Personal injuries can affect your physical, emotional, and mental health, and that can occur from many different situations. For injured persons to prevail in personal injury lawsuits, they must prove the person or entity they are suing was negligent and was responsible for the injuries.
Whether you slip and fall in a grocery store or are struck by a negligent truck driver, you may be entitled to compensation that covers your medical bills and other losses. Reckless people should pay for the harm they cause others. Contact a Premont personal injury lawyer from the Gutierrez Law Firm to learn whether your case could be successful.
Negligence and Personal Injury
Most people think of car accidents when they think about personal injuries. However, whenever a person or entity acts below the standard a reasonable person would act in a similar situation, and they cause injuries, then a personal injury has occurred. Reasonable people are expected to conduct themselves in ways that do not harm others. Conduct that is careless, reckless, or intentionally malicious falls below how a reasonable person would behave. Defendants do not need to have intended to harm plaintiffs for there to be a viable case; they only need to have been negligent.
To prove negligence, a Premont personal injury lawyer must show the elements of duty, breach, causation, and injury. The defendant must have had a duty to provide a standard of care that they breached; and then that breach caused an accident which left the plaintiff injured. Sometimes, plaintiffs can claim negligence per se if the defendant breaks the law, such as driving drunk and causing the crash.
Examples of Personal Injuries
There are many potential causes of serious accidents, some of which are common and some of which may not be so obvious:
- A reckless truck driver or bus operator
- A negligent doctor or surgeon
- Property owner allows a hazard to exist on their premises
- A dangerous defect in a drug or a consumer product
- Workplace injuries, especially on an oil rig, industrial factory, or a maritime injury
- Catastrophic injuries and wrongful death
In all these cases, someone else is likely responsible for the harm that happened and a plaintiff could target them with a lawsuit. A Premont personal injury attorney could collect relevant evidence, review accident and medical reports, talk to witnesses, and build a case seeking compensation for the injured.
Compensation After a Personal Injury
Many personal injury cases will settle before a trial even occurs. In the event it does not, it could be decided by a jury. When the jury determines the plaintiff’s attorney has proved the defendant’s negligence, members must then determine how much money to award the plaintiff. Compensatory damages include economic damages that reimburse for calculable losses and non-economic damages cover for subjective losses.
Medical treatment, rehabilitation, wage replacement, and property damage are economic losses. A plaintiff’s pain level, emotional trauma, disfigurement, and loss from being unable to interact with family are examples of non-economic damages. A personal injury lawyer in Premont could help someone determine what their potential damages award could be.
Let a Premont Personal Injury Attorney Advocate For You
When people act carelessly and others are injured as a result, there is a system in place to hold the negligent party accountable. If we can reach a settlement or convince a jury to award damages, you could get the compensation you need to address your losses.
Building an airtight case for compensation takes experience and knowledge of the law. The Gutierrez Law Firm has both. When you are injured in an accident someone else has caused, do not hesitate to contact us for help. A Premont personal injury lawyer could be your advocate.
