Personal injury law focuses on all manner of accidents, ranging from auto accidents, defective products, medical malpractice, and much more–and it touches on different aspects of law. The bottom line is that all accidents can be resolved through personal injury law. If you or a loved one is struggling with bodily injuries as a result of an accident, you should be compensated by the faulting party.
Accidents can cause serious health complications besides complicating your financial well-being. Casualties are left with medical bills to cater for, the hassles of pursuing justice, filing legal action & filling court papers, car repair expenses. Unfortunately, all these issues involve money. If you’re an accident survivor in Bakersfield, you’ll require Bakersfield personal injury lawyer to help you pursue justice and hopefully recover damages for injuries and damaged property.
Components of Auto Accident Claim?
The common components of auto accident claims include damages for bodily injuries and personal property.
Damages for Bodily Injury
You’ll likely suffer physical injuries after an auto accident and the faulting party should not only be held responsible but they should compensate you. If you’re the faulting party, you or your insurer should compensate the injured party– but in whatever the case, the following expenses and losses should be considered when drafting a personal injury claim:
Medical Expenses
Accident injuries can demand specialized medical care, including emergency services, hospital care, medicine, therapy–which requires money. The injuries could have incapacitated you, robbing you the ability to work and consequently making hard to cater for the above mentioned needs. You should contact a personal injury lawyer who will help you secure your current and future financial well-being.
Lost Wage & Lost Earning Opportunities
Serious car accident injuries cause deaths and leaving survivors with permanent disabilities that limit their working capabilities. Damages awarded should commensurate foregone wages or lost earning.
Pain and Suffering
Accident survivors often suffer emotional and mental anguish besides physical pain, which should be compensated. It’s typically hard to express pain and suffering in financial terms but your lawyer should help you arrive at a realistic figure since they’ve handled such cases before.
Legal Expenses
Most lawyers provide free consultation, and work on contingency basis. They will only ask for payment after delivering positive results, meaning you pay if you win, otherwise, you both share the loss. Lawyers prefer a percentage of the award or a pre-agreed figure.
Claims for Property Damage
Claims for property damage focus on the loss of your personal property or the damage caused to your car during an accident. The plaintiff can recover the damages if they’re able to prove that the property in question was damaged during the accident. You should compensate the complainant if you’re the faulting party in an accident that resulted in property damage.
Legal Defenses in Auto Accident Claims
Did you know you could limit or avoid liability in personal injury claims? Yes, you could be the faulting party and end up paying lesser than what’s being claimed or avoid paying everything. The success of a personal injury claim is dependent on many factors, statutes of limitation, contributory negligence, duty of care, and much more. The common legal defenses in personal injury cases related to car accidents include:
Legal Defenses
- Statutes of Limitation
Statutes of limitation can take away a plaintiff’s right to recover damages if their case is filed late or is considered time-barred. The statutes of limitation can vary by jurisdiction, although the average is 3 years in most jurisdictions.
Lack of a Legal Claim
The standard procedure in personal injury claims include proving negligence, duty of care, and stating a legal claim–and if any of these aspects is lacking, the case can be declared illegitimate. A defendant can avoid liability based on the status of the plaintiff’s complaint. If it was filed wrongly, or a critical aspect was omitted, they can leverage on the error and avoid liability.
Factual Defenses
Factual defenses can be called fault defenses as they deal with fault contribution by the parties involved in an accident. Common factual defenses include contributory negligence and preventing further damages after an accident.
Comparative Negligence
This defenses are not adopted by all states, some states use it partially in others totally depend on it to resolve car accident claims. The states that wholly depend on comparative negligence laws are called pure comparative negligence states while the ones using it partially are called modified comparative negligence states.
Contributory Negligence
Any faulting party is barred from recovering damages from the other party in states that use the contributory negligence rule to resolve car accident disputes.
Mitigating Further Damage
The injured party has a legal duty of preventing further injuries after an accident happens. They should avoid activities that expose them to more injury or loss. Lack of preventing or mitigating the risk of further injuries can be a ground for losing a personal injury claim.
The success of a car accident case is influenced by many factors, including the evidence tabled, your legal team, and the defense put up by the defense
