Several negligent accidents can be classified as personal injury accidents. Personal injury accidents are accidents that result from someone’s negligence. While accidents occur spontaneously, some accidents are preventable, including some motor vehicle accidents, dog bite injuries, and medical malpractice.
Severe damage can occur from these dangerous accidents. When you are the victim of a personal injury accident, you may be able to be compensated for the damages you’ve sustained. Before taking the next step in the legal process, you should speak with a Columbia personal injury lawyer from the Shelly Leeke Law Firm, where our South Carolina personal injury lawyer specializes in making the process easy so you can focus on healing.
The Elements of a Personal Injury Case
An accident must have occurred from another person’s wrongful actions to be considered a personal injury. A car accident that a drunk driver causes is considered a personal injury accident. The accident occurred because of the drunk driver’s negligence.
There are many situations where a personal injury case can be determined based on fault. If the driver of a vehicle is at fault, that means the driver did something or failed to do something that directly caused the accident to occur. However, even that is not yet enough to prove that negligence took place.
To determine whether a person’s actions are wrongful, they must actually have suffered injuries and loss as a result of the incident. There are many facets to a personal injury case, which is why filing a claim for your losses can be very hard to do. Our job is to help you obtain fair compensation for all those losses.
The Elements of Negligence
In civil law, negligence is the legal standard that all wrongful actions must meet. In short, we have to prove that what occurred should not have occurred in order for it to be considered negligence. If a person’s actions meet the following elements, those actions may be considered negligent:
- Duty of care. This element may be met if the person owed a victim a specific duty of care.
- Breach of duty. This element may be met if the person’s actions violated the duty of care owed to the victim.
- Causation. This element may be met if there is a link between the person’s careless actions and the victim’s harm.
- Damages. The types of damages may prove this element that the victim has sustained from the accident.
While this may seem like a drawn-out statement and requirement, your case – and your right to financial compensation for your losses – is dependent on your ability to prove that each one of these areas did, in fact, happen. Because there is so much at risk in a personal injury lawsuit, we encourage you to work closely with our legal team to help you seek out fair compensation. Let us do the hard work of proving negligence happened.
Accidents that Our Personal Injury Attorneys Handle in South Carolina
Personal injury can happen in many situations, whether you are hurt walking down the road, or you are hurt in a place of business. Car accidents are often thought of as a primary type of personal injury incident, and while they are a common example, many other accidents can also qualify. In addition to car accidents, several accidents can fall under personal injury, including:
- Chemical exposure
- Dog bite attacks
- Nursing home abuse
- Workers’ compensation
- Wrongful death
- Wrongful termination
Any accident where a party fails to uphold the duty of care owed to another individual may be considered a personal injury accident. If you are not sure if you have a claim, we encourage you to reach out to our legal team to help you navigate your rights. We are dedicated professionals willing to fight to show that what happened to you was not just.
How Personal Injury Accidents Happen in Columbia
An accident cannot be considered a personal injury accident based on its nature. Not all car accidents, for example, qualify for personal injury claims. For you to file a personal injury claim against someone, that person must have caused you serious harm due to their deliberate negligence.
You would have to prove that the person’s actions were so negligent that they caused serious harm to your physical and mental well-being. A majority of personal injury accidents happen because of an act of carelessness or recklessness. In a personal injury accident, the defendant is required to meet a specific duty of care.
You must prove that this duty of care was deliberately violated and that someone else in a similar position would not have violated that duty of care owed to you. Talk to a personal injury lawyer in Columbia, SC, today about the accident that caused your injuries. Let our legal team help you to make the best decision about pursuing compensation for your losses.
Common Consequences of Personal Injury Accidents
Personal injury accidents can result in severe damage to victims. The injuries sustained from an accident can range from temporary to catastrophic. Victims could suffer from serious injuries like spinal cord injuries, brain injuries, burn injuries, birth injuries, and amputations.
Do not overlook the other types of losses you have experienced, including pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of consortium. Many of our clients may qualify for punitive damages as well, which could extend what they receive in their recovery. Your financial compensation can be more complicated to determine because of just how damaging your accident consequences are.
Some victims could succumb to injuries and pass away weeks or months after an accident, causing lifelong consequences for victims and their families. When you are a victim of a personal injury accident, you may be able to sue for your damages and be compensated financially. Speak with a personal injury attorney in Columbia, SC, today.
Damages You Can Claim in a Personal Injury Case
The negligent party is responsible for all of the losses you have, and that means all economic, noneconomic, and punitive damages you have experienced. In a personal injury claim, you could sue for medical expenses, lost wages, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. If there was any property damage to your vehicle in the accident, you could also list that as damage.
Any repercussion of the accident that has cost you physically, mentally, or financially could be considered damage in your claim. Some personal injury claims allow for unique damages. In wrongful death claims, for example, you would be allowed to list any burial expenses as damages.
Calculating your damage is not as simple as just adding up the medical bills you have but instead requires careful consideration of how this incident impacted your past, your current life, and your future. Our Columbia personal injury attorney will work closely with you to determine what those are. Do not settle your case until you know what all of your losses are.
How to Prove Damages in a Personal Injury Claim
The evidence that you provide for your injury claim must be able to prove your damages from the accident. Some common forms of evidence include copies of police reports, medical records, witness testimony, and video footage of the accident. This type of evidence proves that someone else was negligent in your accident, and therefore, they are responsible for your losses.
These forms of evidence can also verify the nature of your medical injuries, missed time from work, and pain and suffering from the accident. The more evidence you include in your claim, the more credible your damages may seem. Always consult with a Columbia personal injury lawyer after suffering an injury in any type of accident so you can begin the claims process.
Additionally, our legal team goes further by working to understand the impact of this incident on your well-being and health. Ultimately, we want to ensure you receive fair compensation for your losses from the negligent party, and that means fully understanding what occurred, including talking to expert witnesses, recreating the accident, and gathering all data possible. Our job is to prove that you are owed compensation to the fullest extent.
How a Personal Injury Attorney in Columbia, SC, Can Help You
You may be filing a personal injury claim for the first time, but the process for filing can be complex in itself. After filing, you may have to create a strategy to help you negotiate with the other person’s insurance company. The insurance company will be responsible for providing your compensation should your claim be successful.
Insurance companies want to avoid liability at all costs. They will attempt to discredit your claim and even threaten to take your claim to trial. That is why you need a personal injury attorney in Columbia, SC, who can protect your legal interests.
Our legal team will ensure that the insurance company has all of the information possible to help you navigate your losses and seek full compensation. Our goal is to be aggressive in trying to work out a settlement with the insurance company. However, we will pursue a lawsuit when it is necessary to do so.
Should You Settle Your Case or File a Lawsuit?
As your attorney, we will help you navigate this decision throughout the legal process. Our goal is to ensure you get as much compensation as possible and as quickly as possible without putting your case at risk. Whenever possible, we aim to get the insurance company to settle the claim so that you receive the financial compensation you deserve and can move on.
When the insurance company tries to deny your coverage for medical care or does not provide a fair settlement amount for your other damages, we may recommend seeking a personal injury lawsuit. This takes a bit longer, but it can be the best way for you to recover all of the damages you have. We are aggressive defenders of our clients, and we will continue to fight for fair compensation for you.
We do not recommend settling your case until you are confident you have considered all of the losses you have. Many times, the losses you have are not fully realized initially and take some time to determine, but you do have time to do so. Do not feel rushed to settle too soon or to go to a claim process if you are simply unsure of your losses.
You Pay Nothing if We Do Not Win Your Case
This is a critical factor to keep in mind before you make the decision to move forward. We know you have a lot of financial difficulty right now. We know there is also a lot on the line, and you cannot simply file a claim and hope for the best – you need legal support from an experienced team.
That is why we work on a contingency fee. You pay us only when you win your case, and if we do not win your case for you and you receive nothing, you owe us nothing. That can provide you with peace of mind in making the decision to move forward with our legal team.
Before you do anything else, set up a consultation with our personal injury attorney to discuss the catastrophic injuries you have, who the negligent party is, and what type of financial compensation you may be owed for your medical care and other losses. We will help you to get what you deserve from this incident. Let the personal injury lawyers in Columbia work to protect your right to fair and just compensation after your losses.
Talk to the Shelly Leeke Law Firm About Your Accident Injuries Today
At Shelly Leeke Law Firm, our injury lawyers can assess the facts of your claim and determine the best method for success. Personal injury attorneys in Columbia, SC, know how to calculate damages, gather the strongest evidence for claims, and negotiate against insurance agents. Our personal injury lawyers are here to help victims who have suffered at the hands of another person’s negligence at a free consultation.
