If you have been injured due to the negligence of a business, you may have to consider filing a lawsuit against them. You are probably wondering if such an endeavor is even worth your time. You may be wondering what is involved in an actual lawsuit and whether or not ghosts from your past may be used as evidence to try and destroy your character. You may also wonder how much a lawsuit will cost you.
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According to tjryanlaw.com, personal injury cases rarely actually make it to a courtroom. They are almost always settled out of court. Personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis, and they simply take a percentage of your settlement.
If you have a criminal record, the defense may attempt to use it against you. Whether or not anyone on the jury would care that you had a criminal record would depend on the severity of the crime and the amount of time that had passed since it happened,
There are several different types of personal injury lawsuits that one can file against a business. You should know that there is a two-year statute of limitations on personal injury lawsuits in the state of California.
Slip and Fall Accident
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If you hurt yourself when you took a spill on the premises of a business, you may be able to sue them if you can prove that they were negligent in their duty of care. If you slipped over some construction materials that were left out on the premises and it was not clearly marked, the company may be considered negligent.
If there was an area with tools scattered about, and there was a sign telling you to stay away from that area, then you might be considered at fault. In any case, the manager of the business should have you file an accident report. They should also give you the name of their insurance company.
When you file a claim, the insurance company will ask you many questions, and they may even ask you if they can record you, but you are under no obligation to let them. They will ask for all the documentation you have of your case.
You will want to provide them with any doctor bills that you have, receipts from prescription medication, and a letter from your employer stating the number of hours that you have missed. You will also want to provide them with the names of any witnesses that you have.
They will have about two weeks to acknowledge the claim, and then they will have 40 days after that to make you a settlement offer. The first offer they give you will often be much lower than the amount to which you are entitled. This is where the assistance of a personal injury attorney will help.
Medical Malpractice
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If you have been injured by a doctor who is negligent or incompetent, you may be able to file a lawsuit against them. If a member of a hospital staff or nursing care facility injures you, you would want to sue the hospital or facility rather than the individual. You should know that there is a $250,000 cap on suing for anything other than financial damage.
Product Liability Lawsuit
If you were injured while using a product in the way that it is supposed to be used, it might be grounds for a personal injury lawsuit. The law firm that you hire will perform research to determine if it was the designer, manufacturer, or marketing department that caused the product to be injurious.
Getting injured in an accident can mess up your life for a long time. Finding an attorney who can get you a fair settlement can help to ease the pain.
Interesting related article: “What is an occupational accident?“