How Much is My Personal Injury Case Worth?
What Damages Are Available to Accident Victims?
How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me?
How Long Do I Have to File a Texas Personal Injury Claim?
What is Negligence?
How Do You Prove Negligence?
Will my Injury Case Go to Trial?
Every case is different. As a general rule, the more severe an injury, the more a related case is worth.
But, the value will ultimately depend on answers to questions like these:
- How seriously were you injured?
- Did you contribute to the accident or cause your injuries in any way?
- What are your current (and projected future) out-of-pocket costs?
- Will your injuries affect your ability to go back to work, now or in the future?
- What kind of emotional toll or trauma have you suffered because of your accident?
Insurance companies will try to drive down the value of your claim – don’t let them. Hire an advocate who will stand up for you, work with experts to help them assess what your injury case is worth, and fight to get you compensation.
Under Texas law, personal injury victims can pursue financial compensation for their economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages represent the monetary losses stemming from your accident, such as:
- The cost of your medical care
- Future medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Lost future income and diminished earning capacity
- Property damage
Non-economic damages don’t come with a receipt but can still deeply affect you; they may include:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Mental anguish
- Disability
- Scarring or disfigurement
- Reduced quality of life
In rare cases, punitive damages may be awarded. These are meant to punish a defendant for particularly reckless, malicious, or grossly negligent conduct and to deter similar behavior in the future.
An experienced personal injury attorney can secure full and fair compensation on your behalf.
Texas personal injury lawyers typically work on contingency. So, the law firm assumes all of the financial risk associated with litigating your claim. The lawyer only gets paid if they win your case.
That means there are zero upfront costs to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer. If your case is successful – meaning you get a settlement or win at trial – your lawyer takes a (pre-agreed upon) percentage of your monetary award (less any costs of litigation, like filing fees, court costs, and expert fees).
What percentage will the lawyer take? It’s typically around 33%, but can be lower or higher. Ultimately, it depends on the firm, what type of case you have, and how challenging your particular case might be.
Texas has a short two-year statute of limitations for filing personal injury lawsuits. For most cases, victims will have up to two years from the date of their accident to file a civil lawsuit and demand compensation. Miss the deadline and your rights disappear.
Protect yourself by contacting a lawyer promptly after getting hurt. They can identify the time limits that apply to your case and work to ensure that procedural rules don’t stand between you and the money you need.
Many personal injury cases in Texas are based on negligence. Negligence means that one person (the plaintiff) got hurt because another person (the defendant) had a responsibility to act with care, but didn’t.
There are four elements of negligence that must be established in order for the plaintiff to win:
- Duty: The defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care
- Breach: The defendant failed to act reasonably under the circumstances
- Causation: The defendant’s conduct was the reason the plaintiff got hurt
- Damages: The plaintiff suffered some kind of identifiable harm (e.g., physical, financial)
Each element must be proven in order for the plaintiff – injury victim – to win and recover compensation.
The concept seems simple enough – someone else was careless and you got hurt. But, negligence is harder to prove than you might think – especially when the defendant (or their insurance provider) fights you at every turn.
That’s where an experienced injury lawyer can help by investigating your case and gathering supportive evidence, which could include:
Your lawyer will use this evidence to establish that the defendant owed you a duty of care, that they didn’t act reasonably under the circumstances, and that you suffered injuries as a result.
Most don’t – a whopping 95% of personal injury lawsuits settle before the trial stage. However, that doesn’t mean that your case won’t end up before a judge and jury.
And, you want to make sure that you have a lawyer with litigation experience representing you, even if you don’t make it all the way to trial.
When you’re represented by a skilled trial lawyer, insurers and defendants will know that you mean business. They’ll know that your injury attorney prepared your case as if it will go to trial – and won’t be afraid to reject low offers and go to court if necessary. The other party might offer more during settlement negotiations to prevent that from happening.
