A personal injury attorney is a licensed attorney that provides legal representation to individuals who claim to have suffered either physically or psychologically, due to the negligence of an individual, organization, government department or any other entity. Personal injury attorneys specialize in a specific area of the law called tort law. This law area generally includes negligence, professional and devise law, contract law, and other areas such as fraud and slander. Personal injury attorneys can also assist clients with a claim for financial loss.
Claim Compensation
Under most countries’ laws, personal injury lawyers are generally allowed to claim compensation for their clients if they can prove that the victim has been subject to the wrongful act or omission of which the victim did not have any control over. Compensation can be claimed only if the victim can prove three important factors. First, that he was not working at the time of the incident, that he was not at fault and that damages resulted from this wrongful act or omission. Second, the victim cannot continue to function normally in the future because of the effect of the injuries on his earning capacity and third, that monetary compensation will improve (or at least maintain) his standard of living.
Points to Consider
In some places personal injury lawyers are commonly known as accident lawyers. They represent clients that have been involved in car, bicycle, motorcycle, ski and snowboarding accidents. They can also represent clients that have been injured due to slip and fall accidents. In some instances, personal injury lawyers deal with claims arising from medical negligence; for example, when a doctor neglects his duty to warn a patient of an impending heart attack.
Potential clients can seek representation from local attorneys or lawyers based in their city or town. Still, they may wish to consider the services of more specialized attorneys who deal with various legal theories.My home town is Boca Raton, and we have some reputed Boca Raton personal injury lawyers in our area. A Toronto criminal attorney is one such professional who can handle cases from a variety of areas. By focusing on personal injury laws, Toronto criminal attorneys can provide their potential clients with comprehensive legal assistance.
The legal system allows personal injury lawyers to provide the necessary legal representation for accident victims and their family members. As per the legal system, the lawyer can represent either the plaintiff or the defendant. As the defendant, the lawyer will argue the case for his client and attempt to win compensation for the victim on his behalf. On the other hand, the plaintiff will argue that the defendant has acted in a way that caused or was likely to cause him personal harm, disability or suffering. The plaintiff may also appeal the court’s ruling to the family members, friends or relatives of the accident victims.
Slip and Fall Cases
Slip and fall cases are another one of the many areas of personal injury lawyers. They represent individuals who have fallen on someone else’s property, causing them personal injury damages. Common personal injury damages suffered in a slip and fall case include physical injuries. However, other damages are also possible, depending on the nature of the property, the roads’ condition on the property, or other general conditions at the time of the incident. Personal injury lawsuits are filed by a plaintiff who claims to have been harmed due to another individual’s carelessness. If a court determines that there was negligence on the part of a third party and the individual who was sued was the victim of this negligence, he can pursue a case against the party responsible.
Some cases of personal injury lawyers deal with automobile accidents. In these cases, a settlement is reached between the insurance company and the claimant or injured party. The insurance company tries to pay a large sum of money to make the settlement payment. This settlement is usually much less than what the claimant may receive if he goes to court, since most insurance companies offer large settlement payments. Therefore, many choose to settle their cases through personal injury lawyers rather than go to court.
Contingency fee agreements are common among personal injury lawyers who handle catastrophic accident cases. Under this arrangement, the lawyer agrees not to take any of the settlement’s compensation until the agreed-upon amount gets paid to the victim. This means that if the settlement agreement goes out of hands, the lawyer will not get any part of the compensation. Thus, the contingency fee payment is a useful practice that helps lawyers make sure that they get a good part of their clients’ compensation.
Additional resources:
- JJS Justice – personal injury lawyers
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