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An accidental injury can be a huge setback in your life. Whether you were injured in a car crash or another type of accident, you could face serious injuries that keep you from working and caring for yourself and your loved ones after the accident.
The Arlington lawyers at our firm have decades of experience representing injury victims and their families in accident lawsuits, working to get them the compensation they deserve. In many cases, the at-fault parties will seek to settle cases or send their insurance company to deal with their mistakes, but that can often leave the victim without enough money to cover their damages.
Call The Queenan Law Firm, P.C. today at (817) 476-1797 for a free case review with our personal injury lawyers.
When Should I Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer in Arlington, TX After an Accident?
If you were hurt in an accident in Arlington, chances are that there is a responsible party you could be entitled to sue for your injuries. If you are involved in an accident or injury case where someone else is at fault, our team can help.
We handle a variety of cases, including car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, medical malpractice, birth injuries, defective product injuries, slip and falls, drowning, burns, injuries on someone else’s property, auto defects, workplace injuries, and more. If you need help with a car accident case, contact our car accident attorneys in Arlington.
In any of these cases, another party, such as a driver, the property owner, a manufacturer, or an employer, could be at fault for the accident. If these parties breached some legal duty that they owed you, you could be entitled to sue them in court.
As soon as you understand that you were injured, you can begin to see the full extent of the injuries – how long it will take to recover, how much the injuries are going to cost you, etc. – you should contact a personal injury lawyer. Acting sooner rather than later is always better in an injury case because it allows your lawyer to begin collecting evidence, taking depositions, and gathering the bills and medical records they need to start building your case. It also allows you to have a lawyer present at early settlement negotiations, which are where many victims mistakenly accept low settlements that fail to cover their needs.
Why You Should Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer After an Accident in Arlington, TX
Hiring a lawyer after an accident in Arlington offers numerous benefits. They can help establish liability, navigate complex legal issues, and accurately evaluate your damages. By enlisting the support of our personal injury attorneys, you can increase your chances of obtaining the compensation you need to move forward with your life. The following are just a few of the strengths that our team can bring to your case:
We Can Help Establish Liability
After an accident, determining who is at fault can be quite complex. This is where the expertise of a lawyer comes in. One of the critical roles of a lawyer is to help establish liability in your case. For instance, in a personal injury case, a lawyer has the knowledge and resources to gather evidence, analyze accident reports, interview witnesses, and consult with experts if necessary.
By conducting a thorough investigation, our team can identify the party or parties responsible for the accident and build a strong case to prove their liability. This might include reviewing police reports, medical records, and other relevant documents, as well as interviewing witnesses and consulting with experts in various fields, such as accident reconstruction or medical professionals.
Without legal assistance, establishing liability can be difficult, potentially hindering your ability to receive the compensation you deserve. This is because the legal system can be complex and confusing, and it can be challenging to navigate without a legal professional’s guidance. Furthermore, insurance companies might try to avoid paying out claims or might try to shift the blame onto the victim, making it even more crucial to have a lawyer on your side to protect your rights and interests.
We Understand Texas Personal Injury Laws
Personal injury laws in Texas can be intricate and multifaceted, and it is critical that you fully understand them to succeed in your case. One important legal principle to note is that Texas follows a modified comparative negligence rule, which means that if you are found to be partially responsible for the accident, your compensation will be reduced accordingly.
Furthermore, it is essential to be aware of the statutes of limitations in Texas for personal injury lawsuits. These deadlines are strictly enforced, so it is crucial to file your lawsuit within the legal time frame. In Arlington, you generally have two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit.
Our team will take care of all the necessary paperwork and ensure that it is filed correctly and on time, protecting your legal rights to seek compensation. By doing so, you can focus on your recovery while we work diligently to secure your compensation.
We Have the Experience to Evaluate and Assess Your Damages
Evaluating and assessing the damages accurately is of paramount importance. This evaluation must take into account not only the current medical expenses and lost wages but also any future costs related to the injuries sustained.
Often, the full extent of the damages might not be immediately apparent, and the long-term effects of the injuries might not manifest until much later. It is important to take into account these future costs and implications while seeking compensation.
Your lawyer can play a vital role in this process, consulting with medical professionals, occupational therapists, and financial experts to estimate future medical costs, the impact of the injuries on your earning capacity, and other long-term effects.
By accurately assessing the damages, we can help ensure that your compensation covers all the costs associated with the injuries. Without this assessment, you might end up settling for less than what you need to fully recover financially.
Provides Peace of Mind While You Recover
Perhaps one of the most significant benefits of hiring an attorney is the peace of mind they provide. After an accident, your primary focus should be on recovery. A lawyer can handle all the legal aspects of your case, allowing you to concentrate on healing.
We can manage communications with insurance companies, who often attempt to downplay your injuries or push for a quick, inadequate settlement. With our team by your side, you can rest assured that your best interests are being represented, reducing stress and providing reassurance during a difficult time.
Understanding the Personal Injury Claims Process in Arlington, TX
The personal injury claims process in Arlington typically involves several steps. While this process can be complex, the following guide should help you be better prepared for what to expect as your case moves forward:
File Your Claim
Filing a personal injury claim is the first step towards seeking compensation for your losses. To initiate this process, you need to inform the at-fault party’s insurance company about the accident and your intention to seek compensation for your injuries. It is recommended that you do this as soon as possible after the accident while the details are still fresh in your mind.
When filing your claim, it is important to ensure that you provide as much detail as possible about the accident and your injuries. This includes information such as the date, time, and location of the accident, the parties involved, the nature and extent of your injuries, and any medical treatment you have received.
In addition to notifying the at-fault party’s insurance company, it is also crucial to inform your own insurance company about the accident, even if you believe that the other party was at fault. This is particularly important as Texas is a “fault” state, which means that drivers who cause accidents are responsible for the damages resulting from those accidents.
Obtain Evidence
After filing your claim, the next step is to gather evidence to support your case. This might include photographs of the accident scene, witness statements, police reports, and any other documents that might be relevant to your claim.
Medical records are particularly crucial as they can provide evidence of your injuries and the treatment you have received. You should keep detailed records of all your medical appointments, treatments, medications, and any other expenses related to your injuries.
Negotiate with Insurance
The next step is to initiate negotiation with the insurance company of the party responsible for the accident. This process typically involves a series of conversations between you, or preferably your lawyer, and the insurance adjuster, where both sides will try to reach an agreement on the amount of compensation you should receive.
Keep in mind that insurance companies often try to minimize payouts, which means they might dispute the severity of your injuries or argue that you were partially at fault for the accident. They might also try to use tactics to delay or deny your claim. As such, having an experienced negotiator on your side during these discussions can make a world of difference.
A skilled negotiator can help you navigate the negotiation process, anticipate the insurance company’s tactics, and advocate for your best interests. They can also help you gather additional evidence and build a stronger case if necessary. With their help, you can increase your chances of receiving fair compensation for your damages.
Settlement or Judgment
The insurance company will then usually review your claim and investigate the incident to determine the extent of your losses. Based on their findings, the insurance company will typically offer a settlement amount to resolve your claim.
If the offer made by the insurance company is acceptable to you, you can choose to accept it. By doing so, you will receive the agreed-upon compensation, and your case will be closed. However, it is essential to carefully review the terms of the settlement offer to ensure that you are receiving a fair amount for your losses. Once a settlement is accepted, you are legally releasing the insurance company from liability, which is why we recommend having our team review it before accepting.
In some cases, the insurance company’s offer might not be satisfactory, and you might choose to reject it. If a fair settlement cannot be reached, your case might proceed to trial. During the trial, both parties will present their evidence and arguments to a judge or jury. The trial will determine the extent of your losses and the compensation you are entitled to receive.
If the court finds in your favor, it will issue a judgment ordering the defendant to pay a certain amount of damages. The amount of damages awarded will depend on the evidence presented during the trial and the extent of your losses.
Essential Factors to Prove a Personal Injury Case in Arlington, TX
Winning your case requires more than simply stating that you were harmed. You must prove specific factors that convince the insurance company or court that your current losses directly resulted from the accident in question. The following will help you understand what you must show to win your case in Arlington:
Establishing Defendant’s Duty of Care
The initial step is to prove that the defendant had a duty of care towards you. A duty of care is a legal concept that refers to the responsibility of one person to prevent causing harm to another person. However, the specifics of this duty can differ based on the circumstances of your case.
For instance, drivers have a duty to operate their vehicles safely and follow traffic rules to protect others on the road. Property owners also have a responsibility to maintain their property in a safe condition for visitors. Likewise, doctors must provide competent medical care to their patients.
To establish a duty of care in your case, you must demonstrate that the defendant was in a position that required them to act or refrain from acting in a certain way to prevent harm to you. In other words, you need to establish that the defendant had a legal obligation to take reasonable care and avoid causing harm to you.
Proving the Defendant Breached Ther Duty of Care
Once it has been established that the defendant had a duty of care towards the plaintiff, the next step is to prove that they breached this duty. A breach occurs when a person fails to meet the standard of care required in a particular situation. This could involve actions like a driver speeding or driving under the influence, a property owner failing to fix a known hazard, or a doctor making a careless mistake during treatment.
Proving a breach of duty is not always straightforward, as it often requires substantial evidence. This evidence could include witness statements, photographs, video footage, accident reports, or expert testimony. Depending on the case, it might be necessary to gather evidence from multiple sources or to use specialized techniques to obtain the information needed.
Our team understands the importance of strong evidence in proving a breach of duty. We work closely with our clients to gather and present evidence that is both compelling and persuasive. Our approach is tailored to the specific needs of each case, and we use a range of strategies to help our clients achieve the best possible outcome.
Demonstrate Your Damages Resulted from the Defendant’s Breach of Duty
The final piece of the puzzle in proving your case is to demonstrate that your damages, injuries, and losses you have suffered resulted directly from the defendant’s breach of duty. This is often referred to as causation.
This can be done by presenting medical records and other evidence that clearly links your injuries to the defendant’s breach of duty of care. It might also require the testimony of medical experts or accident reconstruction specialists to explain how the defendant’s actions led to your injuries.
The medical experts can provide an opinion on how the breach of duty of care caused or contributed to your injuries. Accident reconstruction specialists, on the other hand, might use scientific methods to analyze the accident scene and recreate what happened, with the aim of determining how the defendant’s actions led to your injuries. The most important thing is to establish a clear causal connection between the defendant’s breach of duty of care and your injuries.
Evidence to Collect in an Injury Case in Arlington, TX
In any injury case, you will need evidence to prove your case in court. The specific types of evidence available in your case will usually vary depending on the specifics of the accident. However, there are usually three main categories of evidence that you will need to prove that the defendant was responsible for your injuries: evidence of what happened, evidence of who caused the injuries, and evidence of what injuries you suffered.
Evidence of the Accident
In most cases, you will need to explain to the jury what precisely happened to cause your injuries. As the plaintiff in the case, the burden is on you (with the help of your attorney) to produce this evidence. In the case of an accident such as a car crash or a slip and fall, your own testimony and the testimony of any witnesses who saw the accident are the most important pieces of evidence. With testimony, you can tell the court exactly what happened and how it happened.
Other evidence can help support testimony, such as photos of the accident scene or video footage of what happened. Many security cameras, dash cams, and even cell phone footage can be helpful for showing the jury how the accident happened, as can photos of the aftermath of the accident.
In many injury cases involving particular items or objects that injured people, the object itself could be brought to court. In cases involving defective products, dangerous auto parts, or defective medical devices, you can bring the specific item into court to show the jury how it is broken or defective. You could also bring in photos of dangerous stairs, walkways, electrical cables, or other sources of injury.
In many medical malpractice cases, you will need a medical expert to testify to what happened during the procedure. Because many medical issues are beyond the understanding of untrained jurors, these medical experts become important because they can explain to the jury exactly what happened and why that is dangerous or ineffective.
Evidence of Who is at Fault
To prove that the defendant is at fault for your injuries, you need evidence linking them to the accident. In cases involving another person who did something wrong and immediately caused an accident, you can often identify the at-fault person in court. Pointing the finger at the at-fault driver, the person who assaulted you, or the doctor who negligently performed a procedure can often be the simplest proof of who is at fault.
In some cases, it is not as simple. The defendant in your case could be a company whose workers were responsible for the accident, such as a trucking company whose driver hit you or a store whose workers left dangerous spills that caused your slip and fall. In these cases, the proof is a little more intricate, and your lawyer will need to provide evidence of employment records and other documents that prove who was responsible for the accident.
This is also often an important question when dealing with defective products, as the responsible party could be the manufacturer that assembled the product or an earlier manufacturer up the line that made the parts that went into the product that injured you. Your Arlington, TX personal injury lawyer can help track down who is responsible for the injuries and gather the evidence necessary for trial.
Evidence of Your Injuries
In a court of law, you need to first prove that you were, in fact, injured before the jury can rule in your favor. In some cases, the injuries are obvious, and your presence in court with bruises, broken bones, a limp, or a wheelchair can be clear evidence of your injuries. However, it is important to provide the full picture of your injuries, and evidence of medical records, X-rays, and pictures of your recovery progress are all important when proving the injuries to a skeptical jury.
Your testimony about what injuries you have and how they affect your life will also be vital evidence of injury. Your own description of the pain, the mental effects of the injuries, and the impact that the injuries had on your day-to-day activities will all help show the jury how serious your injuries really are.
In many cases, the evidence will help prove how much your case is worth in damages. Medical bills will help show how much the injuries cost, and your testimony will help prove how much you deserve in pain and suffering damages. Sometimes, as part of the proof of the injuries you suffered, you will also provide testimony from doctors and medical experts about how much more you have to go on your road to recovery and how much recovery will cost you for ongoing surgeries, rehabilitation, physical therapy, and other care needs.
Statute of Limitations on a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Arlington, TX
In most injury cases in Texas, defendants have two years to file their case in court. This does not mean that the case needs to be completed in 2 years; it just means that it needs to be filed in court before two years have passed since the date of the injury. This deadline is often extended for victims injured as a minor and might have special rules and deadlines for certain types of cases, such as medical malpractice claims.
Call Our Arlington, TX Personal Injury Lawyers for a Free Case Consultation
For a free case evaluation with our personal injury attorneys, contact The Queenan Law Firm, P.C. at (817) 476-1797.