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Suing for a personal injury can be the best way to get compensation for the economic and non-economic losses that you incur from an accident.
To succeed in personal injury claims, victims need evidence, which is why documenting accident scenes by photographing them is important. As your case progresses, our lawyers can track your damages to determine the value of your case. With our help, you can avoid accepting settlements that are too low compared to what you might be entitled to. We can also ensure you file your lawsuit on time so you do not miss the statute of limitations, which would bar you from recovery in Texas.
Call our personal injury lawyers at (817) 476-1797 to get a free case review from The Queenan Law Firm, P.C. today.
Taking Photos to Document Personal Injuries and Accidents in Grapevine, TX
Documenting accidents with photos and videos is important, as these images can serve as evidence in lawsuits. Photograph everything, from your injuries to visible property damage, so you do not leave anything out.
If you can reach your phone or it is on your person at the time of the accident, do your best to use it to photograph your injuries. Photos of victims’ injuries at the scene can be impactful evidence, especially if claims go to trial. These pictures can also show how victims’ injuries appeared immediately after an accident, helping establish they were hurt during the accident in question. This is an all-important element of personal injury claims since plaintiffs must prove they were injured directly because of the defendant’s negligence.
In addition to using their phones to photograph injuries, victims can also use their personal devices to take pictures of accident scenes in their entirety. This can result in the most reliable photographic evidence, especially if police officers are not called to the scene. When taking pictures of the area, focus mainly on the cause of your injuries and anything that could indicate negligence.
For example, if hurt during auto accidents, victims can take pictures of the property damage to involved vehicles and any debris left on the road. Our personal injury lawyers can then give those photos to accident reconstruction experts, who may determine the accident’s cause based on the images.
Victims should also take photographs after accidents on private premises, like commercial properties or private residences. This is important in slip and fall claims due to negligent property maintenance, and victims can photograph the cause of their injuries and the surrounding area. For example, if you tripped because of a broken tile in the lobby of your apartment building, photograph the hazard as evidence of your landlord’s failure to ensure a reasonably safe environment for tenants.
Learning How Much Your Personal Injury Case is Worth in Grapevine, TX
Learning the true value of your case before filing is vital, as this will inform our assessments of settlement proposals down the line. We will estimate your claim’s worth based on your medical expenses, missed wages, and intangible damages caused by the defendant’s negligence.
Medical Expenses
Damages for medical expenses are common in personal injury cases. If you went to the emergency room or saw a doctor because of an injury, you also incurred medical expenses that you would never have faced if not for the injury. The at-fault party can be held liable for any medical expenses incurred during treatment for your injury, including the total costs of things like X-rays, MRIs, ambulance transportation, surgery, hospital stays, doctor’s visits, rehabilitation, and physical therapy. Ongoing and future medical costs should be covered as well. To support requests for future medical damages, we may get medical experts to give statements explaining the upcoming treatments you will need to fully recover physically.
Missed Wages
If you are injured enough to miss work or lose your job, you might be entitled to compensation for lost wages from the accident. Any work you missed or reduced earning capacity you faced because of the injury should be compensated since it is the defendant’s fault you had to miss work at all. If your injuries prevent you from returning to the workforce or you must take a lower-paying job with reduced work tasks, you may be entitled to damages for lost future wages and wages lost during your recovery.
We can use employment and wage documentation, such as information from your employer and tax returns, to estimate your missed income since the accident.
Pain and Suffering
The pain and suffering from a serious injury can be emotionally debilitating. In many cases, these damages are not covered by insurance, so filing an insurance claim may mean missing out on this area of compensation. These damages can be some of the most substantial you receive in an injury lawsuit, so it is vital to claim these damages in court.
Proving pain and suffering requires different tactics, as intangible damages do not have an inherent monetary value. Because of that, our personal injury lawyers may advise you to speak with a mental health professional about your struggles or write them down in a personal journal to document non-economic damages from the accident.
Planning When to File Your Grapevine, TX Personal Injury Claim
The statute of limitations is the most important factor in planning when to file your claim. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 16.003 only gives victims two years to sue for personal injuries in Texas. Based on your accident’s date, we can calculate exactly how much longer we have to prepare your case and proceed accordingly.
While following the filing deadline is the most important thing, strategically bringing your case only after acquiring enough evidence to meet the standard of proof and demonstrate your damages is also helpful. We can intentionally preserve evidence after the accident to ensure we can do this as soon as possible. This typically includes eyewitness statements, and we can contact witnesses immediately by identifying them through police reports, surveillance footage, or other means.
Victims might not know the full extent of their injuries until several weeks after an incident. This is common in cases involving traumatic brain or spinal cord injuries, where victims might need several surgeries and long-term therapy to see improvements or to get a final prognosis. As you get the initial treatments and care you need, we can help organize medical records and proof of damages so we can estimate your losses and have enough evidence to go to court after filing.
Though the two-year countdown begins on the date of an accident in most cases, some victims might get tolling for delayed discovery. Tolling is granted when victims do not discover their injuries due to negligence until later.
According to § 16.001, the clock does not begin to count down for minor victims until they turn 18, giving them until age 20 to pursue compensation against negligent parties.
Proving Fault in a Grapevine, TX Personal Injury Case
Fault is determined in a personal injury case by establishing how the accident happened and who caused it. In most injury cases, the injured party seeks to claim that the at-fault party injured them through “negligence.”
Negligence occurs when an individual or a business entity owes the victim a duty of care but fails to uphold it, leading to injuries. A clear example of this is a driver’s duty to stop at a red light. If the driver runs a red light and hits another car, injuring a victim, that driver would be held liable for any injuries they caused by running the red light.
Similar duties exist for property owners to keep their property safe for guests, drivers to follow the rules of the road, employers to follow safety and training requirements, and doctors to provide reasonable medical care.
Some accidents are purely accidents – but more often than not, someone is responsible for the “accident.” In some cases, multiple parties may be partially at fault for the crash, and sometimes, even the victim contributes to causing the accident. In Texas, the jury divides blame among all parties involved, potentially including the victim. Each party is responsible for their share of the damages, meaning you may collect compensation from multiple parties. The defendants do not pay any share of the blame the victim is responsible for causing. Victims can still recover damages even if they are as high as 50% liable for their own injuries, recovering the other 50% of the total damages from the at-fault parties.
Evidence used to prove an injury case can include eyewitness testimony, photos of the accident, medical records, and other evidence demonstrating how the accident happened, who caused it, and what damages resulted from it.
Call Our Injury Lawyers in Grapevine, TX About Your Case
To set up a free case assessment from our personal injury lawyers, call The Queenan Law Firm, P.C. today at (817) 476-1797.