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After suffering an injury in an accident, your first priority should be to seek the medical care you need to treat your injuries and get you on the path to recovery. You should also consider speaking to a personal injury attorney about your case. After an injury, you may miss work and face intense pain and suffering while medical bills accumulate. Filing a personal injury lawsuit can often help you get compensation for these injuries.
If you were injured in Southlake, Texas or the surrounding areas, the attorneys at The Queenan Law Firm may be able to help you. Our Southlake, Texas personal injury lawyers offer free consultations to help injury victims understand what their cases might be worth and how they can claim maximum compensation for their injuries. Call our law offices today to schedule a free, confidential initial consultation and learn more about filing a personal injury lawsuit in Texas. Our number is (817) 476-1797.
Filing a Lawsuit for Injuries in Southlake, Texas
If you were injured, you may be entitled to file a lawsuit. Even when insurance is available, you can usually still sue for injuries in Texas. There are certain situations, such as with workplace injuries, where other processes might exist for seeking compensation. However, even in these cases, you might be able to opt-out of things like workers’ compensation in order to file a personal injury lawsuit instead. If you were injured, you should speak with one of our attorneys to discuss filing a lawsuit and to learn more about how this process works.
When you file a lawsuit, you make a claim that the at-fault party (the defendant) was responsible for your injuries. In some cases, you might claim that they injured you intentionally, but this is a high standard to prove. Instead, most cases work on a theory of “negligence.” Under this type of lawsuit, you must prove four main factors to get the compensation you are entitled to:
- The defendant owed you a duty.
- The defendant breached that duty.
- The defendant’s breach caused your injuries.
- Because of the defendant’s actions, you suffered damages and other harms that the court can compensate you for.
Some accidents are pure accidents, but in most cases, someone is responsible. Proving the at-fault party was negligent provides all of the facts and information necessary for a jury to grant you compensation for your injuries.
Proving negligence works differently in different cases. For instance, it is often simple to determine the duty owed in car accident cases, since traffic laws dictate the duties that we owe other drivers while operating a vehicle. Things like drunk driving or running a red light are obvious breaches that can cause injury. Things are more complex with cases like medical malpractice cases where determining the specific duty the defendant owed you may require expert testimony.
How Are Personal Injury Settlements Calculated?
When you file a lawsuit, you can usually get paid through the award that the court orders or you can accept a settlement if the at-fault party offers you one. Taking your case through trial to a jury verdict is sometimes risky since juries can make surprising decisions. Accepting a settlement will end your case early and guarantee you the damages you receive at settlement, but these damages may be far too low to cover your needs. Accepting a settlement usually blocks your ability to sue later if you are unsatisfied, so you only get one chance to decide whether or not to settle.
Juries calculate damages in a lawsuit by examining the evidence the victim provides. This typically includes the cost of things like medical expenses and lost wages from the injuries. These damages can include the total expenses you faced for these harms, plus additional damages for “non-economic damages” like pain and suffering. Calculating pain and suffering depends heavily on the circumstances of the case, but these can often be the highest part of the damages you receive at trial.
You should speak with an attorney to discuss what damages you might be entitled to at trial before accepting a settlement. The damages that you calculated and the damages that the defendant is willing to pay in a settlement are often quite different. In many cases, an early offer may be a low offer used to end cases quickly and cheaply. Accepting this offer may mean giving up damages that you could have received at trial.
Additionally, insurance payouts are often lower than the damages you could be entitled to in court. Insurance companies commonly pay damages for lost wages and medical expenses, but they do not cover damages for pain and suffering. Additionally, the damages they pay might cover only a percentage of damages, but you can claim full damages in court.
Southlake, Texas Personal Injury Attorneys Offering Free Consultations
If you were injured in a serious accident, contact The Queenan Law Firm today. Our attorneys handle car accident cases, slip and fall cases, defective product injury cases, and other serious personal injury claims on behalf of our clients and their families. If you lost a loved one in an accident, we may also be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit to claim compensation for your loss. To schedule a free, no-obligation consultation with our Southlake personal injury lawyers, call us today at (817) 476-1797.