Venice Personal Injury Lawyer

You will likely be blamed for the accident, as the defendant can reduce the amount of money they owe you if they succeed in doing so. A personal injury lawyer can respond to these allegations for you effectively.

You may need expert assistance, such as help from an accident reconstructionist or economist, to prove your claim. Personal injury attorneys have established relationships with these professionals and can enlist their services as needed.

In all likelihood, the defendant will be represented by a lawyer. Hiring an attorney will let you even the playing field and ensure you aren’t taken advantage of.

You deserve all the time you need to rest and recover from your injuries. In that time, your lawyer can handle all of the communications, procedures, and paperwork related to your legal claim.

For more information regarding the importance of choosing a personal injury lawyer to represent you, contact us to schedule your free case evaluation.

Almost all personal injury lawyers, including ours with The Simon Law Group, work on a contingency fee basis. Instead of charging a flat rate or by the hour, we only get paid if we obtain compensation for you.

Under this method of payment, you can hire us with no upfront fees. From there, we will receive an agreed-upon percentage (usually around 33%) of the compensation we recover for you as payment for our legal services. If we don’t obtain a settlement or jury verdict for you, you owe us nothing in attorney’s fees.

The contingency fee arrangement aligns both our interests, as we are incentivized to increase the value of your case as much as we can. In addition, you can hire our nationally acclaimed lawyers even if your accident has left you with significant financial expenses.

California law allows accident victims to recover two types of compensatory damages, economic and non-economic. Punitive damages could also be available in especially rare cases.

Economic damages represent the relatively easy-to-quantify financial losses of your accident, including:

• Lost wages and decreased earning capacity
• Property damage
• Medical bills (future as well as current)
• Out-of-pocket expenses

Non-economic damages reflect the other kinds of consequences you may have experienced due to the accident, such as:

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

Punitive damages are different in that they aren’t meant to compensate you; instead, they “punish” the at-fault party for egregious behavior. You must provide “clear and convincing evidence” to recover punitive damages; even then, they are not usually awarded.

Generally, the cases that involve the most serious injuries are worth the most. However, many factors can influence the value of a personal injury case. These include:

• The amount of financial losses you’ve incurred
• Whether you are partially responsible for the accident
• The ability of the at-fault party to pay your claim
• Whether there is sufficient evidence to prove your claim
• The terms/conditions of any insurance policies related to your case
• Your age at the time of the accident
• Whether you will be able to return to your occupation and make a full recovery

Before demanding compensation, it’s important to calculate the total value of your claim. If you don’t, you could end up with less money damages than the law entitles you to recover.

State law allows you to get compensation even if you share some of the blame for your accident. California follows a “pure comparative negligence” standard for allocating fault between the parties involved in the case.

Under pure comparative negligence, you can be assessed a percentage of responsibility for your accident – and your damages can be adjusted based on that percentage. For example, if you are found to be 15% at fault, your compensation can be reduced by 15%.

Even though this system is more accident-victim-friendly than most other states, your damages can still be reduced dramatically if you are blamed. This is one area where it can benefit you to hire a lawyer, as they’ll be able to respond to allegations of shared responsibility appropriately.

Under the statute of limitations in California, you generally have two years from the date of your accident to file a lawsuit. If your lawsuit isn’t filed on time, you will likely lose your right to compensation.

Some cases have a different time limit, and there are exceptions to the statute of limitations. Contact our legal team as soon as you can to maintain your legal rights and confirm the deadline for your specific case.

Your personal injury case will most likely not go to trial. The vast majority of claims are resolved through settlement negotiations. Even if a lawsuit is filed (which is also unlikely), your case can still be settled prior to reaching trial.

However, keep in mind that it can benefit your case to file a lawsuit. We will be able to obtain information from the other party via the pretrial discovery process at that time, which could reveal important evidence for your claim.

Also, the opposing party may not be willing to invest the resources it takes to defend a case in court and at trial. The “threat” of litigation may persuade them to offer more money to settle your claim as a result.

The facts and circumstances of your case will dictate, in large part, how long it takes to reach an outcome. Many cases are resolved quickly, but others can take months or longer.

If your case requires filing a lawsuit, it may go on for a longer period of time. However, sometimes bringing a case to court is the best way to recover full compensation – for instance, if the at-fault party refuses to negotiate in good faith.

If your case involves substantial damages, it may take some time to calculate them adequately. This is a critical step in the process that cannot be overlooked, as you only have one chance to obtain compensation from the opposing party.

At the end of the day, we’re here to help you achieve the desired outcome for your case. We’ll make sure you’re apprised of your case’s status at all times and won’t hesitate to take your case to court if necessary.