Even if you are as careful and considerate while out in public as any person possibly could be, you may still be unable to prevent another person’s reckless or careless actions from causing a serious accident that you cannot avoid being caught up in. Even worse, an incident like this may leave you dealing with serious injuries and losses that you did nothing to cause or deserve, all of which could combine to devastate your personal finances as well as your long-term well-being.
Fortunately, every state in the United States has laws in place allowing people who get hurt through the “negligence” of another to file civil suit against that other person and demand compensation for the harm they have sustained. If you have been injured under circumstances like this, contacting and retaining a qualified personal injury lawyer from Phillips Law Group is a vital first step towards obtaining the restitution you need.
Cases We Handle
At Phillips Law Group, our experienced team of personal injury attorneys has extensive experience helping injured people and their families seek compensation and justice in a variety of circumstances. Some of the most common claims we handle include:
- Car, truck, and motorcycle wrecks
- Pedestrian and bicycle accidents
- Slip and falls
- Medical malpractice
- Premise liability
- Defective products
- Dangerous drugs
- Dog bites
When a loved one sustains fatal injuries in an accident, our team can also help file a wrongful death claim or a life insurance claim.
Understanding the Legal Theory of Negligence
Each U.S. state has a unique legal code, but the basics of legal “negligence” are broadly the same across all of them: in situations where people owe each other a “duty of care” to act responsibly in a specific way, a person who “breaches” their duty and causes someone else to get hurt as a direct result is liable under civil law to pay for any “damages” they cause that other person through their misconduct. Depending on the circumstances, a legally actionable breach of duty can be something as obvious as a violation of traffic law leading to a high-speed auto accident or something as subtle as not warning a visitor on private land about a hazardous property condition that is not “open and obvious.”
Either way, anyone found at fault for causing an injury through their own negligence can be held liable for both economic and non-economic losses stemming from that injury. As a knowledgeable personal injury attorney can further explain, this means a comprehensive claim can seek recovery both for objective financial harm like medical bills and lost work income and for subjective personal harm like physical pain and psychological distress.
What Legal Obstacles Might Get in the Way of Recovery?
Unfortunately, not every state’s legal code is as friendly to injured “plaintiffs” pursuing personal injury claims as it could be. Every state has some sort of “comparative fault” law or legal precedent that allows courts to reduce the compensation awarded to someone who bears partial fault for their own injuries, and some states even bar recovery altogether for people who hold certain “percentages of fault” for accidents.
Every state also sets filing deadlines for personal injury claims through “statutes of limitations,” ranging from five years or more to as little as one year after an injury first occurs. Some states even place “caps,” or limits, on how much money an injured person can demand for certain types of losses even if they prove someone else was 100 percent at fault for harming them.
Get Help From a Dedicated Personal Injury Attorney
Put simply, personal injury law is complicated no matter how you were hurt or what state’s laws apply to the lawsuit or settlement demand you want to pursue. What is not complicated, however, is how important the assistance of an experienced personal injury lawyer can be to efficiently filing your claim and effectively protecting your rights and best interests along the way.
At Phillips Law Group, we are unafraid of litigation and will take cases all the way to court in order to get you paid what you deserve, and we have years of experience doing just that in service of regular people just like you. Call today to speak with one of our team members and get answers to any questions you have about your recovery options during a free, no-obligation consultation.
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