Managing Partner
After getting hurt in an accident, there’s a good chance the at-fault party or their insurance company will offer to settle. You may even feel ambitious and want to file a lawsuit. Should you have an attorney in these scenarios?
In most cases, you are best served by having experienced legal counsel on your side. The Long Island personal injury attorneys of Dell & Dean PLLC explain what you need to know about personal injury cases and how having an attorney will make a difference.
Knowledge of Personal Injury Law and Related Rules
One of the most obvious reasons to hire a personal injury attorney is because you need someone familiar with the law. In New York, the victim has the obligation of proving the following four elements:
- Duty of care: This means the at-fault party had a duty to act with reasonable care and avoid causing foreseeable harm. For instance, drivers have a duty to obey traffic laws and operate their vehicles safely.
- Breach: A breach of the duty of care occurs when someone negligently acts or fails to act. Driving under the influence of alcohol is an example.
- Causation: The breach of the duty of care must directly cause injury to the victim. This is more complicated when multiple at-fault parties are involved.
- Damages: Lastly, the victim must prove the nature and amount of their damages. These include medical bills, lost income, and more.
Proving these is no simple task. For instance, you will likely need an expert witness to explain the applicable standard of care in your case; without this, you won’t be able to establish the duty of care and therefore you cannot support your claim.
But knowing the law is about more than knowing the substantive law. A plaintiff must be able to successfully navigate the following as well, among other rules:
- Rules of civil procedure: These govern the actual procedures that form the foundation of civil litigation.
- Discovery rules: Discovery is a critical stage in any personal injury lawsuit, and the rules of discovery are a subset of the civil procedure rules.
- Rules of evidence: The rules of evidence dictate what is and is not admissible in court.
- Local court rules: Local courts in Long Island have their own procedural rules as well.
Failure to understand these rules could jeopardize your case. For example, if you do not know the rules of evidence, you may fail to have a key piece of evidence admitted.
Understanding the Value of Your Case
The value of your case may not be as simple and straightforward as adding up your medical bills and missed time from work, although these are certainly damages for which you can seek compensation. Long Island accident victims also have such damages as:
- Future medical bills: Victims can recover not only their current medical expenses but future ones they are reasonably estimated to incur.
- Lost income-earning capacity: This is another type of future damages related to the income, bonuses, promotions, and benefits you may miss out on due to your injuries.
- Non-economic damages: Non-economic damages concern intangible losses like pain and suffering and emotional distress, and they are more subjective than economic losses like medical bills.
These and other damages are complicated, and calculating their true value is not a simple matter. You may require expert witnesses, like medical experts, who can explain to a jury the types of procedures you may need later (and therefore, the medical bills you can expect).
You only get one chance to ascertain a fair value of your damages. If you sign a settlement agreement, or your case goes to trial and the court awards you a certain amount, you can’t ask for more money later if your injuries turn out to be worse than expected.
Negotiating With the Insurance Companies
Lastly, you need someone who is ready to take on the insurance companies and not accept any unfair settlement offers. Insurers use a lot of tricks to try to deny or underpay claims, like asking for recorded statements and intentionally delaying communication with the victim.
These are bad faith insurance tactics. But at the end of the day, insurers are concerned with their bottom lines and not your losses. They will look for any excuse to shift liability for the accident to you or avoid paying for such important damages as pain and suffering.
The Dell & Dean Difference
For these reasons and more, don’t make a decision that could potentially cheat you out of the compensation you deserve. When you retain Dell & Dean for your Long Island accident case, we commit to seeking the compensation you deserve for your injuries by:
- Investigating how your accident occurred and who may be liable for it
- Determining a fair value for all of your past, present, and future damages
- Negotiating with the at-fault parties and their insurers in mediation and otherwise
- Working with expert witnesses to help prove the various aspects of your case
- Taking your case to trial if a fair settlement cannot be reached
- Applying our extensive knowledge of New York personal injury law to your benefit
You deserve fair compensation for your losses, and our goal is to obtain just that. Learn why so many other clients have trusted Dell & Dean to handle their personal injury cases. Reach out to us today to schedule a free consultation to discuss your legal options.
