You never know when you're going to have an accident on your hands because of their unpredictable nature.
Nevertheless, unless you navigate the situation well, you may find yourself left with a reduced quality of life and no finances to assist you.
This is why you're encouraged to retain a top-tier personal injury lawyer from an expert law firm that has a demonstrated track record in dealing with personal injury cases.
The last thing you want is the insurance company of a negligent party swindling you out of the fair compensation you deserve by pretending to care about your plight and giving you a low payout while taking away your ability to seek compensation in the future.
Reach out to an expert Dublin personal injury lawyer at The Keating Fir LTD. today by calling (866) 836-4878 today.
You get a free consultation when you do so, which means there's no reason for you to delay!
What Type of Cases Do Dublin Personal Injury Lawyers Deal with?
A solid personal injury lawyer must have vast experience in dealing with various case types that may all present different variables and concerns for injury victims. Provided you do manage to retain an experienced personal injury attorney, some of the claims you can get legal representation for include:
Wrongful death
Slip and fall
Car accident
Birth injury
Defective product
Dangerous premises
Dog bites
This is not an exhaustive list. The best way to find out if your personal injury lawsuit is covered is to call and discuss your situation.
What Is the Statute of Limitations on Filing a Personal Injury Case for Ohio Residents?
A personal injury claim is assigned a statute of limitations of two years. In other words, if you find yourself with a personal injury, you can wait up to two years to file your claim.
Depending on the presence of extenuating circumstances, the court may be lenient and grant you an extension.
Nevertheless, it's in your best interest to have your personal injury needs addressed as early as possible.
Doing so is your best bet in getting the compensation you deserve. Personal injury lawyers work best when the accident and the scene are freshest.
Damages Your Personal Injury Lawyer Helps You to Obtain
Personal injury claims may span economic and non-economic damages, and your law firm of choice aims to ensure you get the maximum amount of both that you are due.
Economic damages refer to those that a Dublin personal injury attorney can assign a dollar value directly and simply enough.
Such claim elements may include, property damage, incurred medical bills, future medical expenses based on the prognosis, lost wages, etc.
Non-economic damages are not as easy to assign a dollar value to since they don't necessarily have quantifiable or documented figures associated with them.
Such damages may include medical malpractice, physical pain and emotional suffering, loss of consortium, etc.
What to Do Immediately Following a Personal Injury Incident
Gather Evidence
If you're able to after a car accident or other personal injury phenomenon occurs, one of your first orders of business should be to get as much data from the scene as possible.
This may include taking photos, speaking to witnesses, etc. A personal injury law firm is going to be asking you for all the evidence you have to help your claim get settled favorably and the more evidence you have, the better the potential outcome.
Get Medical Attention
Apart from ensuring your well-being, getting medical attention for traumatic brain injuries, dog bites, slips and falls, or other personal injuries also helps to give a base that indicates the amount of compensation that should be sought by a legal team representing you.
As you saw above, medical expenses form a part of the compensation that your personal injury lawyer may seek on your behalf, so it's essential that you get checked out, treated, and that you retain any associated documentation including your payment receipts.
Make a Police Report
Numerous legal issues in personal injury cases are cleared up thanks to the presence of police reports.
Therefore, one of the best courses of action you can take at the onset is to ensure you have filed a police report.
Your personal injury lawyer is likely going to request a copy to help pursue compensation effectively, and if you haven't made one, then you may find that you only hinder a process that is meant to benefit you.
Before you make your report, you want to catalog your thoughts effectively, ensuring that you provide a high degree of detail by turning over all the details you possibly can.
Retain the Services of a Personal Injury Attorney
The entire legal process can be made or broken by your retention of a personal injury lawyer or lack thereof.
Navigating any legal issue can be hard enough without outstanding lawyers in the mix, which h means attempting to get around something as complex as a personal injury case where there is another side attempting to reduce how much compensation you can access is going to be difficult on your own.
Dublin personal injury lawyers are here to ensure that your interests are taken care of through expert personal injury representation that seeks to assist you by securing appropriate financial compensation.
Elements a Personal Injury Lawyer Covers on Your Behalf
Settlement Negotiating
Pursuing compensation is certainly the overarching priority of any experienced lawyer dealing with a personal injury matter in Dublin, OH.
This means that the attorney begins to work diligently for you, collating information and negotiating with the negligent party.
The aim is to get a proper settlement without trial needing to be in the mix.
In fact, most personal injury cases technically don't go to trial unless the at-fault party decides not to accept any of the settlements that your attorney may have put forward.
In this case, the role of your attorney shifts to representing your interest in court.
Case Building
If the objective is to be achieved, a personal injury lawyer must build a solid case. There's a host of essential discussion and relevant information preparation that helps the attorney to pull this off and you must be as facilitating as possible where needed.
The intention is to tell a story, and it aims to demonstrate that you are a victim, how badly you were affected by the injury, how much the settlement should be, and what elements have led to such a figure being put forward.
It takes a strong case alongside expert negotiation skills to obtain a settlement from an insurance company without a trial being needed. An even stronger one is required to ensure that the trial goes as planned if one should ever be needed.
Communication
A personal injury lawyer is expected to be your communication channel during the period of representation for any legal issue that may be a part of the matter.
For example, you're not expected to speak to the opposing side's insurance company on your own when you have personal injury representation on your side. Instead, your lawyer is meant to address such concerns.
Legal Representation and Knowledge
There's no doubt that there is a lot of legal expertise required to navigate personal injury matters effectively. You don't know your legal options, for example, in this kind of situation.
Your personal injury lawyer is meant to ensure that the knowledge gap doesn't present a challenge for you as all legal matters are handled on your behalf.
What to Consider When Choosing Personal Injury Attorneys
Qualifications
Becoming an attorney requires certain qualifications, but being a reputable Columbus Ohio personal injury attorney adds even more accolades.
As you contemplate the various law firms at your disposal, you can check in with the state's bar association to validate a potential selection. Additionally, you may want to investigate professional achievement areas and peer evaluations/peer nominations.
Relevant Experience
Having an experienced personal injury attorney is always a plus as it means that there's a wealth of prior knowledge that can be used effectively.
However, you want to ensure that this expertise is relevant to your case.
What matters like yours and related practice areas has the personal injury lawyer you're considering handled before?
How well did those attempts seem to go? Apart from the information you receive from the law office, it's always recommended that you do your independent research to ensure you're comfortable with the personal injury lawyers you consider using.
The last thing you want to do is have catastrophic injuries on your plate and then have an attorney on your side who cannot represent you adequately.
Communication
Personal injury attorneys depend on communication heavily for their success. Therefore, it's one of the things you want to pay attention to from the moment your free consultation begins.
You must feel comfortable speaking to your attorney, as the professional relationship being established fails without free-flowing communication.
Additionally, try to get a feel for what communication expectations are going to look like. How often are you expected to speak to each other? Is communication primarily done directly to the attorney or is there some kind of secretarial staff member who handles contact?
You want to gather as many details as possible in this regard.
Success Rate
This feeds into the experience concern raised early, as you must have personal injury lawyers who can demonstrate a proven track record of success on your side.
Numerous attorneys are serving Dublin, OH, and you cannot afford to be using anyone but the best.
Reviews provide a great way of getting a feel for what previous client experiences were like. Of course, it's not a sure indicator of what your experience is going to look like, but it helps you to understand how clients are typically treated.
Conclusion
As you can see, there's a lot to consider when bringing personal injury lawyers in to defend your interests is being considered.
Whether it's medical malpractice, a car accident case, or even animal attacks, you need to know that you can rely on the law firm you've chosen to provide you with the kind of sharp attorney who can get the job done and secure the settlement you deserve.
The Keating Firm LTD. has these super lawyers and is ready, willing, and able to serve its clients through top-notch legal representation.
Reach out today by calling (866) 836-4878 for a free case evaluation with one of the best personal injury lawyers in Dublin, OH.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What if I'm the Family Member of Someone Who Died from a Serious Accident? Can I Still File a Claim?
Personal injury lawyers often deal with cases where the family members of a personal injury victim initiate the claim because the accident led to death.
In this case, there is a wrongful death suit, which is well within the purview of what such attorneys do for Ohio residents.
How Do I Know if My Injuries are Severe Enough for Claim Filing?
This is not the kind of thing that you should try to measure on your own. Instead, get the medical care you need, after which you can reach out to one of Dublin's best personal injury lawyers and get a free consultation to determine how viable your case is.
When Do I Pay a Personal Injury Attorney?
Personal injury lawyers only get paid if you win your case. The payment required is calculated as a percentage of your settlement and is paid after your compensated package is paid to you.
That way, you don't need to worry about how much you need to pay upfront since there's no such requirement.
What if I Have a Part to Play in My Injury?
Ohio is a comparative fault state meaning that you can find your settlement is reduced based on the part you had to play in your personal injury case.
Typically, the reduction is based on the percentage of "blame" you have in the situation. For example, some car accidents involve motorcycle riders who aren't wearing a helmet.
Even when drivers are the reason for accidents, a motorcyclist who suffers a personal injury and isn't wearing a helmet is going to see a reduced payout.