Injuries from accidents involving crashes, slip and falls, product injuries, medical negligence, and other tragedies are far too common. Victims across Georgia could face long-term disabilities, expensive medical bills, and other serious mental and emotional harm from an accident.
Getting compensation is not always easy, especially if insurance companies refuse to hear you out or pay the full value of what they owe you. It is important to work with a lawyer to get what you deserve, i.e., full compensation for every expense related to your accident as well as pain and suffering damages.
For a free review of your injury case, call Howe Law’s personal injury attorneys at (844) 876-4357 today.
Determining Who is at Fault in a Personal Injury Case in Albany, GA
Personal injury cases are based on what is called a “tort” or, more generally, a “cause of action.” This is essentially the civil version of a crime and is the general category of things people can sue for. In some cases, you can sue for intentional torts like assault and battery, but most injury cases are based on the tort of “negligence.”
To determine who as at fault in a negligence case, you need to look at what party involved in the accident violated a legal duty they owed the victim. If someone did everything right, then they cannot be held responsible for an accident. In some accident cases, everyone did everything right, but bad results still happened – and in those cases, lawsuits typically cannot move forward. But when there is a party who broke a law or acted unreasonably, and their actions caused the accident, then you could be entitled to sue them.
Determining who actually caused the accident is sometimes a difficult issue. For example, if you slipped in a puddle in a grocery store, then it would seem that the puddle caused the accident. However, the property owner or operator – in this case, the grocery store itself – has a duty to its guests to clean up or warn about dangerous puddles. That means that, legally speaking, the grocery store will be the party that caused your accident.
In many cases, the issue is more straightforward: someone runs a red light and hits you with their car; a doctor nicks a nerve during surgery; an auto manufacturer designed a dangerous airbag. However, cases are often more complex than that, and our personal injury attorneys can help you determine what parties to hold responsible based on the specific facts of your case.
Examples of Common Injury Cases in Albany, GA
Many injury cases fall into the following categories:
Car Accidents Caused by Drunk, Distracted, or Speeding Drivers
Many car accidents are caused by drunk or distracted drivers, and speed is at least a factor, if not the primary cause, in most car accident cases. When an accident occurs because someone was violating a law like a traffic law, we can use that violation to prove they were at fault. Sometimes no explicit law is violated, but the driver’s actions are objectively unreasonable, which could also be a breach of duty.
Medical Mistakes
Patients are often injured by medical mistakes such as surgical errors and misdiagnoses. In cases where the doctor makes an actual error that directly causes harm, it can be somewhat easy to determine that they were at fault – that is, if you understand what the proper medical care should have looked like. Often, other doctors need to testify to show juries what the proper technique or process should have been. In cases of misdiagnosis, the doctor did not cause the victim’s original illness or injury, but their mistakes in diagnosing the patient allowed the condition to get worse, and that is also something you can sue for.
Slip and Falls or Trip and Falls
People are often injured in fall-down injuries because they slipped on a dangerous surface or tripped over dangerous obstacles. As mentioned above, property owners are often at fault for these kinds of accidents, and our attorneys can help sue for slip and falls or trip and falls resulting in serious accidents. There are other types of “premises liability” injuries as well, all caused by the property owner or operator’s negligent care of the premises or failure to warn the victim of a hidden danger.
Work Injuries
Workers can be injured in many different types of accidents, but the most common injuries arise from being caught in or between objects, falling from heights, being struck by objects, and being electrocuted or shocked. In many cases, these accidents are caused by careless workers or negligent employers, but lawsuits are often restricted against these parties. However, you could be entitled to sue other parties, such as the manufacturer of a dangerous piece of machinery that injured or shocked you. Work injury cases can also involve car accidents, lifting/carrying injuries, and even repetitive stress injuries.
Insurance vs. Lawsuits for Injury Victims in Albany, GA
Many people seek compensation through an insurance claim, but insurance companies are often unwilling to pay. If you are filing a claim, it is usually with the at-fault party’s insurance, and they will typically make you jump through hoops to prove that the accident was their insurance customer’s fault before you will see a dime of payment.
Insurance companies also typically try to end cases quickly by issuing you a check that pays for some of your claimed damages. Accepting this check and signing the paperwork they send you could function as a settlement and end your case right there, so talk to a lawyer before taking anything from insurance.
In many cases, our lawyers can negotiate with insurance to get them to admit fault and pay higher damages, but when that does not work out, going to trial could be your best option. If you go to trial, the judge and jury decide the case, not the insurance companies.
Call Our Albany, GA Personal Injury Lawyers Today
Call (844) 876-4357 for a free evaluation of your potential case with our personal injury attorneys.
