Personal Injury FAQs

There are a variety of things you may do from the first few days and weeks after an accident to defend your right to compensation in case you would like to file an injury claim. Except for filing an official claim against a government entity, there is no single measure that you must take to get a fair settlement, without a set order wherein you must proceed. Nevertheless, the more of the following suggestions you may follow, the more easily your claim procedure is likely to flow.

In case you’ve no success in reaching a settlement with the insurance provider, you might be forced to consider bringing a lawsuit in small claims or another court. But you must be conscious of the laws, known as statutes of limitations, which limit the time during which you need to file. Should you overlook your state’s deadline, you’ll lose the right to recover compensation in court, and will probably be forced to abandon your claim altogether. Check your state’s laws to locate the time limit that applies to your case.

There are a variety of factors that dictate whether the property owner is careless or not. Here’s the basic explanation of negligence: a property owner has a duty to maintain his/her property in a sufficiently safe condition to ensure others are protected from threats or flaws that could lead to injury. If an owner fails to do something, such as repair a broken step on a stairway and someone falls on the step, they might be responsible for this person’s injury. Another reliable indicator that the owner was negligent is a code violation on the premises, which might be as simple as a missing stairway banister or an unlit entry manner.

It depends on who is accountable for maintaining the premises. In the event the owner of the property is accountable for keeping the premises, then odds are they carry the insurance associated with someone becoming injured on their property. Depending on the lease terms and the location of the hazard, both the tenant and the landlord might be held responsible.

This depends upon whether or not an individual dies as a consequence of the injuries or from unrelated causes. If an individual hurt in an accident subsequently dies because of those injuries, that person’s heirs might recover money through a wrongful death lawsuit. Each state has laws permitting action when someone causes the wrongful death of another. If an individual with a personal injury claim dies from unrelated causes, the claim survives in most cases and can be brought by the executor or personal representative of the deceased person’s estate.

In most states, a complainant might not recover punitive damages in a wrongful death action. There are several states, however, that do have specific statutes that explicitly permit the recovery of punitive damages under severe circumstances.

A criminal case arises when a government tries to punish a person for an act which was classified as a crime against society. A civil case, on the other hand, usually involves litigation about the private rights and obligations that people and organizations legally owe to each other. The burden of proof is higher in a criminal case (beyond a reasonable doubt), and the penalty imposed is a criminal sanction, whereas in a civil case, the defendant will usually have a monetary judgment imposed against him/her to compensate the victims.

No, there are various differences between each state’s wrongful death laws. Determining the state wherein you ought to bring a wrongful death action is a critical decision, since some states don’t allow certain types of damage awards and can have different statutes of limitation that set a time frame in which you must file suit.

Unless you are filing a complaint against a government agency or its employees, you don’t need to notify the people you believe are accountable for your injuries in a fixed number of days following a collision. But this does not mean you should drag your feet. On the flip side, behaving right away, within a couple of days if possible, will increase your probability of receiving a speedy and fair resolution of your claim. Giving notice doesn’t obligate you to file a claim; it only preserves your rights and prevents others from later saying that your claim is unfair because you waited too long to let them know about your injuries.

In case your injury may have even been partly caused by a government entity or employee (such as a town, county, state, or national agency or division), you have to submit a formal claim in a brief window following your accident. This amount of time usually ranges between 30 days and one year, depending upon your location. If you are not able to file a claim inside the time limitation, or do not include the required detailed information on your claim, you might forever lose the right to collect compensation. Write down as much as you can about the accident itself, your injuries, preserve physical evidence, collect witness contacts, and immediately seek an attorney to guarantee notification rules are met.

Yes, in addition to the wrongful death action, a decedent’s family might recover separate legal damages for the conscious physical suffering and emotional pain that the deceased endured prior to their passing.

In order to determine if you have a case, contact the Law Offices of Paul J. Fina for more information. We will analyze the events, liability law, and facts surrounding your case in order to evaluate if you are legally entitled to compensation for your injuries. Our case evaluations are free, and always confidential.

No, we believe that we should get paid only when you receive compensation for your injuries. For this reason, we handle all personal injury cases on a contingent fee basis. This means that until you are compensated for your injuries, you pay us nothing. Normally, the legal fee charged in personal injury cases is about one-third (1/3) of the amount we recover on your behalf.

In the outside chance that we do not recover an award for you, you owe us absolutely nothing. We have an adamant “no exceptions” policy when it comes to this rule.

Unlike many personal injury lawyers who may settle for lowball offers, the Law Offices of Paul J. Fina prepare every case as if it were going to trial. We use this technique to let insurance companies know that we take your case very seriously. In the rare event that an insurance company refuses to offer a fair settlement, we will not hesitate to proceed to trial. However, most cases (more than 98%) are successfully resolved through a settlement prior to ever stepping foot inside a trial room.

Yes, alternative dispute resolutions (ADR) like "mediation" and "arbitration" are popular. Mediation uses an unbiased third party to help negotiate a settlement contract. If an agreement is successfully reached, payment is typically received within thirty (30) days. Arbitration behaves like a private trial outside a courtroom, where a private neutral arbitrator makes a legally binding decision based on evidence. Both systems are less costly and less formal than traditional courtroom trials.

Every case is unique. Cases involving car accidents, animal attacks, dog bites, and simple premises liability are generally resolved faster than more complicated negligence cases like medical malpractice or defective product liabilities. Simple cases can finish in a few months, while complex matters may take several years to recover fair value. We resolve claims as efficiently as possible but pledge never to rush a case for a lower value merely to close it out quickly.