Accidents and injuries are stressful and traumatizing, and adding a personal injury lawsuit to an extremely stressful situation is never fun.
But if you or a loved one has been injured, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the compensation that you are legally entitled to.
Understanding more about this type of law — including some key terminology — will help you communicate better with your attorney. It will allow you to ask detailed questions and feel more comfortable as you move forward.
Why Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer
Personal injury laws are complicated. That’s why we have specialists who work in this area and are there to represent you. They cover cases which have to do with:
- Auto accidents (cars, trucks, motorcycle, and pedestrian)
- Liability claims from defective products
- Injuries which occur on property (premises liability)
- Wrongful death
- Slip and fall
- Medical malpractice
Finding someone you trust to represent you is important. Particularly if you have long term injuries, permanent disability, or are having issues with insurance compensation.
So long as there is adequate proof, a lawyer should be able to help you even solidify compensation for both direct (eg: loss of wages) and indirect (eg: emotional trauma) costs.
Learn more about Personal Injury Law
10 Terms You Should Know Before Filing a Personal Injury Claim
When you file an injury claim you are recovering expenses incurred because of the accident and injury. This can include lost wages, damage to vehicles, medical bills, medication, psychotherapy, physiotherapy, and regular doctor’s bills.
Here are a few terms you will want to get familiar with if you are facing a personal injury case.
Statute of Limitations
The amount of time a person has to file a lawsuit. Colorado dictates that you must claim within two years in order to proceed in court. This varies from state to state.
Wrongful Death
If someone has died because of negligent behavior or misconduct by another party, and they are at fault, this is a wrongful death suit. Compensation may be in the form of medical expenses, funeral expenses, and lost wages, to name a few examples.
Standard of Care
In the case of a medical malpractice suit, you will come across the term “standard of care” to refer to the expectation of a medical professional to protect patients.
Negligence
When one party neglects to take care of another’s well being based on a simple action that could have been undertaken. A perfect example of this is not clearing the sidewalk and letting it get icy and someone slips.
Assumption of Risk
This means that people should know that something is dangerous before doing it. For instance, if they are driving over the speed limit they should assume that this is risky behavior and therefore the burden will be on them should they have an accident.
Premises Liability
This is the type of law that infers damage done on an owner’s property and that they are responsible for keeping it safe for anyone visiting.
This can pertain to a business or residential property. An example would be leaving a vicious dog unchained in a front yard, leaving a visitor susceptible to attack.
Fault
A person can be at fault if they did not act in such a way that protected the other party. This could include both intentional and unintentional actions.
Pecuniary Damages
This refers to any loss of income as a result of a death or injury.
Strict Liability
This type of liability is where you don’t’ have to prove intent. For instance, it is a crime to drive without a license. It does not matter if you “intended” to leave your license behind, or not.
Tort
A tort is what lawyers call a certain class of civil litigation which includes personal injury, so negligence would be an example of a type of tort. It typically has to do with wrongful behavior or when someone infringes on someone else’s rights.
Don’t Suffer in Silence
Even if you are uncertain about whether or not your injuries are extensive, you deserve to be compensated for everything that you have gone through — fiscally, medically and emotionally.
If you’ve suffered from an accident, you need to make sure that your expenses are recovered. Not only that, but the person who is responsible should be made accountable.
We are here to help you regain a normal way of life via proper compensation. We want you to get your life back in balance after a life-altering accident, and guide you through complex law proceedings to ensure that no mistakes are made
We’ll be sure to walk you through the correct steps so that you can be confident that you aren’t losing money on something that isn’t your fault.
We’re committed to the highest level of compassion and making sure every one of our clients are compensated appropriately.
Don’t wait until you are faced with a lawsuit to find a trusted personal injury lawyer. Call us today for a free consultation.
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