Skip to main content

Personal Injury Claims



Personal Injury Claims: When You Need a Lawyer

For certain personal injury claims -- such as those for severe injuries, malpractice, or toxic exposure -- you'll want to consult a lawyer.

Sometimes, the skills of an experienced personal injury lawyer -- or at least the threat to an insurance company that such a lawyer may present -- are worth the money you must pay that lawyer to represent you. You may need a lawyer because of complex legal rules involved in your particular claim, or because the severity of your injuries might cause your compensation to vary greatly from the norm -- or simply because an insurance company refuses to settle a matter in good faith. The following types of injuries and accidents almost certainly require a lawyer's help.


Severe Injuries

 The amount of your accident compensation is mostly determined by how severe your injuries were. And the severity of your injuries is measured by the amount of your medical bills, the type of injuries you have, and the length of time it takes for you to recover. As the amount of your potential compensation increases, the range within which that compensation may fall becomes wider. In such cases, it may be worth the expense to have a lawyer handle your claim and make sure you receive compensation at the highest end of the range.

Medical Malpractice

 If you have suffered an injury or illness due to careless, unprofessional, or incompetent treatment at the hands of a doctor, nurse, hospital, clinic, laboratory, or other medical provider, both the medical questions and the legal rules involved are complex. They almost certainly require that you hire a lawyer experienced in medical malpractice cases. See Nolo's section on Medical Malpractice for more detail on these complicated cases.

Toxic Exposure

 In the increasingly chemical world, we sometimes become ill because of exposure to contaminants in the air, soil, or water, in products, or in food. Claims based on such exposure are difficult to prove, however, and often require complex scientific data. And because the chemical and other industries have erected a huge wall to protect themselves from legal exposure while they continue to expose us to potentially harmful chemicals, the required evidence is very hard to come by. Get expert help.



When an Insurance Company Refuses to Pay

 In some instances, regardless of the nature of your injury or the amount of your medical bills and lost income, you will want to hire a lawyer because an insurance company or government agency simply refuses to make any fair settlement offer at all. In these cases, something -- what the lawyer can get minus the fee charged to get it -- is better than nothing.

Finding a Good Personal Injury Lawyer

 One good way to find a lawyer is to ask friends, acquaintances, or other lawyers for referrals -- and then interview the candidates. In addition, Nolo provides a personalized Lawyer Directory with information about each lawyer's experience, education, and fees, and perhaps most importantly, the lawyer's general philosophy of practicing law. By using Nolo's directory you can narrow down candidates before calling them for a phone or face-to-face interview. For more details on locating and selecting a good personal injury lawyer, read Nolo's article on Finding a Personal Injury Lawyer.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mesothelioma Lawsuit Settlement Amounts

Mesothelioma Settlements Many people diagnosed with mesothelioma , or who have passed away because of this terrible disease, were diagnosed after working under unsafe conditions over which they had no control. Workers exposed to harmful asbestos for years on the job in construction, in the military, in shipyards, and in other industrial settings, without understanding or being aware of the risks, are now paying the price. Decades after inhaling or ingesting asbestos dust and fibers on the job, some of these workers were diagnosed with mesothelioma. Many of them are now fighting for settlements to get fair compensation for the high costs of living with this devastating disease. The average mesothelioma settlement amount is around $1 million to $1.5 million, but the exact amount any victim can get depends on individual factors. Asbestos and Mesothelioma Victims Asbestos was used in many industries and as a component a wide range of different materials for several decades....
Post a Comment
Read more

Tips for Mesothelioma After Death

Tips for Mesothelioma After Death Thousands of businesses have had to defend themselves against asbestos and mesothelioma lawsuits in the past several decades. Some of these asbestos lawsuits were brought by the individual who suffered from mesothelioma or other asbestos-related disease. In other cases, the family of the victim files the lawsuit because the victim passed away. People who have a close enough relation to the deceased mesothelioma victim can file a wrongful death lawsuit, if they meet certain legal criteria. In California, for example, the statute of limitations for an asbestos-related lawsuit is one one year after the date that the person suffered a disability, or one year after the date the person know or should of known that their disability was caused by asbestos exposure. Who Can File a Mesothelioma Wrongful Death Lawsuit? To file a wrongful death lawsuit, certain criteria must be met and the death needs to be a result of a person’s or company’s negligenc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mesothelioma Lawsuit After Death - America’s Toxic Legacy

America’s toxic legacy may leave behind a half-million deaths WASHINGTON, D.C. — The first sign of trouble came as Bill Rogers was mowing his lawn one morning in January 2007. “As I would go back and forth with the mower, I would run out of air,” says Rogers, 67, of Palm Bay, Fla. Rogers went to the doctor and learned that his right lung was full of fluid. Three days later he was diagnosed with mesothelioma , a lethal tumor that occurs in the lining of the chest or the abdomen and is almost always associated with asbestos exposure. “I’d heard of it, but I didn’t really know what it was,” he says. “They told me it’s not a good cancer to get.” That Rogers is alive more than three years after his diagnosis is something of a miracle. To him, the source of his illness is clear: He worked on or around asbestos -containing automobile brakes, mostly at General Motors dealerships, for 44 years. He and his co-workers had used compressed-air hoses to clean out brake drums, where debri...
Post a Comment
Read more