Hermosa Beach Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal injury cases often require expert assistance to realize their true value. Some types of experts can help calculate your damages, while others can help prove your case.

A personal injury lawyer can utilize these services as needed throughout the process.

The opposing party in your case will likely have their own legal representation, especially if your claim is worth a substantial amount.

If you don’t have a lawyer on your side, too, you might be taken advantage of and recover insufficient compensation.

Under state law, your damages can be reduced if you are allocated responsibility for your injuries.

Hiring an attorney will allow you to effectively respond to these allegations of blame.

If you hire a personal injury lawyer, you can take the time you need to recover from the accident. In the meantime, your attorney can pursue a legal claim on your behalf.

For additional insight into how a lawyer can help with your case, contact us today to book your free consultation.

Instead of charging by the hour or for a flat rate, our personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. Hiring us for our legal services costs you nothing upfront, and you only pay us attorney’s fees if we win compensation for you.

We’ll discuss and agree to a contingency fee at the beginning of the case. In most circumstances, this will be around 33% of the settlement or jury verdict that we obtain for you. Ultimately, you owe us nothing in attorney’s fees if we don’t win or settle your case.

With a contingency fee, we’re incentivized to maximize the value of your claim. You can also hire us even if your accident has left you in a tough spot, financially. If you have any questions about the contingency fee payment system, contact us today for your free case evaluation.

California personal injury law allows you to obtain both economic and non-economic damages. Punitive damages are available as well, but only in rare cases.

Economic damages are for the financial losses related to your accident, such as:

• Lost wages and diminished earning capacity
• Medical bills and expenses, past and future
• Miscellaneous out-of-pocket expenses
• Property damage and associated costs

Non-economic damages make up for the other consequences of your accident that aren’t financial in nature. Examples include:

• Loss of quality of life
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress and mental anguish
• Disability

Punitive damages may be on the table if the at-fault party in your case acted egregiously, such as with intent to harm you. However, punitive damages require stronger evidence and are not usually awarded in personal injury cases.

Fully and accurately evaluating how much your case is worth is one of the most important steps in the personal injury claims process. Otherwise, you risk resolving your case for less than its true value. Factors that could play a role in your personal injury case’s worth may include:

• The severity and types of injuries you’ve sustained
• Whether you share blame for the accident
• The nature and extent of your financial losses
• Whether you will make a full recovery and be able to return to work
• The amount of pain and suffering and other related impacts you’ve experienced
• The applicability and terms/conditions of any relevant insurance policies

Once we’ve spoken with you about your circumstances, we can provide more personalized insight into how much your case might be worth. Call today to set up your completely free initial consultation.

California follows a “pure comparative negligence” standard for allocating fault in personal injury cases. Under this system, you can still recover compensation even if you’re partly to blame for your accident.

However, your damages can be reduced depending on the amount of fault you share. For example, if you are found to be 35% responsible, your damages can be reduced by 35%.

Since the at-fault party can reduce their liability for your claim if they blame you successfully, it’s almost certain that they will try to do so. Hiring a lawyer may be in your best interest, as your attorney can work to minimize the amount of fault assigned to you.

California state law allows you to file a lawsuit up to two years after the accident for most personal injury cases. If your lawsuit is filed too late, you will likely lose your ability to recover compensation for your damages and injuries.

However, there are exceptions to this statute of limitations deadline. It’s possible the time limit for your case is different. To best preserve your legal rights, contact our law firm as soon as you can after your accident.

It’s very unlikely that your personal injury case will go to trial. Instead, the most common outcome is that we will reach a settlement agreement with the at-fault party.

However, keeping litigation in court as an option could benefit your case. Oftentimes, the opposing party won’t want to defend the case in court, as doing so involves significant time and resources. They may be willing to increase their settlement offer if they know you’re capable of filing a lawsuit and bringing the claim all the way to trial.

In addition, filing a lawsuit gives our legal team access to pretrial discovery. This is a process by which we collect information from the defendant, which could reveal vital evidence supporting your claim. Keep in mind that settlement negotiations can still continue once a case is brought to court, which means your case won’t necessarily reach trial even if a lawsuit is filed.

At the end of the day, our goal is to maximize your compensation and work with you to achieve your desired outcome. If that means filing a lawsuit, we won’t hesitate to take that course of action.

Personal injury cases take varying amounts of time to resolve, based on the particular facts and circumstances involved in the situation. It’s possible that your case will only take days or weeks to reach an outcome, but it could also take longer.

If your case requires filing a lawsuit, it will likely prolong the process. However, sometimes that’s the only way to compensate you adequately – especially if the at-fault party is being stubborn.

Another factor is whether you have reached maximum medical improvement (MMI), which is the point at which you will recover from your injuries as much as possible. If you attempt to settle your claim before this stage, you might not end up with enough money to cover your expenses going forward.

We cut no corners in representing our clients. We’ll work with you and your goals to the best of our ability, even if that means your case will take more time and resources to reach a resolution.