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Personal injuries come out of the blue and directly impact your health, your finances, and your future. You will likely be out of work for a while— possibly for a long time or even permanently. If another party caused your injury due to negligence or recklessness, we can help you hold them accountable for your injuries by filing a personal injury lawsuit.
At Kogan & DiSalvo, our Lakeland personal injury lawyers will protect your rights while fighting for you to receive the compensation you deserve for your injuries.
What are the Different Types of Personal Injury Cases?
Whether they involve a motor vehicle, a dangerous condition on a property, or an accident while on the job, personal injury cases have one thing in common— they occurred because someone else was negligent or reckless or, in the case of assault, harmed you deliberately.
Here are some of the most common types of personal injury cases and types of legal representation:
Types of personal injury cases
- Car accidents: Even though Florida is a no-fault state (meaning state laws divert minor traffic accidents from the courts), victims of serious injuries can pursue lawsuits outside the no-fault system.
- Truck accidents: When a semi or big rig collides with a car, the smaller vehicle’s occupants are likely to suffer severe injuries or even death.
- Motorcycle accidents: Because a motorcycle does not offer the protection of a car, severe injuries or fatalities are common in such accidents.
- Pedestrian accidents: Pedestrians hit by a motor vehicle often suffer serious injuries or death.
- Bicycle accidents: Bicycle accidents are another situation in which a cyclist is often badly hurt or killed by the impact of a motor vehicle.
- Bus accidents: This type of accident may involve a bus hitting a car or a person or a passenger injured while on the bus.
Types of legal representation
- Workers’ compensation lawyer: A Florida workers’ comp lawyer can help you get the benefits you deserve. If a third party bears some responsibility for your injuries, an attorney can help you pursue a personal injury lawsuit.
- Slip and fall lawyer: Under Florida’s premises liability law, property owners have a duty to keep their property in a reasonably safe condition. Allowing known hazardous conditions to exist is often considered negligence in slip and fall cases.
- Catastrophic injury lawyer: Some injuries are so extensive that the person will never fully recover and will require lifelong assistance. Such injuries are considered catastrophic.
- Wrongful death lawyer: If someone dies from a personal injury, the personal representative of their estate can file a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of surviving family members.
Common Types of Personal Injuries
A serious personal injury is not only painful but affects your mobility and ability to work and care for your family. The most frequent types of personal injuries include:
- Back and neck injuries
- Broken bones
- Burns
- Disfigurement
- Internal organ damage
- Lacerations
- Loss of eyesight or hearing
- Loss of limbs or digits
- Soft tissue injuries
- Spinal cord injury
- Traumatic brain injury
- Whiplash
Filing an Injury Claim in Lakeland
Never agree to any insurance settlement before consulting an attorney. Insurance companies are notorious for making lowball offers to settle claims quickly. When you are seriously injured, what sounds like a fair settlement could end up covering only a small part of your expenses. Let a lawyer negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf.
Your lawyer will send a demand letter to the insurance company of the at-fault party. This letter explains your claim in detail, provides the facts of the claim, and demands compensation. An offer and counteroffer process begins. If the insurer does not offer a fair settlement, your lawyer can file a personal injury lawsuit on your behalf.
Statute of limitations
In Florida, the statute of limitations for filing a personal injury lawsuit is two years from the accident date. In most cases, failing to file a lawsuit by that deadline means your case cannot go forward. Even in wrongful death lawsuits, the statute of limitations is two years from the death date.
How Do You Build Your Personal Injury Claim?
If you suffer a personal injury, it is critical to seek immediate medical attention. Failure to do so may negate your claim. Even if you do not think you were hurt initially, go to the emergency room or an urgent care facility right away. Waiting too long allows the insurance company to argue that something else caused your injury, not their client’s actions.
Consult with a Lakeland personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. We will advise you on what actions to take and what not to do. For instance, your attorney may instruct you to compile a pain diary, listing your pain levels and limitations on a day-by-day basis.
Follow your doctor’s orders to the letter. Do not miss any medical or rehab appointments. If you do not complete your medical treatment, the insurance company will allege that your injuries are not as serious as you claim.
What Evidence Do You Need to Receive Compensation?
When it comes to proving a personal injury case, the more evidence, the better. If you are able, gather evidence at the scene of the injury after making sure the police are called.
- Take many photos of the accident scene, including crash evidence, such as tire marks.
- If there are eyewitnesses, obtain their names and contact information.
- Seek medical attention as soon as possible. Injuries like internal bleeding are not always obvious on the outside of your body. You will need the doctor’s results in proof of any claims you make.
Much also depends upon the nature of the personal injury. While photos, surveillance videos, eyewitness testimony, and the like are useful in virtually every personal injury case, different circumstances require specific evidence.
For instance, if you were injured in a motor vehicle accident and the at-fault driver might have been texting at the time of impact, your attorney can subpoena their cellphone records to determine if they were indeed distracted.
Your Lakeland personal injury lawyer will review police, medical, and other pertinent records. In some motor vehicle accident cases, an accident reconstruction specialist can use 3D mapping, computer simulations, and similar technology to recreate the accident scene. Each driver may have a different version of what happened, but a reconstruction expert can outline how the accident unfolded and who was responsible.
Personal Injury Compensation
Compensation, or damages, in a personal injury case may include:
- Medical expenses, current and future
- Lost wages
- Loss of future earning capacity
- Property damage
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
Damages are divided into economic and non-economic categories. Determining economic damages is relatively straightforward. Your medical expenses, lost wages, and future earning potential are calculated. The latter is based on your regular salary or income, raises, and potential bonuses.
Calculating non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering and emotional distress, is a more subjective process. This may require testimony from medical or psychiatric experts regarding your quality of life or prognosis, as well as family members and close friends who can testify about how the injury affected you.
Compensation is determined by who’s at fault
Under Florida law, you may receive compensation even if you are partly at fault for your injury. For example, in a slip and fall injury, the judge or jury may find you partly at fault because you were wearing inappropriate footwear at the location, which may have contributed to your fall.
As long as you are deemed 50% or less responsible, you may still receive compensation, but the amount is reduced by the percentage of fault attributed to you. So, if you were deemed 25% responsible, your total payout would be reduced by 25%. A $50,000 award becomes a $37,500 award.
The Personal Injury Lawyers of Kogan & DiSalvo Can Help You
If you suffered an injury due to another party’s negligence, or if a family member lost their life in such a situation, you need the services of the experienced personal injury attorneys at Kogan & DiSalvo.
Contact us today to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation. Since we work on a contingency basis, you pay no fee unless you receive compensation. While most personal injury lawsuits are settled, we are prepared to take your case to trial if the insurance company fails to agree to a reasonable settlement.
