How Soon Should I File My Personal Injury Case?
July 3, 2013 | Adriel B. VillarrealEvery personal injury case is subject to a statute of limitations. If you do not file the case by the time the statute of limitations has expired then you will no longer be able to seek remedies for your damages through the legal system. The statute “clock” begins ticking at one of two points: on the date the injury occurred, or the date the injury is discovered. Sometimes there can be a vast difference between the two dates. The statute of limitations differs for different types of personal injury cases. Here are the statutes for a few of the types of cases that we cover. Car accidents: 6 years Animal attacks: 6 years Slips and falls due to negligently maintained property: 6 years Slips and falls due to defective design or construction: 2 years Building security negligence: 6 years Construction accidents: 6 years Defective products: 4 years There is rarely a good reason for waiting for the full statute of limitations to run out. Usually you will want to speak to a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. This is because shortly after an injury occurs you’re usually going to have representatives from the involved insurance companies contacting you, pressuring you to sign statements that could significantly impact or destroy your ability to…
Read MoreIs My Construction Accident a Personal Injury or a Workman’s Comp Case?
July 1, 2013 | Adriel B. VillarrealThough non-employees are injured in construction accidents the bulk of construction accidents happen to employees. Sometimes the parties involved can try to avoid responsibility by telling you that it’s a workman’s compensation matter and nothing more. If you’re injured on the job then you certainly do have the right to seek workman’s compensation benefits. However, you may be entitled to additional compensation if the negligence of a third party caused your accident. Determining this negligence can be difficult. For example, your injury might have been caused by defective materials that a vendor provided to your company. You might not ever learn this without an extensive discovery process. It’s worth talking to a lawyer simply because workman’s compensation benefits will rarely cover all of the costs of a construction accident, costs which often include not only medical bills but lost wages as well. You shouldn’t expect to be able to pinpoint all of the responsible parties by yourself, and you certainly shouldn’t rely on your employer’s interpretation of events since your employer might well have a stake in avoiding a personal injury conflict. It usually takes a qualified personal injury attorney’s discovery process to locate the proof that you’re entitled to more compensation. This is because construction cases are often a complex web of…
Read MoreHow Long Does it Take to Get Compensation in A Personal Injury Case?
June 27, 2013 | Adriel B. VillarrealIt takes time to settle a personal injury case. There are a lot of factors that go into the timing. While you may want it all to be over with as quickly as possible that’s not always a good idea. Sometimes it can take months for all of the complications of an injury to come to light. You should never settle a personal injury case until you’re sure that you know the extent of all of the injuries. However, much depends on other factors such as the complexity of the case and the willingness of all parties to come to a fair settlement. Each case goes through a specific process. On average this process takes 12 to 18 months when the court is involved. The process starts when you hire a personal injury lawyer. The attorney will start communicating with the insurance company on your behalf. The attorney will also start to gather all of the information that he or she can gather. He or she will try to ascertain what happened and who is responsible. He or she might find other insurance companies or parties who might also be responsible for paying damages. Negotiations for a settlement may start shortly after you hire the attorney. Taking a settlement is always your choice….
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