Do you know what you have a right to claim after an injury in California? What financial compensation do you have a right to, and how do you go about getting it? This article covers the basics of these personal injury claims, including:
- The different types of personal injury claims you might need to file in California.
- What you will need to prove to recover financial compensation after a crash or injury.
- Why you need an attorney to help, and why you will always be able to afford one.
What Is A Personal Injury Claim?
A personal injury claim is a demand for compensation for one or more injuries caused by someone else’s negligence or recklessness. In other words, if someone else is responsible for an injury you have suffered, a personal injury claim makes sure they are the ones who pay for it.
What Is The Statute Of Limitations For A Personal Injury Claim In California?
Every personal injury claim must be filed before its statute of limitations expires, or you will not be able to claim compensation. For most adults, you will have two years after the incident to file a personal injury claim. For minors, you will have two years after their 18th birthday.
What Are The Different Types Of Personal Injury Claims Your Firm Handles In The Greater Los Angeles Area?
There are as many different kinds of personal injury claims as there are ways to get injured. But there are certainly some that come up more often than others in California:
- Auto wreck and car crash claims,
- Motorcycle crash claims,
- Rideshare injuries and incident claims,
- Slip and fall incidents or trip and fall incidents,
- Assault and battery claims,
- Traumatic brain injuries,
- Dog bites,
- Wrongful death claims,
This also includes all the various subsets and combinations of the above. Nevertheless, the core of each claim is always the same: if someone else’s negligence caused the injury, they should be made to pay.
How Can You Prove That Another Party Is Responsible For Your Injuries?
Crashes and injuries can be complicated, and there are often a lot of factors that go into determining who is at fault. Not every case is black-and-white, where one person is to blame and the other blameless. There is often a lot of gray area in the determination of fault, and the result is not always entirely on one side: sometimes, there will be comparative fault on both sides.
How the fault is analyzed also depends on the type of personal injury case. For example, in a car wreck, the most pertinent pieces of evidence are usually the impact points on the vehicles, the severity of those impacts, and the availability of any surveillance video or dashcam footage to confirm or refute eyewitness testimony.
Attorney Shawn Gozarkhah is a dedicated personal injury lawyer serving car crash victims and others injured in the greater Los Angeles area. He works around the clock to ensure injured Californians are not taken advantage of by insurance companies and are not deprived of the vital compensation they need to recover from their injuries.
If you or someone you love has been injured by someone else in California, contact The Law Man Group today to schedule a free initial consultation.
On the other hand, slip and fall or trip and fall cases are different; it is often not enough just to show that you were hurt on a business’s property. Even if you slipped in a puddle or tripped by no fault of your own, you only have an actionable claim for damages if the premises owner caused the dangerous condition or knew about it (or should have) and did nothing to rectify it. Additionally, there’s a notice requirement as well if you really want to hold the premises owner’s feet to the fire.
Then there are various exceptions to that as well. For example, the open and obvious exception: even if the owner caused a big spill on the floor – if the spill is big enough to where a reasonable person paying reasonable attention would have been able to avoid it – the owner may be able to escape liability.
Therefore, both the nature and the details of the case and claim need to be taken into account, which is one of the main reasons why you will want a personal injury lawyer to handle your claim.
Why Should I Hire A Personal Injury Attorney For My Claim As Opposed To Handling It Myself?
Insurance companies do not like paying out money. They are big corporations and businesses with shareholders who they need to make happy, not the policyholders. To keep their margins up and continue to make millions and billions of dollars, they have to avoid paying full value for any claim whenever possible.
So, while you could undertake your own representation and attempt to settle your case without the help of an attorney, chances are you will not be getting full value or even close. And once you do settle that case, you settle it forever. There is no going back or attempting to reopen it. While there may be certain exceptional circumstances where a case can be reopened after a release or a payment, those scenarios are few and far between.
So, yes, it is possible to represent yourself, but it is not conducive to getting full and fair value for what your claim is worth.
How Can I Afford Legal Representation For My Personal Injury Claim?
You need a personal injury attorney, but you have always heard that lawyers are expensive and are worried about affording quality representation. Fortunately, no matter their background or finances, everyone and anyone can afford representation for injuries that they did not cause.
This is because compensation for personal injury attorneys like us is handled on a contingency basis, which means that the attorneys wait until the end of the case for payment. There are no upfront costs, and the risk is taken by the law firm, not by you.
In the unlikely event that work begins but, for some reason, the case cannot move forward, and no recovery on your claim is possible, there will be no fees owed. Therefore, with no upfront costs or out-of-pocket expenses, you can always afford representation with our firm.
How Does The Law Man Group Provide Support Throughout Your Personal Injury Claim?
At our firm, communication is key. You will get the direct cell phone number of the attorney on your case. They will make themselves available for your questions and help hold your hand through the entire process.
We are very, very well-versed in what to expect, how to deal with the various players that will come up in the personal injury process, and how to keep all the dogs at bay. We will ensure that the only people that you will really need to be talking to are us and your doctors. We will take care of everything else so that you can focus on your recovery.
For more information on California Personal Injury Claims, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (818) 699-0492 today.
Attorney Shawn Gozarkhah is a dedicated personal injury lawyer serving car crash victims and others injured in the greater Los Angeles area. He works around the clock to ensure injured Californians are not taken advantage of by insurance companies and are not deprived of the vital compensation they need to recover from their injuries.
If you or someone you love has been injured by someone else in California, contact The Law Man Group today to schedule a free initial consultation.
