Personal injury cases come in a wide range of types, resulting in a wide range of injuries. The precise way that you were injured often matters less than who was responsible for your injury and what they did wrong.
In many injury cases, you can sue the property owner, another driver, a doctor, or someone else whose mistakes caused your accident. In this lawsuit, you can recover compensation for the injuries and other damages that stemmed from those injuries. However, winning your case can be difficult and often requires the help of an experienced injury attorney to strengthen your case.
For a free review of your case with our experienced Atlanta personal injury lawyers, call Howe Law at (844) 876-4357.
When Can You Sue for an Accident in Norcross, GA?
Injury cases often stem from an accident. Legally speaking, an “accident” is often someone’s fault, not a true accident; you usually cannot sue if you were injured in a “freak accident.” However, most of the accidents that appear at first blush to be “freak accidents” actually stem from something another party did wrong, creating grounds for a personal injury case.
Breach of Duty
First and foremost, for you to be able to sue for an accident, there needs to be something that the other party did wrong to let the accident happen. The law looks for a “breach” of a “duty” that they legally owed you, which often comes in the form of some kind of unreasonable action or inaction. There may also be specific laws stating what actions should or should not have been taken.
Examples
For example, a driver who runs a red light and crashes into you would have violated traffic laws. If that caused a car accident, they would be responsible because of their breach of duty (traffic laws). In other cases, the duty is supplied by general standards of reasonableness, such as a store operator’s duty to clean up or warn of dangers in their store. If a store worker hears about a spill but takes 30 minutes to get around to cleaning it up or putting up a “Caution: Wet Floor” sign, then that is likely unreasonable and could be grounds for a slip and fall lawsuit if you fell in the puddle.
Less Clear-Cut Cases
In the cases above, there is a clear target for the lawsuit. Other cases involve more unclear chains of causation, where you might not be sure who did something wrong. For example, if your doctor was unable to diagnose your medical condition and it got worse, you might think that that is simply how things go sometimes. In reality, your doctor might have overlooked things that a more competent physician would not have, resulting in a lawsuit for failure to diagnose. In the case of a dangerous product, you might not realize that the injury could be the manufacturer’s fault if they failed to include adequate warnings to protect you from the product.
How Our Attorneys Can Help
Ultimately, our personal injury lawyers can examine what happened in your case and research what parties could be liable in a court of law for what happened to you. You are not expected to be a legal expert; tell us what happened and we will analyze whether you have a case or not.
Common Damages in Norcross, GA Personal Injury Cases
When you suffer injuries in an accident, the goal of your lawsuit or insurance claim will be to restore you – as much as possible – to the condition you were in before the accident. While injuries cannot be reversed, you can be reimbursed for the pain and suffering of an injury as well as the costs of treating the injury. When it comes to economic damages, you can be paid back for any and all expenses caused by the accident. These damages come in many forms, but the following areas of damages are quite common in injury cases.
Pain and Suffering
As mentioned, pain and suffering damages can be paid to reimburse you for the physical pain, mental suffering, and other effects of an injury. Many victims face long-term effects from accidents, suffering ongoing conditions, disabilities, depression, lost abilities, lost enjoyment of life, and more. These damages are expected in any injury case and will be a big part of your claim.
Medical Bills
You would never have had to pay for this medical care if the accident never happened. As such, the party who injured you should be the one responsible for any medical care costs that stem from the accident.
Therapy Bills
Whether we are talking about physical therapy/rehabilitation, occupational therapy, or mental health therapy, all therapy costs should also be claimed in your lawsuit. These damages – often to treat the mental effects of an accident – are just as important as the cost of treating the physical injuries.
Home Care Costs
If your injury is severe enough to require additional care at home and help around the house, those costs should also be covered. Whether these costs are temporary costs to cover things like laundry and food or ongoing home nursing care, you should not have to pay a penny if these costs arose from your injuries.
Lost Wages
If your injury keeps you from working, the lost wages you face should be claimed in your injury case, too. These damages can account for any wages you missed while recovering, as well as any wages you will miss going forward as you live with a new disability or long-term injury. Calculating damages for future lost wages is often complex and requires estimates as to how much your future wages would have been and how much longer you would have worked. That gives us a baseline wage to compare to what you will be able to make now, after your injury. If you become totally disabled because of your injuries, your damages should account for that as well.
Call Our Norcross, GA Personal Injury Lawyers Right Away
For help getting the damages you need, call Howe Law’s Atlanta personal injury lawyers at (844) 876-4357.
