How Soon After an Injury Should You Contact an Attorney?
The person should contact their attorney as soon as practically possible. Things could be developing every time the person made a statement to anyone, because innocent statements can sometimes be taken out of context and used against the person, particularly if they were not being given time to explain things. It would be immediate, so it would be important to have someone go out there before litigation really started so that they could get some statements.
With a dog bite, for example, an investigator would be sent immediately to get interviews, so that they could find out whose dog it was, what happened, whether the person knew what happened and whether they saw what happened. Once these questions were answered, we would have a factual basis for bringing the lawsuit against someone because we would know where the dog stayed, who took care of him and who was taking care of him that particular day and all of this information would need to be gathered immediately.
What Documents And Information Should The Client Provide To Their Attorney?
The biggest thing and the first thing that someone would need would be the discharge summaries of their visits, because it would be nice for the attorney to see those discharge summaries. The next thing they would need would be copies of any insurance policies so they could have a thorough understanding of there they stood.
They might not have those documents at the time, but they should bring them in as soon as possible so the attorney could start to develop a thorough understanding of whether or not their client has insurance, or what kinds of insurance might be available such as homeowners, auto policies, and what kind of underinsured or uninsured policy coverage the person had along seeing what kind of medical benefit coverage or death benefit coverage they had.
What Are The Benefits Of Hiring An Attorney And What Would Someone Be Entitled To If They Won Their Case?
The attorney would know what kind of damages would be acceptable to ask for and they would also know what traditional awards could be expected for those kinds of injuries. An attorney would basically be able to put the case on paper and present it to an insurance adjuster or a defense attorney, which is something that most people would not be able to do. They would not be able to put the dollars and cents down on paper or put down what the case was worth. An attorney would also be able to hire the experts and pay for the people who would establish the value in the case.
Almost all really good personal injury cases involve a series of different experts so that liability could be established, particularly with car accidents or rear end car accidents, T-bones, or those kinds of things, which would be easy liability cases. The person would have their medical damages and they would be able to present their medical records, but they would not be able to tell the jury what would happen in the future regarding the actual consequences of the injuries they had sustained.
Economic experts are used to judge lost wages, and they would be able to determine what kind of lost wages these injuries have causes. Vocational experts predict what kind of job limitations the person would have in the future. One of the experts they really like using a lot is the life care planner, who would give a written plan based on the medical records, vocational experts, and the economic expert.
Life care planners are able to predict the cost of future medical treatment. These life care planners would often be essentially at the heart of many cases, because a lot of times this is where the value would really be created for injuries that would be long term or in other words, permanent.
Somebody might have something that cost forty or sixty thousand dollars’ worth of medical treatment, and it might have caused a permanent injury that would require follow-up care. Someone with a spleen injury would have to go back to the doctor every couple of years. They might need extra pneumonia or flu injections and all of those things because they might have limited immunity.
These are all things that would cost money and there would need to be a dollar figure put on them. Life care planners would be able to put dollar figures on them which is why they are usually the biggest part and component of damages.
How Do Attorneys Get Paid For Personal Injury Cases?
Attorneys get paid on a contingency basis, because most people are not able to afford to pay an attorney for the time involved, and they would usually not be able to really afford to pay for the experts that might be needed, because the expert might be very expensive.
How Long Have You Been Handling Personal Injury Cases?
I have been handling personal injury cases for the last 27 years. The firm has over 50 years’ experience handling this kinds of claims.
What Are Some Things An Attorney Would Look For In A Premises Liability Case?
The biggest thing to look for in a premises liability case would be how the injury occurred, because that would be the number one thing to look for. The second thing to look for would be whether there was an easy way to prove whether the person responsible for the premises, the owner, manager or landlord, had knowledge of the condition that aided or caused the injury. These would be the biggest things to look out for.
For more information on Hiring An Attorney For Personal Injury, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking talk Arnold F. Phillips by calling today.