Many forms of negligence can lead to personal injuries. Victims of personal injuries may be awarded compensation for various losses related to an accident.
However, the personal injury lawsuit process can be stressful. There are numerous requirements to comply with when filing a claim. Furthermore, defendants’ insurance companies may attempt to delay and complicate your case. The support of our experienced personal injury lawyers can be very helpful when pursuing a claim.
If you suffered an injury because of another party’s negligent behavior, get help recovering the compensation you deserve. Call Howe Law at (844) 876-4357 for a free case review.
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Benefits of Hiring Our Personal Injury Lawyer in Atlanta
The stages after a personal injury accident can be difficult to navigate. Victims can suffer devastating physical and psychological consequences. Fortunately, our personal injury lawyers can help throughout every stage of the process.
Collecting Evidence
Proving each element of your personal injury case will involve collecting extensive amounts of evidence. Our personal injury lawyers can help gather the evidence required to prove your claim, such as:
- Medical records
- Accident reports
- Photographs
- Surveillance videos
- Eyewitness testimony
- Expert witness testimony
- Financial documents
- Insurance documents
- Medical bills
Furthermore, insurance companies may hire teams of people who will try to gather evidence to disprove your personal injury claim.
Assigning Fault
The next step in your Atlanta personal injury case will involve determining whom to sue. In some instances, assigning fault is not straightforward. For example, it can be challenging to determine who is liable for an accident caused by a commercial truck driver. Is it the driver or their employer? Assigning fault is a crucial step in building a successful claim.
Filing a Case
In Atlanta, personal injury plaintiffs typically have two years from the date of an injury to file a claim. However, you should contact our personal injury lawyers as soon as possible after an accident for help filing your case. Waiting to file a lawsuit could cause important evidence to lose its relevance or become lost. Important information can disappear, medical injuries can heal without documentation, and crucial details can be forgotten over time.
Additionally, there are numerous other requirements plaintiffs must satisfy when filing a claim, such as paying fees, serving notice to defendants, filing a claim in the correct court, attaching supporting documents, and filing a valid claim.
Dealing with Insurance Companies
Communicating with insurance companies can be frustrating. Defendants’ insurers may hire teams of people and implement a variety of strategies when trying to reduce the value of your claim. Furthermore, insurance companies will often attempt to entice low settlement agreements in the aftermath of an accident.
Before reaching a settlement agreement, injured parties need to assess the full extent of their injuries and evaluate the full range of legal options available to them. Accordingly, after sustaining a personal injury, you should not speak with any other party’s insurance company until you have reviewed your case with our legal team of experienced personal injury attorneys in Atlanta.
Avoiding Pitfalls and Meeting Deadlines
Quickly hiring a lawyer can help you avoid certain pitfalls in the legal process. Even if you are unsure about taking legal action for your injuries, you should arrange to speak to a lawyer about your options as soon as possible.
The sooner you hire a personal injury lawyer in Atlanta, the sooner they can start looking for evidence, and the more likely you will obtain evidence before it is lost or destroyed. Hiring a lawyer as soon as possible might also help you avoid missing important deadlines, such as the statute of limitations.
When Should I Hire an Personal Injury Lawyer in Atlanta?
Quickly hiring a lawyer can help you avoid certain pitfalls in the legal process. Even if you are unsure about taking legal action for your injuries, you should arrange to speak to a lawyer about your options as soon as possible.
The sooner you hire a personal injury lawyer in Atlanta, the sooner they can start looking for evidence, and the more likely you will obtain evidence before it is lost or destroyed. Evidence does not last forever, and some evidence is fleeting. For example, important witnesses might move away from the area, or accident scenes might be cleared away by law enforcement. Hiring a lawyer as soon as possible might help you avoid losing valuable evidence.
Hiring a lawyer as soon as possible might also help you avoid missing important deadlines. Perhaps the most important deadline for your lawsuit is the statute of limitation, which is discussed in more detail below. Missing this deadline could cost you the entire case.
Common Personal Injury Lawsuits in Atlanta
Personal injury lawsuits can arise from any accident where one party was injured because of another party’s negligent conduct. However, certain types of cases occur more frequently than others. The following are common sources of personal injury lawsuits in Atlanta:
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Hit-and-run accidents
- Slip and fall accidents
- Construction site accidents
- Wrongful death claim
The legal analyses that apply to your case will likely depend on the type of accident suffered. If you sustained an injury in any type of accident, you can consult with our personal injury lawyers and assess your potential claim for free.
Our Atlanta Personal Injury Attorneys Can Help
If you suffered an injury because of another party’s negligence, call the attorneys at Howe Law at (844) 876-4357 for a free case review.
Can I Receive Compensation for an Injury in Atlanta?
You might be awarded compensation if we prove that the defendant’s negligence caused your injuries. Compensation often encompasses economic and non-economic damages meant to make up for your losses. Punitive damages are possible but less common and require special evidence.
Economic Damages
Economic damages encompass the monetary costs and losses you experienced as a direct result of your injuries. Calculating economic damages may be complicated if you have numerous bills and expenses.
Medical bills are often a large factor in economic damages calculations. Bills for trips to the emergency room, surgery, physical therapy, medication, and follow-up visits with your primary care doctor all constitute economic damages. If you need long-term care, we can estimate reasonably anticipated future medical costs and add them to our calculations.
Property damage and value to repair or replace damaged property should also be considered. For example, if you were injured in a car accident, you can claim the cost of replacing your totaled vehicle as part of your damages. If you lost any personal belongings in your accident, you could claim the value of those items, too.
Many injured plaintiffs cannot return to work until they recover from their injuries. Often, plaintiffs are so badly hurt that they must take an extended leave from their jobs or give up working altogether. The income you lose because of your injuries should be included in your economic damages.
Non-economic Damages
Another large part of your potential compensation comes from injuries and losses that did not take a financial toll but were still painful. Non-economic damages include physical pain, emotional trauma, mental anguish, humiliation, and other painful experiences.
Because non-economic damages are based on experiences rather than money, calculating these damages is more complicated. Generally, non-economic damages are evaluated based on how they impact your daily life. When these experiences have a deep, negative impact on your daily life or lead to a loss of enjoyment of life, they can drive your non-economic damages calculations way up.
Punitive Damages
Punitive damages are not designed to compensate you for any losses. Instead, these damages are meant to punish defendants for egregious behavior. While punitive damages might be on the table in some cases, they are rarely awarded.
According to O.C.G.A. § 51-12-5.1(b), punitive damages will only be awarded if they are proven by clear and convincing evidence. This is a somewhat higher burden of proof than a preponderance of the evidence, which is the typical burden in most civil lawsuits.
The evidence must show that the defendant’s actions constituted willful misconduct, fraud, malice, oppression, wantonness, or such a lack of care as to lead one to presume conscious indifference to consequences.
Punitive damages must be pleaded for specifically in your initial complaint to be considered in your case. Generally, there is no limit on punitive damages in product liability cases or when the defendant had the specific intent to cause harm or acted under the influence of alcohol or other substances. Otherwise, there is a $250,000 cap on punitive damages, 75% of which must be paid to the state treasury of Georgia.
