How Can a Personal Injury Lawyer Help Maximize Your Compensation?

First and foremost, a personal injury attorney obtains more compensation for your serious injuries. On average, lawyer-represented victims obtain three times as much money as non-lawyer-represented victims. This money doesn’t change what happened. But it does make the future brighter for victims and their families.

Furthermore, a personal injury lawyer gives victims solid legal advice. Many personal injury victims have multiple legal options. For example, permanently-disabled car crash victims could file lawsuits or claim Social Security Disability benefits. Each option has some pros and cons. Only an experienced lawyer explains these options in language victims understand, not Legalese.

Add it all up, and what can a personal injury lawyer do for you? An Experienced Personal Injury Attorney is an advocate. Since insurance companies earn over $1 trillion a year, they quickly hire expensive lawyers who defend their interests. Unless victims have determined lawyers as their advocates, fair compensation for serious injuries is nothing but a pipe dream.

Liability (Responsibility) Issues

These issues are often complex in two of the most common personal injury claims. Tortfeasors (negligent drivers) aren’t always financially responsible for car crash damages, and assailants aren’t always financially responsible for assaults. If victims cannot identify the proper responsible parties, they suffer. If an individual seeks compensation from another individual, the victim could be barking up the wrong tree.

Many car crash cases have third-party liability issues, especially in California. Respondeat superior is a good example. This legal theory, which has two major elements, often applies in Uber driver, truck driver, and other commercial driver wrecks.

Employers are financially responsible for damages if their employees are negligent during the course and scope of their employment.

Many commercial drivers are independent contractors or other non-employees for most purposes. But for negligence purposes, any paid driver is an employee. In fact, an unpaid volunteer, like a church bus driver, is normally an employee as well.

The scope of the employment test is likewise very broad. Typically, any act that benefits the employer in any way is within the course and scope of employment. If Mike is picking up his boss’ dry cleaning, Mike is acting within the course and scope of employment.

Drivers have a duty of care, as do property owners. This duty of care includes a responsibility to provide adequate security. At a minimum, this responsibility means property owners must immediately address security hazards, such as:

• Burned-out lights,
• Broken security gates,
• Malfunctioning cameras, and
• Propped-open security doors.

Additionally, depending on the foreseeability (possibility) of injury, owners must maintain a proper level of security. For example, a flower shop must only lock its doors after hours. But a check-cashing store needs much tighter security. Other foreseeability factors include the neighborhood’s crime rate and prior similar instances (if any) in the vicinity.

Comparative fault, in one form or another, is the most common liability defense in personal injury claims. If this defense is successful, the court could reduce, or eliminate, compensation.

For example, in a car crash case, one driver may have turned illegally while the other driver was speeding. Or, in a negligent security assault case, victims may put themselves in danger (e.g. walk home alone at night) without considering the possible consequences.

Damages (Compensation) Issues

Compensation in a personal injury case is based on a simple principle of you break it, you buy it. If Jim unintentionally smashes a laptop at Best Buy, he must compensate the store for that loss. If he unintentionally hits a pedestrian in the parking lot as he leaves, he must compensate the victim for that loss.

Personal injury compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Just like insurance companies dispute liability, they also frequently dispute the amount of damages.

Economic losses generally include property damage, medical bills, and lost income. Although these damages are “economic,” the price tag alone usually doesn’t tell the whole story. Property damage is a good example. Frequently, the family car has an emotional value that exceeds its financial value.

Noneconomic losses generally include pain and suffering, loss of consortium (companionship), emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment in life.

A lawyer must use a more subjective approach to measure these subjective damages. Frequently, the calculation hinges on a likely jury award and, quite frankly, the amount the insurance company is willing to pay. Only an experienced lawyer can account for these variables and thereby obtain a reasonable amount of noneconomic damages.

Wrongful death compensation is different. Usually, wrongful death survivors are entitled to pecuniary damages, such as compensation for any final expenses, the decedent’s final medical bills, and lost future financial support. Once again, these damages are very difficult to calculate, and even harder to obtain, without a lawyer.

Consult Our Personal Injury Lawyer Beverly Hills!

A personal injury lawyer can do many things for you. For a free consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney in Los Angeles, contact the Law Offices of Eslamboly Hakim. Virtual, after-hours, and home visits are available.

Credit: Photo by Midjourney