When you are injured in an accident, you are charged expensive medical bills, you miss time at work, and you suffer from the injury itself, both physically and mentally. These all result in damages – economic and non-economic – that you can claim in a personal injury case.
Both individuals and companies can be held responsible for the harm they cause, with insurance claims and lawsuits compensating victims for their damages. However, knowing what your injury case is worth and fighting to get your damages paid in full often require help from an attorney.
Call our personal injury lawyers at Agrapidis & Maroules, P.C. today at (201) 777-1111 for a free case evaluation.
When to Call a Lawyer for a Personal Injury Case
You should call a lawyer as soon as you can after the accident. If you need a few days to recover in the hospital, you may want to wait until you get home, but the sooner you call us, the better.
We can immediately begin looking into your case, collect evidence you might have missed (e.g., security camera footage) before it is lost, and begin negotiating with the insurance company.
In any case where you face hospital bills and pain and suffering, your injury case is serious enough to call a lawyer. Besides, our personal injury lawyers offer free case evaluations. This means we can talk about whether you have a case and how strong it might be before proceeding.
It is never worth the risk of proceeding without a lawyer, as you could be taken advantage of by insurance companies and defendants looking to end cases quickly and cheaply.
Do I Have a Case?
In analyzing whether you have an injury claim, we generally look for a defendant responsible for “negligence.” In a negligence case, you do not need to prove the defendant hurt you on purpose. Instead, there are four elements to prove:
- The defendant owed a legal duty
- They breached that duty
- The breach caused your accident
- Your accident resulted in injuries and other damages.
Without any one of these elements, your case can fail. That is why it is so important to get our attorneys on your case and begin evidence collection right away; if evidence is lost or destroyed, it might be harder to prove your claim.
Who is at Fault in My Injury Case?
Determining the right party to sue can be complex in a few common situations.
For example, you can usually sue a property owner for injuries on their property from negligent upkeep or dangerous conditions the owner did not warn you about. However, what if the dangerous conditions were caused by an employee at a store? What if the store rents the property?
Often, injuries caused by an employee who is performing job duties can be held against the employer instead. This means you would typically sue a store for an accident a worker caused, or you would sue a trucking company for a crash their driver caused.
Additionally, injuries caused by tenants and property operators are usually their fault instead of the owner’s fault. Their lease usually details who is responsible for what and puts daily maintenance and upkeep on the tenant, not the landlord. However, accidents in common spaces – such as the lobby of an apartment complex, the halls of a mall, or the sidewalk outside an office building – might be the landlord’s responsibility.
When it comes to identifying the responsible manufacturer of a defective product, doctor at a hospital, driver in a crash, etc., our lawyers can also examine the facts of the case and find out who to sue.
How Should I Deal with Insurance After an Injury?
If you are contacted by an insurance company to deal with your injury case, do not talk to them without your lawyer present or after at least getting advice from us first. The insurance adjuster may twist your words or try to push you into agreeing to stipulations that might hurt your case.
They may also try to send you checks or paperwork to sign, which you should always review with a lawyer first. Signing papers or accepting a check might function as a settlement that ends your case at whatever amount they paid you and prevents you from suing.
In some cases, your own insurance might be involved. This is most common in car accidents due to New Jersey’s no-fault system. You can often take money from your own insurance without settling with the defendant’s insurance, but you should still speak with a lawyer before accepting anything.
What Evidence Do I Need for a Personal Injury Claim?
The evidence needed for your case varies. Generally, the more evidence you have, the stronger your case, so do not hesitate to save any documents, photos, or other evidence you might come across.
The type of accident often dictates the evidence available. For example, car accidents often have police reports, vehicle damage, damage appraisals, and perhaps dash cam footage. Accidents on someone’s property – and some car accidents – are caught on security cameras, providing video of the injury happening. Most cases involve medical records, especially medical malpractice cases.
In any case, there may also be witnesses who saw what happened. Our lawyers can reach out to them for statements, but it is important to get their contact info before they leave the area, or else we may never find them again.
Should I Settle My Injury Case?
Never settle a personal injury case before speaking with a lawyer. You may be missing out on areas of damages, such as emotional distress.
Insurance companies often fail to account for full damages and base their settlement offers on risk and profit assessments rather than real damages. Do not trust them; speak with a lawyer before settling.
Ultimately, most cases do settle rather than go to trial. While it is likely your case will ultimately settle, we may need to negotiate your settlement, file in court, and progress a lawsuit before the defense agrees to a fair settlement.
Call Our Personal Injury Attorneys in Springfield, NJ Today
For your free case evaluation, call Agrapidis & Maroules, P.C.’s experienced personal injury attorneys at (201) 777-1111.