What Should I Do After An Injury?
When an injury first happens, your initial reactions are likely to be surprise and shock. Still, do all you can to start protecting yourself legally and possibly build your case. Getting medical treatment immediately is always the first move, as you need to know what you’re up against. Keep all records you can regarding that treatment.
If possible, also get photos and videos of the actual accident scene. You also need to get the contact information of witnesses. Never in all of this should you admit fault, and contact an Alpharetta personal injury lawyer as quickly as you can. Vehicle accidents should be reported to local police, whereas workplace accidents need to be alerted to supervisors and managers.
Why Do I Need A Lawyer?
Your Alpharetta personal injury lawyer will immediately begin preparing your case the minute you hire them. They’ll also continue bolstering your case every step of the way. Once the case is ready enough, they’ll file the lawsuit on your behalf and then contact the defendant and their representatives for settlement negotiations.
Until there is a finalized settlement, there will also be trial preparation. If settlement negotiations do not conclude successfully prior to a trial date, then your personal injury lawyer will represent you in actual litigation.
What Type Of Damages Can I Recover?
The state of Georgia lets you pursue three kinds of damages. The first is considered economic, which are typically things with hard numbers attached to them. These would be things such as medical bills and lost wages. The second is non-economic. Such damages cover intangibles with subjective amounts, such as pain and suffering. The third is punitive damages. While economic and non-economic damages might be standard elements to a personal injury case, punitive damages face a much higher burden of proof and are rarely rewarded.
How Is Liability Determined?
Georgia is an ‘at-fault‘ state for cases of personal injury liability, meaning that it’s possible to build a case that at least one individual or party was liable for an accident resulting in personal injury. If we take your case, we follow a four-step process in determining liability, as per the legal standards set forth in Georgia’s statutes.
- We establish that someone owed you what is known as a duty of care. This can be anything from drivers around you adhering to the speed limit to your boss at work not giving you a task that might result in your strangulation or electrocution. Common sense standards for reasonable people apply.
- There must have been some kind of breach of that duty of care. Whether by action, inaction, or even ignorance, the liable party didn’t uphold their responsibility to your safety when another reasonable person would have chosen to do so.
- There must be causation. There can be a breach of duty of care without an actual accident. People get lucky all the time, but in your case, we have to show that someone’s breach directly resulted in your injury.
- The specific damages have to be outlined. What happened as a result of the causation? What are the specific injuries? How much compensation do they warrant?
How Much Time Do I Have To File A Personal Injury Claim In Alpharetta, Georgia?
Personal injury claims in the state of Georgia have to be filed within either two years of the accident or incident that caused the injury or the actual discovery of the injury itself since some conditions don’t present themselves physically until later when discovered by a doctor or through symptoms that manifest after the fact.
This doesn’t mean you should wait before deciding on an Alpharetta personal injury lawyer though. Even in the two-year window, waiting gives the defendant’s insurance and lawyers time to build their own case against your claim, possibly reducing your settlement or even eliminating the possibility of it.
Personal Injury Claims Process
The process technically starts with you filing your personal injury claim in the appropriate Georgia courthouse and informing the other party. However, it’s better to start with hiring a personal injury lawyer. While filing the paperwork should start the process, even the slightest novice error in filling out the forms could result in your claim being dismissed by a judge from the very outset.
How Much Will An Alpharetta Personal Injury Lawyer Cost?
Alpharetta personal injury lawyers work on what is known as a contingency basis. That means that they only get paid if your case results in compensation and damages, from which they would draw a percentage fee. You would not have to pay them anything in advance if they choose to take your case, nor would you have to pay them anything if they lose.
The specific percentage is open to negotiation on a per-case basis, but industry standards usually fall in a range of 30 to 40 percent, with larger and more complicated cases leaning towards the higher end of that spectrum.
Types Of Personal Injury Cases We Handle At Dr. Ted Injury Law
If you have been injured as a result of another’s negligence, or have a loved one killed or injured while driving, you may be eligible for compensation in personal injury cases. The question then becomes how much compensation to seek. For most people, the answer comes down to “monetary damages” figuring out exactly what your injuries have cost you financially, physically, and emotionally (and, in some rare cases, if the defendant’s behavior warrants punishment).
In a personal injury suit, monetary damages are paid to an injured individual (the plaintiff) to help offset his or her losses, such as medical bills, transportation and house repair expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering. We handle all kinds of personal injury cases, but we specialize in particular in two different kinds. The first is car accidents, and the second is worker’s compensation cases.
Car accidents can be very catastrophic and painful, especially if you or somebody in your family is injured in the process. It is also a fact that most car accidents happen because the driver at fault fails to fulfill his responsibility of maintaining his vehicle on time or even worse, neglects to pay attention to the road conditions while driving.
Because of these, many injured people are filing compensation claims against those who caused their injuries and damages. However, there are still a lot of car accident injury victims who simply don’t know how to proceed with their claims.
Worker’s compensation is a type of civil law that is designed to help people who have been injured or have died while on the job. There are many different types of workers compensation cases, which are designed to help those who suffered injuries at their workplace.
The main objective of a worker’s compensation case is to provide compensation to the employee for lost wages, medical bills, and rehabilitation costs that can result from an injury. There are many worker’s compensation cases that went to court, and many of them were won by the employees.
Contact Our Alpharetta Personal Injury Lawyers
As stated earlier, personal injuries can result from accidents anywhere you are, any day of the week. Many accidents are just that, and innocent in nature. Many also have rather insignificant consequences. However, some do not, and a lot of them could have been prevented had someone done something they should have.
Such accidents can turn your life south, but it doesn’t have to be permanent. Let us help you get the compensation you deserve to restore your dignity and quality of life.
Now that you understand how an Alpharetta personal injury lawyer can help, the next step is taking action. Don’t wait to get the support and guidance you deserve. Contact Dr. Ted Injury Law today to get started. Speak with a team led by a professional who is both a doctor and a lawyer—and get the experienced, knowledgeable advocacy you need to move forward with confidence.
