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Many accidents happen through no fault of your own but leave you with all of the consequences. If someone crashed into your car, had unsafe property, or sold a defective product and you were the one who paid the price for their negligence, our lawyers can help you get compensation.
Our attorneys take on injury and wrongful death cases for individuals and families seeking justice. We can work to get your damages paid in a settlement and, if the defense refuses to pay up, fight them in court to get a judge and jury to order them to pay you.
Call The Queenan Law Firm’s personal injury lawyers at (817) 476-1797 for a free case evaluation.
Types of Injury Cases Our Personal Injury Lawyers Handle in Cedar Hill, TX
Our personal attorneys handle injury cases stemming from all kinds of accidents. However, the core issue in all of these cases is the same: someone else was responsible for what happened to you.
This is most obvious in cases where another person did something wrong. Traffic accidents, including car, truck, and motorcycle accidents, are one of the clearest examples of this. However, this could also be what happened in cases of medical malpractice, where the doctor’s mistakes are what caused your injuries.
In some cases, the at-fault party is nowhere to be seen. This is common in accidents on someone else’s property, such as in a store or restaurant where the owner might not be present but would still be responsible. This also happens quite often in defective product injury cases, where a dangerous product was sold by a manufacturer miles or even states away from you but you were still injured by their negligence.
Some cases involve more than just mere negligence, where the defendant actually hits you, sexually assaults you, or otherwise commits assault and battery. Our lawyers can also help you sue for injuries in these cases.
However, most injury cases are accidental, and we do not need to allege intentional acts in car crashes or work injury cases when alleging mere negligence is enough to win your case. Proving intent is often much harder, and these cases can be won without having to prove the other party meant to hurt you.
Elements of Injury Claims in Cedar Hill, TX
As mentioned, lawsuits typically claim that the defendant was “negligent” and that that puts them legally at fault for your injuries. When alleging negligence, there are four elements of the case.
At its core, a negligence claim alleges that the defendant did something wrong, and that that injured you. Breaking these down into elements, there is the “duty” that they were supposed to follow; the “breach” of duty that involved a lack of care, skill, or attention; “causation,” meaning that their breach actually caused the accident; and the resulting “damages” that you suffered.
Without a duty, there is no legal instruction as to what the defendant should have done differently. If they did everything they should have done, there is no “breach,” and they did nothing wrong to justify a lawsuit.
Additionally, if someone else’s actions were what caused your injuries instead – or if you caused the accident yourself – then there is no causation, and the accident is not legally the defendant’s fault.
Lastly, there has to be actual harm for you to sue. You cannot sue for someone doing something dangerous that made you nervous; you can only sue if they actually hurt you and caused you expenses like lost wages, pain and suffering, and lost wages.
Common Evidence Issues in Personal Injury Cases in Cedar Hill, TX
For us to win your case, we need to provide enough evidence to show the court or insurance company that the accident was the defendant’s fault. This standard that has to be met is essentially a “more than 50%” bar called the “preponderance of the evidence” standard. However, the evidence you use has to be both strong and legally admissible, and we can run into problems with usable evidence in a few ways:
Hearsay
If someone has something to say about what happened in the case, the law usually requires them to go to court and testify in person. If their statements are made out of court, they are usually not allowed to be introduced to prove that what the statement says happened actually happened. For example, if a store worker told you that they saw the spill an hour before you slipped in it, we cannot use that as proof that the spill was there unless they come into court and say that.
Some hearsay is allowed, such as statements previously made by the defendant.
Destroyed or Lost Evidence
It is important to hold on to all evidence you have and give it to your lawyer so we can use it and make it available in “discovery” – the stage of the trial where each side turns over all their evidence. If the defendant should have evidence that they claim is lost or destroyed, this can complicate your case. For example, they need to hold on to accident reports from their store and security camera footage that we asked them to preserve.
If they fail to do so, then we might be able to get the judge to issue sanctions against them, potentially including an instruction for the jury to assume that the evidence would have hurt the party that claims they “lost” it.
Scientific and Technical Evidence from Expert Witnesses
Some cases rely heavily on technical or scientific issues that not everyone knows a lot about. In medical malpractice cases, manufacturing defect cases, and other cases involving scientific or technical evidence, you can often hire experts to examine what happened, put together facts, and give a scientific opinion. However, there are standards they have to meet under the law, and not all evidence is admissible this way.
This usually allows evidence about medical conditions, financial calculations (e.g., projected future lost wages), and manufacturing techniques but might drop evidence related to novel or unique issues.
Call Our Personal Injury Attorneys in Cedar Hill, TX Today
Call (817) 476-1797 for a free case analysis with the personal injury lawyers at The Queenan Law Firm.