Personal injury attorneys handle all sorts of cases on behalf of victims of accidents. If you were injured in an accident, then you could be entitled to financial compensation through relevant insurance policies or through the courts. Working with a lawyer can help you get your case to court and recover the compensation you need.
Our attorneys handle car accident cases, slip and falls, other premises liability accidents, medical malpractice cases, defective product injuries, and other accident cases. We can help you determine who was at fault and fight to hold them responsible for the injuries they caused you, helping you pay for medical expenses and wages you lost. We can also fight for pain and suffering damages.
For a free case review, contact Howe Law’s personal injury lawyers today at (844) 876-4357.
How Our Madison, AL Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help
If you were injured in an accident, our personal injury lawyers can help you determine what to do next, help you locate the responsible parties, and file your case with the proper insurance companies and courts so we can help you get the compensation you deserve.
Next Steps After an Injury
In the immediate aftermath of an accident, there are two major priorities to take care of.
First, you need to get the medical care you need to recover from your injuries. If this means dropping everything and going to the hospital, you should do that. Failing to get medical care can hurt your case because it is legally seen as a failure to “mitigate damages.” That is, if you allow your injuries to get worse and they become more expensive to treat or have an enhanced effect on your life, you will be responsible for the increased pain, medical expenses, and lost wages. It can also be harder to prove that your injuries exist in the first place without medical records – and it can be harder to link injuries to the accident in question if your treatment occurred days or weeks later.
Second, you should collect what evidence you can after an accident. In car accidents, you should get the driver’s name and insurance info, record information about the vehicles involved, and get information about the location, lighting, weather, and road conditions where the accident occurred. In a slip and fall in a store, you should get security footage if you can, as well as the contact info for any workers or witnesses who saw the accident or reported the dangerous condition to staff. In other accident cases, the evidence you can collect will differ, and our attorneys can help with this process.
After you have done your best to get medical care and collect evidence, call a lawyer for help.
Identifying Responsible Parties
In some injury cases, the responsible party is quite obvious. Car accident cases are a good example of this: the driver who hit you will get out of the car and give you their ID, so you know exactly who was responsible. In other accidents, the responsible party is not as obvious.
In hit and run car accidents, it can be difficult to locate the offender. Our attorneys can work with local property owners to get security footage and work with police to try to track down the driver who hit you.
In accidents on someone else’s property, the property owner or operator might be liable. If the accident was caused by defective or dangerous conditions on the premises, then whoever is responsible for day-to-day upkeep should be sued for the injuries. This applies to slip and falls, electrocutions, drownings, fires, structural collapses, and other injuries.
In defective product cases, the company that produced or manufactured the item is likely liable. This is the case with defective or dangerous pharmaceuticals, auto parts, safety equipment, tools, power tools, and more.
In medical malpractice cases, the doctor is individually responsible in most cases. However, the hospital could share liability in many cases or be primarily liable in its own right.
In many cases where the accident was caused by a worker in the course of their duties, their employer can be held liable as well. This is common in slip and falls in stores; accidents involving a commercial truck, bus, or taxi driver; and in other accident cases where someone committed negligence while serving their employer’s needs.
Filing with Insurance
If there is insurance that can cover your accident, you could be entitled to file a claim with that insurance company to get some of your damages paid. Insurance is usually available in car accident cases, injuries on someone else’s property (residential or commercial), and in cases where an injury is caused by a business’ day-to-day operations. Doctors and hospitals also carry malpractice insurance to cover injuries they cause through medical negligence.
In some cases, insurance is the required route to recovery and lawsuits are blocked. This primarily comes up in workplace injuries, where injured workers are expected to file Workers’ Compensation claims. In these cases, lawsuits against an employer are blocked, but you can often go around this insurance and sue third parties for additional damages.
Filing in Court
As part of the negotiation process – or in a case where the defendant is unwilling to cooperate or negotiate your claim – your lawyer will be able to file your case in a court of law. Lawsuits are usually filed in the county where the accident happened, which means that if the accident happened in Madison but you live a county over in Scottsboro (Jackson County), you might still have to file your case here in Madison County.
When you file a claim, your lawyer will include a few things in the “complaint” – the document that lays out your claim. This document will include the facts of what you allege happened, the identity of the defendant, an argument as to how they are liable, and the estimated damages you are claiming.
Call Our Madison, AL Personal Injury Attorneys Today
To get help with your injury case, call (844) 876-4357 to speak with Howe Law’s personal injury attorneys.
