The Angell Law Firm helps Atlanta accident victims recover compensation for medical bills, lost wages pain and suffering and more as a result of accidents caused by others.
Showing posts with label Personal Injury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Personal Injury. Show all posts
If you have recently been involved in a motorcycle accident, you may need to speak to a motorcycle accident attorney to see if you have a personal injury case on your hands.
At The Angell Law Firm, we can help victims of motorcycle accidents and victims of car accidents and truck accidents.
We offer free consultations to learn about your case, discuss your rights, and decide whether you may be entitled to receive compensation in a personal injury case.
If involved in a motorcycle accident or any traffic accident, don’t hesitate to speak with the Angell Law Firm’s experienced personal injury attorneys.
Click the button below to get started on your case today.
More than once in our lives, we will find ourselves in undesirable situations.
Many times, it’s due to our own choices.
However, sometimes we are in unfortunate situations due to the actions of someone else.
If you have been recently injured due to someone else’s negligent choices or willful intent, you likely have a personal injury case on your hands.
Many personal injury cases never make it to trial. In fact, 97 percent of cases settle outside of court.
There are several types of personal injury cases, all of which give you legitimate grounds to receiving compensation.
However, no two personal injury cases will ever be the same.
There will always be varying factors based on the event and the people involved.
But something common among all personal injury cases is the need to hire a personal injury lawyer to pursue financial compensation for your damages and injuries.
In the article below, we will discuss themost common types of personal injury casesto see if they apply to you.
One of the most common types of personal injury cases is vehicle accidents.
Regrettably, millions of people become injured each year, sometimes fatally, in motor vehicle accidents.
On average, there are 6 million car accidents in the U.S. every year. That’s roughly 16,438 per day.
If injured in a motor vehicle accident due to someone else’s negligence as a driver, passenger, or pedestrian, you are entitled to monetary compensation for your personal injuries and other losses.
Experienced car and truck accident attorneys will protect your rights throughout the legal process and get you the money you deserve.
Medical malpractice claims arise from medical professionals who neglect their duty to treat each patient’s condition to the best of their ability.
This results in injuries.
Every doctor owes this duty to all of their patients.
That duty is laid out in detail in the Hippocratic Oath.
If a doctor neglects this duty, if they are reckless or grossly negligent while treating a patient causing an injury, it can make them vulnerable to a medical malpractice suit.
The term ” wrongful death ” refers to a type of lawsuit against someone who killed someone else due to their carelessness.
Many wrongful death suits arising from car and truck crashes.
Wrongful death suits may also arise from nursing home neglect, medical malpractice, construction accidents, workplace accidents, airplane accidents, or the use of a defective or dangerous product.
Wrongful death lawsuits allow the deceased’s family to recover damages similar to what the deceased would have recovered if they survived the injury.
Slip and fall claims are some of the most common types of personal injury cases.
Property owners and those renting property have a legal duty to keep their premises reasonably safe and free of hazards so that people on the property do not suffer an injury.
Numerous dangerous conditions like torn carpeting, flooring changes, low lighting, narrow stairs, or wet floors can cause someone to slip and become injured.
The same rules apply if you trip on a broken or cracked public sidewalk or if you fall down a flight of stairs.
Slip and fall cases can even arise if you slip or fall outdoors because of rain, ice, snow, or hidden hazards like a pothole.
In any event, you must sustain some injuries or injuries to collect compensation.
Personal injuries commonly occur in the workplace.
Personal injuries at work can include trip and fall cases, hazardous work environment lawsuits, hazard material lawsuits, and more.
If you’re injured while working for your employer, you usually aren’t allowed to bring a personal injury lawsuit against your employer.
Instead, you have to file a worker’s compensation claim to get compensation.
Compensation for your workplace accident can include medical treatment, lost wages, or a lump-sum payment, otherwise known as a permanent partial disability.
Workers’ compensation law varies from state to state, and they have many potential obstacles and pitfalls.
An experienced personal injury attorney can help guide you through the process and ensure that your rights are protected.
When you purchase a product and use it for its intended purpose, it should never cause harm.
But if you sustain any injuries due to a product’s malfunction or defect, you can pursue a personal injury case against the manufacturer.
Manufacturers package their products with documents discussing the product’s safe usage and what the company is and isn’t liable to avoid unnecessary lawsuits.
If injured due to a malfunctioning product, be sure to consult with a legal specialist to see if you have grounds for a personal injury lawsuit.
Premises liability are personal injury accidents caused by a dangerous or defective condition on someone’s land.
As a result, these can occur almost anywhere, from commercial properties like grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, and retail stores, to your neighbor’s home or a public swimming pool.
Countless defective or dangerous conditions can give rise to a “premises liability” claim.
Everything from falling down a staircase due to a missing handrail to tripping over an obstacle or slipping on a spill in a walkway or aisle could fall under premise liability.
You need to document the dangerous or defective condition as soon as you can after the accident.
Your personal injury attorney will help you document the accident and protect your rights throughout the legal process.
In any personal injury action, you must have an expert, seasoned professional at your side as you pursue justice.
A personal injury attorney with the Angell Law Firm has experience.
As a result, they will be familiar with the courts, laws, and strategies for success in your personal injury case.
They are ready to help you today.
It would be best if you had personal injury lawyers you can trust to have your best interests in mind.
Not all firms can give their clients the individualized and personal service, but the Angell Law Firm can.
If you’ve been involved in any of the personal injury case types we mentioned above, or you need a personal injury lawyer for any other reason, click the button below to schedule yourFree Consultation with the Angell Law Firmtoday.
The easiest thing you can do to prevent a car accident is to make sure you don’t drive distracted.
You might not think that making the occasional phone call or munching on a snack while driving is a big deal, but it’s estimated that nine people are killed in fatal crashes each day in the US.
Furthermore, over 1000 people are injured in crashes that involve at least one distracted driver.
Distracted driving is doing anything that takes your attention off the road while driving.
Above all else, texting is universally considered to be the worst of all distractions.
There are about 1.6 million crashes every year caused by cell phones while driving.
1 out of 4 car accidents in the United States is caused by texting and driving.
Luckily more and more states are banning texting and driving.
If you’re someone who has a hard time avoiding your phone while driving, these tips may help:
Turn off your cellphone, put it on silent, or put it in airplane mode.
Invest in a navigation system so you don’t need your cellphone for directions.
Keep your phone in the trunk or the backseat.
Get an app that doesn’t allow you to text and drive.
Let your friends and family know when you’re hitting the road so they’ll know not to bother you while driving.
If you have something important that you must send to someone, pullover.
There are other things you can do that will help you avoid distracted driving accidents in general, like:
Limiting the number of passengers in your car
Pullover and use parking lots if you need to eat
Pull to the side of the road if you’re tired
Plan your routes ahead of time, so you’re not looking up directions while driving
If you follow these tips, you can eliminate any distractions that could get you into a car accident, and you’ll have a better focus while you’re behind the wheel.
Even if you’re the best driver in the world, you still can’t control what happens around you.
Countless things can jeopardize the safety of you and your passengers while you’re on the road.
This is why a defensive driving course can be priceless.
A defensive driving course can teach you safe driving techniques to better control your vehicle in emergencies.
They can also teach you how to deal with emotional stress, road rage, and fatigue behind the wheel.
Unless you just received your driving license, you probably can’t remember the last time you refreshed your knowledge of driving laws and regulations.
Taking a defensive driving course will refresh your knowledge of the rules of the road.
Whether you’re driving hundreds of miles to go on vacation or you’re driving down the block to the grocery store, there will always be road hazards present.
The best way to protect yourself is to place yourself in a position to avoid potential threats.
A defensive driving course will teach you the techniques that will help you anticipate and quickly react to various road hazards.
Weather conditions play a significant factor in car accidents.
Rain is a common cause of car wrecks, no matter where you live.
It’s important to pay extra attention and be cautious when you drive in the rain.
Heavy rainfall can create slick and dangerous surfaces for cars, trucks, and motorcycles that can cause automobiles to hydroplane or skid while braking.
Always drive extra careful when it rains, no matter what kind of vehicle you have.
Winter months can also prove hazardous.
Snow and water can mix and become sloshy.
Ice is often difficult to see and avoid.
This danger of ice and snow is often escalated because most people do not know the proper protocols.
The best piece of advice that we can give you is that if it’s icy or snowy outside, don’t drive.
If you must drive, keep extra distance between you and the car in front of you.
You should drive slowly, go easy on the breaks at stops, and not slam on the brakes if you do hit ice.
They Will Help With The Truck Accident Investigation Process
Several things need to be investigated after a truck accident.
All of these things will help determine the party at fault.
If you want the truck driver and the other involved parties to take responsibility for the accident, you need a personal injury attorney to help you.
If the truck’s brakes cause the truck accident, the truck driver might not be the one to blame.
Instead, the negligent party could be the mechanic if they didn’t properly inspect the brakes.
It may also be the trucking company because they didn’t take preventative action and ensure the truck was inspected as necessary.
In any case, several parties could be responsible for the accident, or those parties could share part of the negligence.
Confusions distinctions such as these are why you need an attorney to help you investigate truck accident cases.
Also, trucking companies aren’t required to maintain the driver’s records.
That’s why after you’ve been in an accident with a commercial truck, your personal injury lawyer should send a preservation letter that requires the company to retain the records of the driver and vehicle involved in the crash.
When you hire a truck accident lawyer, you get a legal team on your side to investigate your case.
In addition to helping you with the investigation, they will help you with lost wages, medical bills, and pain and suffering.
You will feel at ease when you have an experienced attorney on your side, and you will be able to focus on your health.
Many times after a truck accident, the involved parties will try to dispute what actually happened.
When you’re on your own without an attorney, it’s hard to prove your case against the trucking company’s insurance and their influential attorneys.
Sometimes it’ll even be too difficult for your truck accident lawyer to argue the facts of your lawsuit.
That’s when they bring in the experts.
This includes trucking experts and accident reconstructionists.
The accident reconstructionist will visit the accident scene, take plenty of pictures, look for physical evidence like skid marks, and download black box data.
Using that data, they will write a report about how the accident likely took place.
This can be crucial evidence when trying to assign fault in the accident.
As well as assigning fault, the experts can help you prove damages.
In a truck accident case with severe injuries, your attorney may consult with a doctor that can testify to your injuries and any permanent disabilities.
A vocational economist can testify regarding a potential loss of future earnings or earning capacity.
Perhaps the best reason to hire a personal injury attorney is that they will be an experienced advocate on your side who will help you every step of the way.
When you have an experienced attorney on your case, it lets the trucking and insurance companies know that they will have to treat you fairly and with respect.
Hiring a personal injury lawyer shows the involved parties that you aren’t going to settle for less than you deserve.
Your lawyer will do everything in their power to help you receive the money that you will need for medical bills, property damage, damaged vehicles, and any other damages you sustained during the accident.
It’s often considered greedy, selfish, or even rude to hold the trucking companies responsible for your accident.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Laws are in place to allow you to make a full financial recovery after being injured in a trucking accident.
Your truck accident lawyer knows those laws and will make sure you get what you are owed.
If you’ve been involved in a truck accident, it can be a very traumatic experience.
In addition to recovering from your injuries, and in some cases fighting for your life, you also have to fight against the insurance companies and their lawyers.
That’s why the Angell Law Firm is ready to help you with your case with a Free Consultation.
After helping numerous truck accident victims, the truck accident attorneys at the Angell Law Firm know the financial, physical, and emotional toll a truck accident can take on you as well as your loved ones.
The Angell Law Firm wants to take on some of that burden for you and get you the compensation you deserve while focusing on your physical recovery.
If you’re ready to take action and speak with the Angell Law Firm today, click the button below to schedule your Free Consultation.
Mile for mile, motorcyclists and their passengers are 27 times more likely to be killed in an accident than those in traditional motor vehicles.
Motorcycles are less stable.
That makes it harder for other drivers to see and offer very little protection in the event of a crash.
Not only are motorcycle helmets considered an essential piece of personal protective equipment for motorcyclists.
However, they also prevent severe injuries and save thousands of lives every year.
One of the first factors the insurance company will try to discern after a motorcycle helmet is whether or not you were wearing a helmet when the accident occurred.
Motorcycle helmet use, or a lack thereof, is critical in motorcycle accident claims and suits.
This is something many motorcyclists don’t think about.
In Georgia, there is a universal law requiring all riders to wear a helmet at all times.
If you’re not wearing a motorcycle helmet when your accident occurs, you can expect the other party or insurance company to try to use that against you to assign fault/liability for the accident to you.
In the article below, we will look at how not wearing a motorcycle helmet could affect your claim.
How Does Helmet Usage Affect My Motorcycle Accident Injury Claim?
Just like any other accident, all motorcycle accident claims hinge on the concept of negligence.
The party found negligent or at fault for the crash is responsible for paying for the damages.
The insurance companies or the courts will look at all the factors involved in the case.
This will help them determine liability for the accident.
They will ask questions like:
Was speed a factor in the accident?
Did a driver make a turn without looking for oncoming traffic?
Was a driver driving distracted?
Were drugs or alcohol a factor in the accident?
Were any citations issued at the scene?
The next thing they ask is whether or not you were wearing a helmet.
And they’ll make sure it meets national safety standards. Wearing a vanity helmet is as good as wearing no helmet at all.
Like speeding, not wearing a helmet breaches your duty of care to others on the road and can likewise be evident of fault or negligence, legally speaking.
Once all the facts are reviewed, the insurance company will assign each party a portion of the liability.
For example, if the driver was driving distracted and crashed into you on his cell phone and weren’t wearing a helmet, the insurance company may say the driver is 75 percent at fault for your injuries, and you are 25 percent at fault.
This can be very frustrating, especially when you know the other driver was the one who was entirely at fault.
Why should you get less money if you were involved in an accident that was someone else’s fault?
As frustrating as it may be, the insurance companies will argue that you might not have suffered any injuries if you were wearing a helmet, or your injuries wouldn’t have been as bad as they were.
That’s why they will consider you at least partly liable for your injuries.
If you’re in an accident without a helmet and you don’t suffer head or neck injuries, the fact that you weren’t wearing a helmet shouldn’t have an impact on liability.
So if you sustained severe injuries that the insurance company can not link to helmet use, like a leg or back injury, the fact that you didn’t have a helmet on would not have made a difference.
Technically, helmet use is technically irrelevant in this case.
But just because it’s obvious the helmet wouldn’t have prevented your specific injuries doesn’t mean the attorneys of the negligent driver or the insurance company won’t try to use it against you.
You will have to present medical evidence that supports your case and shows that helmet usage had no bearing on your injuries.
It does not matter how you feel about motorcycle helmets.
You should know that riding without a helmet could impact your ability to pursue a personal injury claim successfully.
Georgia is a comparative negligence state, but it’s comparative negligence with a catch.
In Georgia, the number of damages a victim can recover in a personal injury claim is reduced based on the degree to which the victim’s negligence contributed to the injury.
However, the catch is that the plaintiff may only be eligible for compensation if they are 49% or less responsible for damages claimed.
If the courts find the plaintiff 50% or more at fault, they will lose the right to recovery.
Even when the accident is undoubtedly the fault of another motorist, if the case can be made that your failure to wear a helmet played a significant role in the severity of your injuries, your compensation may be drastically reduced.
It’s difficult to argue that failing to wear a helmet contributed to road rash or a broken arm/leg, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try to make that argument.
If you suffered a head injury or TBI, you can be sure the insurance company will do all they can to shift a large portion of comparative negligence onto you.
Contact The Angell Law Firm If You’ve Been In A Motorcycle Accident.
Do not try to fight the insurance companies without an attorney on your side.
As a result, your attorney will look out for your best interests.
The Angell Law Firm has a team of motorcycle accident lawyers ready to work for you.
This will increase the value of your accident claim, even if you didn’t wear a helmet.
You need someone in your corner, willing to fight for your rights after your motorcycle accident.
This is because insurance companies won’t feel obligated to negotiate fairly.
The Angell Law Firm works on a strict no-win no-fee policy.
This means you will never pay attorneys fees unless we win your case and get you compensation.
You can contact the accident lawyers at the Angell Law Firm 24 hours a day by email or phone. Or, you can contact us to schedule your free consultation by clicking the button below.
Find the Attorney Who Fits Your Personal Injury Needs
If you’re looking for a personal injury attorney, how do you know if you’ve found the right one?
Where do you even begin your search?
A personal injury attorney specializes in cases where someone is injured.
They assist victims in navigating their rights to fair compensation for those injuries.
Admittedly, hiring the right person to handle your legal case is not an easy task.
If you were injured in a car accident, suffered a dog bite, or have a slip and fall injury, you have to be sure that the lawyer you select is best for the job.
These days anyone can make a professional website, so how do you know who’s qualified?
Especially since the United States is full of personal injury law firms vying for injured accident victims’ business, it can be hard to cut through the clutter.
Some personal injury firms promote themselves heavily with a full-scale marketing assault, while others rely on referrals from past clients and other attorneys and word-of-mouth to get clients.
A quick internet search will return hundreds of thousands of results at the very least, depending on where you live.
So how do you narrow down your long list of choices and choose the best available personal injury law firm for your case?
Below we’ve advised on how to search for and find the best personal injury attorney for your case.
Before you do anything else, you need to understand your case.
To know if a personal injury lawyer is a good fit for you, you should understand the basics of why you need the help of a lawyer to begin with.
There are many different law types, and each lawyer will focus on a different area of law.
If you’ve been injured due to another person’s negligence, you need a personal injury attorney.
You wouldn’t hire a plumber to fix your electricity, so you shouldn’t hire a bankruptcy lawyer to help with your personal injury case.
Many people make the mistake of hiring someone they know even if they aren’t the right type of attorney for the job.
Your accident also forms a significant variable in personal injury cases.
There are different types of personal injury attorneys, so you don’t want to hire a car accident attorney to help with a slip and fall.
Handling a car insurance claim is very different than going up against corporate giants and their insurers and lawyers.
You should also consider a lawyer’s experience with your injury type and the severity of your injury.
During your search, you will likely come across personal injury firms that prefer to take hundreds of cases involving relatively minor injuries.
They take this route because they don’t have to worry about medical diagnoses and treatments involved in severe or catastrophic injuries.
So if you’ve suffered a severe or catastrophic injury, always ask your lawyer how much experience they have handling cases like yours.
Even if your attorney practices in personal injury law, they may not have the experience or resources necessary to handle a wide variety of personal injury claims.
Larger personal injury law firms will have both the capacity and skills to handle a large variety of personal injury cases.
You still need to make sure you do your due diligence and research your firm before hiring them.
One of the benefits of hiring a large firm is that they will have greater resources and be able to put extra “firepower” behind your claim.
With large firms like this, though, you need to be sure they don’t have a reputation for treating their clients like just another number.
Your best bet is usually to hire a large law firm, but always make sure they offer high customer service levels.
If a large law firm still gives you that personal touch, you get the best of both worlds.
You’ll have greater resources behind your case, as well as the personal attention of their team.
You should also understand that there are different ways to seek compensation in your injury case.
Many times insurance companies will offer to pay some claims.
Other times your case might have to go all the way to court.
Your lawyer will need experience handling claims with many different insurance companies.
They should also have litigation experience in your type of case and the injuries you need to file a lawsuit.
Your lawyer shouldn’t be shy when it comes to taking on corporate adversaries and big insurance companies. They should know the negotiating tactics needed to resolve a claim successfully.
However, there are a few factors you should know about that separate the best personal injury attorneys from the rest of the pack.
You should first look at experience. New lawyers will not have seasoned attorneys’ expertise and may not know the “insider secrets” as lawyers who have established themselves after decades practicing personal injury law.
However, for a newer lawyer who works at a firm that provides highly experienced attorneys, the support and training should be okay.
Look for a lawyer with a good reputation.
Lawyers who are respected in the community with a positive reputation are often better than attorneys who have less-than-stellar reputations.
Positive reputations are often signs of a dependable lawyer who will fully commit to your case.
You should also take a look at the disciplinary record of your lawyer.
If your lawyer has missed deadlines, doesn’t keep clients informed, or otherwise acts unethically, will likely have ethics complaints filed against them with their state bar or licensing body.
Using your state’s bar or licensing body’s website, you can look up any complaints, suspensions, or disbarments on the attorneys you are researching.
Your lawyer should also be available to you.
If you have injuries that prevent you from coming to an attorney’s office, you need to make sure your attorney will visit you at your home or in the hospital.
The personal injury firm you choose should have team members available to you 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Your attorney should also have a proven track record.
It doesn’t matter how many cases a lawyer has handled if they aren’t getting results for their clients.
Carefully read reviews from their previous clients regarding past case results.
While it’s not a guarantee that they will win your case, it will provide a good indication of what your lawyer could achieve for you.
Know What Percentage of Your Lawyers Cases Come From Referrals From Other Lawyers
The best way of finding out who the top-notch personal injury lawyers are in your community is by asking the lawyers who practice there.
It’s good to know what percentage of your lawyer’s caseload comes from referrals from other lawyers in your area.
No matter what field or profession you work in, the other professionals who work in the field will usually know who’s good and who’s not.
If you have a friend who is an attorney are you know someone else who practices law, ask them if they know any good personal injury lawyers in the area.
Even if your friend doesn’t handle injury cases, they will likely have colleagues familiar with personal injury lawyers in your area who are recognized by their peers as being the best in your area.
Anyone who has ever seen or received advertisements from personal injury firms quickly learns that every injury lawyer makes the same offers.
They should all say that there is no fee if there’s no recovery, you get a free initial consultation, and they can visit you at home or in the hospital while you’re nursing your injuries.
Every personal injury attorney should offer you a free consultation and let you know the work on a contingency basis, meaning they don’t get paid unless you do.
Personal injury attorneys who make these claims are nothing out of the ordinary.
Just about every lawyer who specializes in personal injury cases will make these same offers.
Perhaps the main thing that keeps injured accident victims from hiring a lawyer is what they think it will cost.
We’ve all heard about the law firms that charge hundreds of dollars per hour and $100 for a short phone call.
And we get it; you don’t want to worry about money.
Especially after being involved in an accident that has already caused you to lose money.
That’s why you need a lawyer who meets your needs with a fee structure you’re comfortable with.
Some lawyers’ fee arrangements are confusing, and that’s why you should always ask questions until you understand what your lawyer expects of you financially.
Luckily, almost every personal injury firm will operate on a contingency fee basis, as we’ve mentioned before.
A contingency fee agreement keeps you from spending a penny of your own money.
You only pay if your lawyer wins you a settlement.
Under a contingency fee agreement, pursuing a lawsuit is free, and all of the work your attorney does to prepare and process your insurance claim is free.
You don’t pay anything unless you have a successful resolution.
When you receive compensation, though, part of your settlement will cover your attorney’s fees and costs.
Your contingency fee agreement should be written in black and white before you get started about much of your payment will go to pay your lawyer.
Make sure you feel comfortable with that amount before proceeding with the lawyer.
Don’t pay anything out of pocket or come up with money upfront if you’ve been the victim of a personal injury.
Contingency fee arrangements benefit both you and your attorney.
You don’t have to worry about paying an attorney up front, and you can pursue your injury claim even if you can’t afford it right after your accident.
Your attorney only gets paid if you do, so your attorney will do what’s best for you because that will be best for them as well.
This also shows you that your attorney is confident in your case.
An attorney is unlikely to take on a bad case on contingency because there’s nothing in it for them.
