Following an unexpected accident caused by the negligent behavior of someone else, victims often feel like the world is against them. If the injuries require medical attention, the bills begin to mount up. On top of that, victims may be dealing with immediate emotional or mental trauma, as well as some degree of pain.
If the accident was caused because the other party acted in a negligent manner, then you should not be responsible for these costs and you deserve compensation for your suffering.
Houston Injury Lawyers, PLLC Covering Gonzales County TX
Here at the Houston Injury Lawyers, PLLC, our team of exceptional personal injury lawyers are available to help. We offer free case evaluations so that you can ask our experienced trial lawyers any questions that you have.
We are fierce advocates for the victims of personal injury accidents and we won’t rest until we have fought your case to the fullest extent of our abilities.
Call us at 936-251-5246
Do I Have a Personal Injury Case in Gonzales County?
In order to qualify for a personal injury case, together with your attorney, you will need to prove certain elements, including:
The party responsible for your injuries owed you a duty of care at the time
Their negligent behavior breached that duty of care.
This breach then directly caused your injury and that this injury led to you incurring damages as a result.
If you are unsure if your accident was caused by negligent behavior, give our law office a call. During your consultation, we will be able to evaluate your case and inform you if we believe the at-fault party did indeed act in a negligent manner.
How is Negligence Defined in Gonzales County?
Negligent behavior is any behavior that deviates from how a sensible and reasonable person would act if placed in the exact same situation.
If, for example, you own a restaurant and you have mopped the floors. If you knew the floors were wet and you did not put down a wet floor sign, you could be found negligent as a “reasonable” person in the same situation would have put down a wet floor sign.
What Damages Can I Claim?
Your personal injury lawyers will calculate your damages on your behalf. They will calculate your tangible damages, also known as your economic damages, by adding up things like your medical bills and property damage costs. This will give them a figure to work with.
Next, they will look at your non-economic damages. These are damages without a tangible figure. These damages can include things like a loss of enjoyment of life if you can no longer do the things you enjoy and mental trauma, such as the development of a phobia that affects your way of life.
The most important damages to understand are:
Lost Income
If you have been forced to take any time off work as a result of the accident, you should not be left out of pocket. In a personal injury case, you will be able to seek all past, present, and future losses of earnings.
If you have suffered an injury that prevents you from going back to your job permanently, you may be able to seek a lifetime of lost wages as a result. This is especially important for people who are the main provider in a family setting.
Medical Bills
Medical care is expensive, and even with the strongest level of medical insurance coverage, bills can quickly add up to a point where they surpass your cover. At this point, you could be left facing medical bills for an accident that happened through no fault of your own. This isn’t fair, and in Gonzales County TX, you can seek compensation for any medical bills that you have incurred as a result of the accident if the other person is found liable.
Medical bills include everything relevant to your recovery. You can claim for treatment and surgery bills, therapy, physiotherapy costs and for all transport too and from the hospital such as taxi bills and parking charges.
It is especially important that you keep hold of all of your receipts if you want to be able to claim the full and maximum amount. The more receipts you keep, the easier it will be for your attorney to accurately add up your medical costs.
Another good idea is to keep a diary of your treatment. Each day note down what treatment you are receiving as well as how you are feeling in terms of mood and pain levels. This documentation can help your attorney to piece together a more accurate medical timeline.
Pain and Suffering
Pain and suffering damages can encompass a wide range of things that do not have a physical cost attached. Pain and suffering can include things like a loss in the enjoyment of your life. An example of this would be if you are an avid camper and hunter and your injuries mean you can no longer hike to your favorite camping spots anymore.
Pain and suffering can also include emotional and mental trauma such as the development of phobias. If you have developed a fear of driving that you did not have before a car accident for example, you can claim for this.
Pain and suffering damages are designed to help you claim money for your suffering. These are damages that you claim on top of your physical economic damages to compensate you for what you have gone through or what you will have to go through.
Property Damage
If your personal injury included property damage, such as your car being damaged or written off during a car accident, you can claim for the repairs or replacement of the property.
Types of Personal Injury Lawsuits Our Attorneys Regularly Handle
Even though each and every personal injury case that comes through our doors is unique, certain injuries tend to be more common than others. As they are more common, it means that we have dealt with them in numerous cases. This gives us an advantage when it comes to tailoring a bespoke approach to your case.
Here are some of the most common types of cases we take at Houston Injury Lawyers:
Slip and Fall or Trip and Fall Injuries
One of the most common forms of personal injury is slips, trips, and fall injuries. If a person fails to ensure that their property is kept in a safe manner for their guests, injuries can easily happen.
This kind of accident can usually be prevented by keeping on top of maintenance and taking a little care. If there are spills or ice, putting up warning signs is something any reasonable person would do.
Car Accident Injuries
Car accidents are common and car accident injuries are the most common form of personal injury in the entire country. Driving is inherently dangerous and when things go wrong, the chances of serious injury or fatality are extremely high.
If you, or somebody you loved has been injured in a car accident in Gonzales County Texas, you need to speak to a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible.
Premises Liability Injuries
While slips and falls fall under premise liability, there is a range of other types of injury that can happen on somebody else’s premises. These injuries include things like electrocution if they leave live wires exposed or injuries caused by structural collapses, like a roof tile falling and hitting somebody in the head.
Medical Malpractice Injuries
With the extortionate amount that medical care costs in our country, we should be able to seek it in the confidence that our chosen medical professional is competent and well trained.
Unfortunately, this is not always the case, and when the medical professionals that we place our trust in act negligently and deviate from the standard medical practices that they have been taught to follow, things can go terribly wrong, resulting in serious injury or the wrongful death of a patient.
Medical malpractice can include things like misdiagnosis or failed diagnoses, both of which have the potential to exacerbate problems or illnesses or in more severe cases, patients being sent for the wrong surgery.
When medical malpractice occurs, it can leave you with additional medical bills to fix additional problems on top of those that you paid to have dealt with in the first place.
Birth Injury
During pregnancy, both the mother and the child are particularly vulnerable and mistakes or injury to either during this time can lead to long-term problems.
If a doctor fails to screen for the right conditions or does physical damage during examinations then you may have grounds for a claim.
Brain Injuries
TBIs–or Traumatic Brain Injuries–have the potential to change the life of those who suffer from them forever. Unfortunately, the brain does not have the same ability to repair as the rest of the body and this means that the damage is often permanent.
TBIs often lead to serious disability, resulting in the patient needing additional care for the rest of their lives and preventing them from working in the same capacity.
How Do You Hire a Personal Injury Trial Lawyer?
Deciding which personal injury attorney you want to represent you is an important decision and one that can often prove challenging. Many people have never had to seek representation from a law firm or attorney before and this can make it harder.
Many attorneys rely on flashy advertising like billboards or TV commercials, but the best attorneys will use their past victories and glowing recommendations from previous clients to win new clientele.
When you have done your research and found an attorney that you are interested in working with, you should make sure that you are comfortable with them and ask them for their previous experience in cases similar to yours. A good attorney will provide evidence of their victories.
A good attorney will most likely have an extremely full caseload and this means they will be extremely busy. Do not expect to have 24-hour access to your attorney, but you should feel like they respond promptly to your queries and that they make time for you in their schedule.
What to Do at The Scene of the Accident
If you want to maximize your chances of a successful claim later on down the line, here is what you should do at the scene of any personal injury accident.
Prioritize your safety
In the aftermath of any accident, you must prioritize your safety above all else. Take a second to take stock of what happened. If you hit your head or you feel pain in the neck or spine, you must remain still and wait for help.
If you are confident you did not hit your head or damage your spine and you are in further danger, move to a safe location.
Call an ambulance if there are injuries
If you or anyone else has sustained injuries as a result of the accident, you should call for an ambulance immediately. This will serve multiple purposes. First and foremost, the ambulance team will deal with the injuries and will check for hidden injuries too. TBIs and internal bleeding may have no outward symptoms, which is why calling an ambulance is so important.
They will also file an accident report that you can utilize later on as it is an unbiased record of what the ambulance team saw and dealt with.
Call the police/fire department
If the accident involves fire, electricity, or explosives, the fire department should be called. If the incident is a car accident or involves a drunk driver, the police should be called. Both departments will be able to make the scene safer for others, preventing further injury.
Collect evidence
Once the emergency services have been called, now is the time to collect your own evidence. Photos and videos of the scene will go a long way and if there are any witnesses to the accident, collect their details. Personal injury cases rely on evidence and the more you can collect the better your chances of victory.
Call a Gonzales County personal injury lawyer
Personal injury cases are always easier to win the sooner you get your attorney involved. The sooner you contact them the sooner they can investigate and build your case while the evidence is still fresh.
Contact us here at the Houston Injury Lawyers, PLLC
At Houston Injury Lawyers, PLLC, our experienced team of dedicated lawyers have experience and victories in cases just like yours.
We have a passion for helping victims of accidents seek full and maximum compensation and we have a long history of happy clients.
We offer a free consultation so that you can ask any questions you may have and receive some free no-strings-attached legal advice so call us at 936-251-5246.
