How Do I Find the Right Lawyer for My Case?

Suppose you sustained injuries resulting from someone else’s negligent behavior, such as a motor vehicle collision or premises accident. In that case, you may recover monetary compensation for your injuries and other accident-related losses.

However, you should never attempt to represent yourself in a personal injury claim that involves another person’s insurance company. This is because insurance companies routinely try to take advantage of unrepresented accident victims by offering them as little financial compensation as possible to settle their claims.

Insurance companies feel that non-represented accident victims lack the necessary negotiation skills and legal knowledge to adequately advocate for themselves. Therefore, they are unlikely to offer an accident victim sufficient financial compensation to settle their personal injury case.

When retaining legal counsel to represent you, you want the best possible attorney advocating in your corner as possible. Ideally, you want a lawyer on your side who regularly handles personal injury cases as a significant portion of their legal practice.

You also want a lawyer who regularly takes personal injury cases to civil jury trials instead of settling all their cases out of court. Finally, you want a lawyer who has a clean record and who does not have a history of ethical violations.

An experienced personal injury attorney in Baraboo can be beneficial in any claim or lawsuit that you file. Specifically, your attorney can determine your eligibility for filing a claim and gather the necessary documentation to prove your case.

A lawyer can also retain an expert who can testify on your behalf, handle all settlement negotiations with insurance company representatives, or pursue litigation in your case to an efficient resolution in the court system.

Whatever you decide, your personal injury lawyer will guide you throughout the process, answer your questions, and ensure you understand everything happening. Your attorney will do everything possible to advocate for your interests and maximize your overall monetary settlement or litigation result.

What Is a Personal Injury Case?

A personal injury case is a legal matter that stems from someone else’s negligence. Negligence can take on a variety of forms, but it always involves a person or entity behaving in an unreasonable manner under the circumstances.

When determining whether a party is negligent, juries and courts will typically look at their behavior in light of the prevailing circumstances. They will then ask whether the individual or entity did something that a hypothetical reasonable party should not have done or failed to do something that a hypothetical reasonable party should have done.

If so, the party was likely negligent and irresponsible under the circumstances.

Several types of personal injury claims can arise from the negligence of others.

Some of the most common categories of personal injury cases involve:

• Premises accidents, including slip and falls and third-party attacks that result from inadequate security on the premises
• Medical negligence and malpractice incidents
• Boating accidents
• Escalator and elevator accidents
• Swimming pool accidents
• Car and truck accidents
• Bus accidents
• Bicycle and motorcycle accidents
• Workplace accidents
• Construction site accidents.

You are not alone if you sustained injuries in one of these occurrences that directly resulted from another party’s careless or reckless behavior. Always hire a qualified attorney who can represent you throughout the process and aggressively advocate for your legal interests at every stage of the case.

Your lawyer can also identify all your potential legal options and set your case on the right trajectory to maximize the monetary compensation you truly deserve.

Common Personal Injuries That Accident Victims Suffer

When individuals are involved in an accident, they may sustain various types of injuries that affect their life and well-being. In serious accidents, an individual may suffer a permanent injury, which leads to ongoing pain and symptoms for the rest of their life (e.g., a complete or partial paralysis injury).

The injuries that an individual suffers in an accident will usually depend on the specific accident, the amount of force involved, their bodily movements at the time of the accident, and the body parts affected in the accident.

Common injuries can include bruises, road rash and open lacerations, rib fractures, spinal cord damage, paralysis injuries, bone fractures, soft tissue contusions, internal bleeding and organ damage, eye injuries, mouth and teeth injuries, traumatic brain injuries, ongoing cognitive impairments, and death.

In addition to seeking legal representation in your case, you should make your post-accident medical treatment a top priority. You increase your chances of recovering favorable monetary compensation and damages by seeking ongoing medical treatment for your injuries.

You also increase your chances of making a full medical recovery by attending all recommended medical appointments, undergoing medical procedures, and attending regular physical or occupational therapy sessions, depending on the extent of your injuries.

During this time, a qualified personal injury attorney can start advocating for you by gathering copies of police reports, lost-wage documentation, injury photographs, video camera footage of the occurrence, medical treatment records, and medical bills. These documents may all be necessary to satisfy the legal elements of your personal injury claim.

After completing most of your medical treatment, your lawyer can submit these documents to the insurance company for review and evaluation so that settlement negotiations may begin in your case.

How Can a Qualified Personal Injury Lawyer Handle Your Case?

When it comes to resolving your personal injury claim or lawsuit favorably, you need a qualified personal injury attorney on board in your case.

A personal injury attorney will first meet with you about your accident, review incident reports and police diagrams, and, if necessary, retain an accident reconstructionist.

Your lawyer can then determine whether you have a viable personal injury claim. If so, your lawyer can gather various documents on your behalf and submit a settlement demand package to the insurance company for review.

After your attorney submits a demand package, the insurance company adjuster assigned to your case will typically review the documents. Once your attorney makes a formal settlement demand to the insurance company adjuster, the adjuster will likely come back with a settlement offer.

Most of the time, however, these initial insurance company settlement offers are meager and do not adequately compensate the accident victim for the full extent of their injuries. Therefore, your attorney might negotiate back and forth before the insurance company makes its top offer.

If the insurance company still does not take your case seriously, your lawyer can file a lawsuit and begin personal injury litigation in the state court system.

Your attorney can handle every step of the litigation process for you, including filing a lawsuit in court, continuing settlement negotiations, answering discovery questions, representing you at a discovery deposition and settlement conference, and taking your case to a litigation proceeding in court, if necessary.

At a civil jury trial, for example, your lawyer can argue on your behalf, call witnesses (including experts) to testify, and introduce medical documentation. The jury hearing the case will then decide what, if any, monetary damages to award you for your personal injuries and other accident-related consequences.

However, instead of taking your case to a jury trial, you can pursue binding arbitration or mediation in your case.

At a binding arbitration hearing, which takes place outside of a courtroom, a pre-selected, neutral arbitrator will review all the evidence, listen to witness testimony, and determine the outstanding issue of monetary damages.

However, at mediation, a mediator will help the parties facilitate and narrow their settlement discussions and hopefully resolve their case out of court.

Throughout the litigation process, your attorney will keep you aware of all your available rights and options. Your attorney can also provide you with the information necessary to choose between various options in pursuit of the monetary recovery you need.

Recovering Monetary Damages in a Personal Injury Claim or Lawsuit

To recover favorable monetary damage in a case involving personal injuries, you must satisfy several legal elements.

Specifically, you must demonstrate that:

• The at-fault individual or entity owed you a legal duty of reasonable care
• The at-fault individual or entity violated that legal duty of care
• As a direct result of this violation, the occurrence in which you suffered injuries happened
• You suffered one or more physical injuries as a direct result of the occurrence.

If you can satisfy these legal elements, you can receive various types of monetary compensation based on the total cost of your medical treatment, the specific injuries that you suffered in your accident, and whether your injuries are permanent.

Common monetary damages in a personal injury case include compensation for pain and suffering, mental distress, inconvenience, medical expenses, lost earnings, loss of earning capacity, loss of spousal consortium and companionship, long-term or lifetime care costs, loss of the ability to use an injured body part, and lost quality of life.

The specific types and amount of damage that you may be eligible to recover will depend upon the facts and circumstances of your case, along with the severity of your injuries. Your attorney can determine which of these damages you may recover in your case and estimate the settlement or verdict value of your claim.

Your attorney will then do everything they can to maximize your total compensation, either through a favorable settlement offer from the insurance company adjuster or a fair litigation result achieved in the court system.

Speak with a Knowledgeable Personal Injury Lawyer in Your Area Today

Suppose you suffered one or more physical injuries resulting from someone else’s negligent behavior. In that case, always take the necessary legal steps right away, including retaining an experienced personal injury attorney to represent you.

Almost everyone knows that personal injury accident victims receive more compensation when they have professional legal help than those who do not.

Since your life and future are riding on the line, the stakes are high, and you need the best possible lawyer in your corner to advocate for you every step of the way. Therefore, you should ask questions and retain the best lawyer possible.

Accident victims must file a personal injury lawsuit within three years of their accident date, according to the state statute of limitations. Unless some extraordinary circumstance applies, an accident victim who files their lawsuit after the deadline will not be eligible to receive monetary damages for their injuries.

A qualified personal injury attorney can file your lawsuit well before the statute of limitations deadline expires and can handle every step of the settlement and litigation processes for you. Your attorney will do everything possible to obtain a favorable monetary result on your behalf, making you whole again after your accident.

Seek your free case evaluation today to learn about your rights and begin the process of financial recovery.

SCHEDULE A FREE CONSULTATION