Apple Valley Personal Injury

Four Key Areas Where Apple Valley Personal Injury Lawyers Help Accident Victims

Accident victims face challenges. The typical accident victim undergoes what can amount to extensive medical treatment. Indeed, medical treatment and therapy may continue for an indefinite time into the future.An injured person is likely to endure pain and suffering. In some cases, pain and suffering is so profound that it proves to be debilitating. Indeed, pain and suffering may continue well into the future. Some people injured in an accident endure pain and suffering for the rest of their lives.

Following an accident, an injured person usually is not able to return to work immediately. There are cases in which an injured individual is not ever able to return to the same type of employment enjoyed before an accident

The stark reality is that a great deal is at stake following an accident caused by the negligence of some other individual. Apple Valley personal injury lawyers, like the legal team at the El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers, provide a victim of an accident with vital assistance in four key areas.

Negotiating an Appropriate Settlement

With alarming frequency, a victim of an accident fails to obtain appropriate compensation because he or she does not have a lawyer assisting in negotiating a claim settlement. No matter how intelligent an injured person is, experience matters when it comes to negotiating the settlement of a claim with an insurance company.

Apple Valley personal injury lawyers know all the tricks of the trade when it comes to the ways in which insurance companies try to work around agreeing to appropriately compensating an injured person. A personal injury attorney knows how to stand firm and fight even the largest insurance companies intent of increasing their profits at the expense of fully paying out on valid claims.

Obtaining a Judgment in Lawsuit

Pursuing a lawsuit represents another area in which Apple Valley personal injury lawyers provide crucial assistance to victims of accidents. Accident cases are governed by what is known as California tort law. Tort is the area of the law that governs personal injury lawsuits based on allegations about someone else’s negligence.

In addition to complicated laws, accident lawsuits require maneuvering through complicated court procedures. These cases are governed by the California Code of Civil Procedure. Only truly experienced, skilled personal injury lawyers have a mastery of these rules.

Identifying Negligent Parties

Filing a claim or lawsuit against the proper individuals or entities is not as cut and cry as it may seem. By way of example, assume that a person was injured because of the negligence of a commercial truck driver on a public roadway. While naming the driver as a responsible party may seem obvious, there very well may be other individuals of entities also liable for the accident and the damages and injuries that resulted from the collision.

Hypothetically speaking, assume the commercial rig was maintained by a third party vendor. However, the maintenance company did not properly undertake its responsibilities and the brakes were not addressed. Brake failure was the primary cause of an accident. Consequently, the maintenance vendor becomes a potentially liable party, as does the owner of the vehicle.

Enhancing Compensation

The victim of an accident needs to obtain the full amount of compensation necessary to cover all losses, including current as well as future losses. This represents the fourth area in which Apple Valley personal injury lawyers, like the legal team at El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers, provide invaluable professional assistance. The primary areas in which an injured person is likely to require compensation include:

• pain and suffering
• medical bills
• emotional distress
• permanent injury
• property damage
• lost wages

Retaining a personal injury lawyer from the El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers commences with an initial consultation. At an initial consultation, a skilled, experienced attorney makes a preliminary evaluation of a case. In addition, the lawyer answers questions that an injured person might have about the insurance settlement process or court procedures in the event of a lawsuit.

A lawyer explains potential settlement or lawsuit strategies that might prove effective in a particular case. There is no fee charged an injured person for an initial consultation with an attorney from the El Dabe Ritter Trial Lawyers.

Types of Personal Injury Cases

Defective Products

A defective product claim exists when a product defect is the cause of a consumer’s harm, assuming that the consumer is using the product as intended. A product defect must fall into one of three categories in order for a claim to exist:

• Manufacturing defect – the product is defectively manufactured;
• Design defect – the product is defectively designed; or
• Labeling defect – the product does not contain sufficient or correct information on its label.

Slip & Fall Accidents

In many states, property owners owe no duties to trespassers other than to refrain from causing willful or wanton harm. This is not the case in California, though. In fact, Judicial Council of California Civil Jury Instructions read that the “rigid classifications” of trespasser, invitee, and licensee are not a basis for how duties are imposed. Instead, liability for an injury caused to a trespasser will be based on whether the property owner acted reasonably towards the trespasser – in making this determination, how the injured individual came to be on the trespasser’s land will likely be considered, but the purpose of the injured person’s presence is not determinative.