Every year, due to different types of accidents, thousands of people suffer from injuries. However, not all of these injuries have a strong basis for filing a personal injury lawsuit. Injuries that fall in the bracket of the legal definition of personal injury are the ones that are caused by negligence or wrongful actions of others that can ultimately result in accidents.
Therefore, it is important to consult the right Marion personal injury lawyer from Gatti, Keltner, Bienvenu & Montesi who can review the situation of the individual and then pursue a personal injury case.
How a Personal Injury Is Defined
If we look at the legal definition of personal injury, it means every type of injury that happens to an individual’s body, emotions, or even to a great extent, reputation. The primary cause of such an injury is the negligence and carelessness of the other person. Personal injury law is also known as tort law.
The word tort is a Latin word that essentially means harm or to do something wrong. Tort law covers a wide variety of personal injury claims. Here are a few of the personal injury cases our lawyers in Marion take:
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9 Steps to File a Personal Injury Claim
Before we delve into the steps to follow while filing a personal injury claim, it is important to know that personal injury cases are very distinctive in nature. Just like accidents, personal injury cases do consume a lot of time to be processed. While the process might be lengthy, most of the time, these claims get settled even more as they reach the final stage.
Now let us look at the 9 steps to filing a personal injury claim:
Step 1: Get Medical Care
As soon as an individual encounters an accident or has an injury, they should immediately go for medical treatment. This can be done by either visiting the emergency room or the primary care clinic. Although many conditions are not that easily detected, the critical ones can be easily treated with an early examination.
Step 2: Do the Paperwork
Once the treatment part is taken care of, then claimants should look at arranging all the documents around injuries, medical treatments, and damages that were associated with the injury. It is important to collect all evidence associated with the accident and its cause and how this has affected the life of the victim.
Step 3: Take Legal Advice
If the personal injury is a small one, then the claims can be processed without any legal intervention. However, if the situation is complex and the claimant is expecting a large settlement, then it is advisable to seek a legal opinion. There are some lawyers who provide a free consultation to personal injury claimants.
Thus, it is important that claimants discuss their cases with the lawyer. A personal injury attorney can help you avoid mistakes that can lower your settlement in Marion.
Step 4: Detailed Investigation
Once a lawyer is hired, the lawyer will start digging deep into the situation by asking the claimant about details associated with the accident, injuries, and the medical treatment received. The lawyer will then seek reports and finer details of any medical treatment that the claimant may have received. Subsequently, these lawyers then work with experts who can reconstruct the accident to help build a strong case for the claimant.
Step 5: Establish Negligence
Most of these injuries are due to accidents caused because of negligence. For instance, if a driver was drinking and driving, then this is definitely negligence. While the claimant can find it difficult to prove negligence when they are working on the process alone, an experienced personal injury lawyer can easily establish negligence and quickly knock off this step.
Step 6: Submit Notice of Claim
If a person is planning to claim for personal injury, it is important that he or she informs all involved parties about their plan to file a case.
Step 7: Initiate Settlement Talks
Even before the case is filed in court, the claimant’s attorney can convey their demands to the defendant’s attorney or to the insurance company. In such situations, attorneys from both sides sit across the table and come to a mutually agreeable settlement amount.
Step 8: File a Lawsuit
Assuming that the settlement talks did not work out, then the claimant can file the case in court, which will commence the litigation trial. The first step of the trial is a discovery phase, where each party will investigate the other parties’ defense and the claims submitted.
Step 9: Possible Mediation
After the discovery phase is over, then the lawyers from either side will be having one more opportunity to end this case. This is known as mediation, where a third and neutral party is involved to mediate and settle the case after hearing from the claimant and the defendant. However, in lieu of the mediation failing, then the case will proceed to trial.
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Personal Injury Compensation Expectations
Every claimant is filing for personal injury claims because they want the money against the damages that they had to face. Also, most of the time insurance companies are ready to settle these claims. However, before accepting such claims, it is important to understand a few important factors:
- There is a reason why an insurance company is ready to settle the claim
- Ensure the settlement is covering up all the losses
- Most importantly, the settlement should cover current and future losses
- Once settled, the insurance claim process of personal injury is over
- It does take a fair amount of time to get the desired settlement offer
If the lawyer who is representing the claimant in Marion is an experienced professional, then he or she will understand the financial challenges that can arise during the personal injury claim process, while a claimant is eagerly waiting for a settlement.
Cost to Obtain a Personal Injury Lawyer
Typically, a personal injury lawyer works on a contingency fee basis, which is dependent on the final and favorable result for the client in Marion. In case the client does not get a favorable outcome, then the lawyer usually does not collect his or her fees. Usually, this contingent fee arrangement is around 33% to 40%.
However, a client can try to negotiate and bring down the percentage value or think of alternate arrangements.
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How a Personal Injury Attorney Can Help
To put it in a simple way, a personal injury lawyer is a person who provides legal representation to those people who got injured in an accident in Marion. They work on tort law and help victims get the desired compensation as per this law. Here are 7 benefits of having a personal injury lawyer
- Extremely professional and objective oriented
- They know how to negotiate effectively
- They can help a client get the desired medical attention
- Help in making better decisions
- Provide complete legal coverage
- Get compensations rather quickly
- Take the headache off your table
Get a Free Consultation With a Marion Personal Injury Attorney
If you were injured by another party’s negligence, you have the right to compensation. A Marion personal injury lawyer at Gatti, Keltner, Bienvenu & Montesi will fight to protect your rights and help you recover fair compensation. Contact us today for a free case review.
(901) 526-2126
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