We defend companies that are serious about product safety and corporate responsibility. Many companies aren’t serious about that, though, and we energetically represent people who have been hurt by their decisions. Often, people seriously injured due to someone else’s fault have never hired an attorney before. Their injury might be the first time they’ve had to think about the court system, unless they served on a jury to decide someone else’s case.
We treat each of our personal-injury clients with the respect and dignity they deserve, making sure they understand the legal process they are entering. We’ll explain the strengths and risks with your case, and we’ll guide your claim with you to make sure we get you a fair and reasonable recovery for your injuries. In fact, referrals and references from other attorneys and past clients are our strongest source of personal-injury clients, because they know how hard we work pursuing justice for our clients.
Injury victims often have some basic questions about the process. Here are answers to some of them.
Do I need a personal-injury attorney?
Yes, definitely. If you’ve been hurt, you may feel scared, confused, and not sure where to begin to start to rebuild your health and finances. The responsible parties and their insurance companies often prey on injury victims in their vulnerable state, trying to reach a quick settlement with them for only a fraction of the true, reasonable value of their claims.
Don’t try to solve these problems on your own—you need an experienced personal-injury lawyer on your side. Our firm will discuss the details of your case with you, develop a valuation of your claim with you, work to determine how best to pursue your claim, and pursue it to maximize the recovery you are owed.
Will I have to file a lawsuit?
Maybe. If the responsible parties are willing to review your claim fairly and negotiate fair compensation for you, then we will not need to pursue a lawsuit. But many times that is not the case—defendants usually take some time before they appreciate the gravity of your injuries and come to a fair valuation of them. But you need to know two things about lawsuits. First, our experienced attorneys handle the entire process with you and guide the case every step of the way. Second, lawsuits are not a badge of dishonor, as some people like to portray them—a lawsuit is your constitutionally guaranteed way to petition a court for fair and adequate compensation, through a jury of your peers. We take pride in being trial attorneys. We’re good at it, and you want us in your corner.
What is a personal-injury claim, legally?
Most injury claims are pursued under the legal theory of “negligence.” At its most fundamental level, a negligence claim requires proof of four elements: (1) a duty of care, owed to you by the defending party (usually this is a duty of “reasonable and ordinary care”); (2) a breach or violation of that duty by the defendant; (3) the breach of duty caused you “damages”; and (4) you actually sustained “damages,” which can include physical injury, financial injury, and pain, suffering, and emotional injuries. We help you assess and value your claim based on our deep experience with these elements.
How long does a lawsuit take?
Settlement can and does happen at any time during the life of a claim, so your claim may not take the entire length of time described here. But if a claim has to go clear to trial, it can take a year or more from start to finish. The time from when you first contact us until we have evaluated your case will normally take several weeks, if not several months. Then there will be a period of time where we negotiate on your behalf to see if early resolution is possible. If it isn’t, we will file a lawsuit; the process of pursuing a lawsuit from the filing date until the time of a trial can often take a year or more. There are many reasons for this, and things continue happening during that time, but be aware it often seems like a slow-moving process.
How much do I pay for these legal services?
We handle most personal-injury cases on a contingency-fee basis. This means that our client pays nothing to us for our time until we reach a settlement or recover money after trial, and at that time we receive an agreed percentage of the total recovery. It also means that our firm will advance the costs of pursuing the claim—paying expert witnesses, taking depositions, and so forth. Case expenses are likewise repaid at the end of the process, once money is received. If there’s no money recovered for you, then you don’t pay us anything.
Personal-injury claims arise in a number of different circumstances. Our firm is experienced in all of them, including the ones that follow.
Wrongful Death
Wrongful-death claims happen when injuries from negligence ultimately cause someone’s death. They can arise in many different contexts—our firm has handled death claims resulting from car and truck accidents, workplace accidents, dangerous conditions at recreational facilities, medical negligence, and poor care at nursing homes, among many others.
Be aware that wrongful-death claims often have different rules and procedures that apply to them, depending on the nature of the claim and who is bringing it. We strongly suggest that you talk with us as early as possible, to get the claim assessed and to start any statutory claim process soon, before time runs out.
Truck Accidents
Semi trucks are enormous. They take a long time to stop and are less maneuverable than smaller cars. Drivers of these large rigs must have experience, as well as the physical ability and stamina to operate them safely. Drivers have to take required safety breaks to make sure they are alert and don’t fall asleep.
For all these reasons, state and federal governments regulate the trucking industry heavily. Because of the dangers created by massive trucks traveling at high speeds on public roads, next to families and individuals who have to use the same roads, trucking companies and drivers must follow many layers of rules and regulations. Despite these stringent requirements, and sometimes because of them, some companies and drivers cut corners and violate the law, illegally exposing all the safer drivers to danger.
Depending on the seriousness of the injuries from your trucking accident, you or your loved one may be unable to work again, and you may need medical treatment for several years or even the rest of your life. Our firm understands and litigates collision cases involving commercial trucks. Call us to talk further about your situation and get us in your corner early.
Car Accidents
Car collisions happen too often in our world. They often lead to significant injuries that don’t get better right away, leaving the crash victim with high medical bills to deal with, missed time from work and lost wages, and long-term physical pain. It is not unusual for pain and injuries to remain masked for some time after the collision, which can then make doctors—and opposing insurance companies—question whether the pain came from the car crash, even when you know it did. It is also not uncommon for long-term pain to lead to depression or other emotional injuries from the trauma.
When the other driver has insurance coverage, a representative of her or his insurance company will start calling you right away and wanting to ask you about what happened. They will also want to talk about your injuries. Call and talk with us before you do that—the insurer wants to know what happened but also wants you to admit you were at fault, or that your injuries are not very severe. Preparation for that call is important.
There can be many steps to pursuing fair compensation for your injuries after a car wreck. Be very cautious about handling your own claim—we suggest contacting us to discuss what happened and see what options you have.
Medical Malpractice
Because our society values and relies on medical providers, we tend to think of them as unerring. But the reality is doctors and nurses are people just like the rest of us, and at times they do make mistakes. When doctors and healthcare providers make a mistake, it often causes further injury and suffering. A misdiagnosis can create the need for additional costly medical care. Birth injuries often result in lifelong disabilities and high hospital bills.
People injured by medical malpractice have the right to compensation just as for any other injuries. But many states have made it much harder to sue and recover money from a physician, a nurse, or a hospital, so it is imperative that you engage a qualified medical malpractice lawyer to help you determine whether malpractice has occurred and whether to pursue a claim. Not all medical malpractice claims can be pursued, but our firm’s experience will guide that process and help you determine what should happen in your case. We will work to help you put your life back together after a medical mistake.
Claims for medical malpractice encompass a variety of different issues. They can include failures to diagnose a condition or a disease, or an improper diagnosis of a medical condition; surgical errors, including decisions made during surgery as well as specifically how a surgery is performed; errors by physicians or nurses in providing medications; or occasionally simply an oversight in someone’s current condition that leads to an omitted treatment.
Birth injuries are particularly horrible for families to have to face. Fetal injuries claims can include cerebral palsy, Erb’s palsy, spina bifida, fractures, brain damage, or even fetal death during delivery. Injuries to the mother during labor or delivery are equally damaging.
Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists can sometimes be involved in prescription drug errors that lead to injury. These may include providing the wrong medication, or at the wrong time, providing the wrong dosage of a medicine, prescribing a medication that is contraindicated by an allergy or condition, or even the failure to anticipate side-effects or the need to review or change a medication.
Our firm is experienced in cases involving each of these areas. You should not attempt to pursue a medical negligence claim on your own — call our firm to talk with us about your case and your options.
Nursing-home Abuse And Neglect
There is no one more vulnerable than an elderly person whose physical care situation has caused them to need to live in a nursing home. Nursing-home residents rely on their caregivers for literally everything—eating, bathing, dressing, walking, and remaining on track with their prescribed medical regimen. It’s not just the resident who relies on these caregivers: As family members we entrust our loved ones to the specialized care nursing homes offer, because we cannot care for our loved ones by ourselves.
It is therefore heartbreaking when a nursing-home staff injures the family member we trusted into their care. Discovering that your loved one has bed sores because staff members failed to turn them is devastating. Fall injuries can happen when nurses leave known fall-risk patients unattended. Staff members can fail to feed their patients or get them to the dining facility. In particularly sad situations, neglect can actually turn into physical or emotional abuse, which the patient is often helpless to defend against. There is no excuse for such conduct.
Your family member deserves justice. Our firm has the experience to review and pursue nursing home claims when the actions in question cross the line into negligence.