This differs from other states that follow pure comparative fault laws, which do not allow you to recover damages if you are more than 50 percent at fault.
Contingency Fees
Most people know that personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis, but many need to learn precisely what this means. When lawyers work on a contingency basis, they do not charge for their services hourly; instead, they are paid a percentage of the recovery obtained from your case. This can be anywhere from 30-40% of the final award.
Most injury lawyers will also cover their clients’ court filing fees and deposition costs. This is done to provide individuals who otherwise might not have access to legal representation a chance to gain justice. It also incentivizes lawyers to win more prominent awards and avoid frivolous lawsuits. However, depending on your state laws, working on a contingency fee in criminal or family law cases may be illegal.