Dealing with a serious or chronic injury is far from pleasant, particularly when your harm is another party’s fault. While playing the blame game might help you feel better at first, you ultimately just need compensation to manage the fallout from your injuries
Fortunately, California law permits injury victims to recover compensation for their various damages. If you’re a personal injury victim, contact a San Jose personal injury lawyer today to see how we can help you with your personal injury claim.
Common Types of Injury
- Brain Injuries – Although brain injuries can take on many forms, one of the more common—and dangerous—types is traumatic brain injury, also known as TBI. Affecting about 2.8 million Americans a year, TBIs can cause impairment to sensation, mobility, thinking, and memory capabilities. Concussions and contusions fall under the banner of TBI.
- Spine Injuries – Your spine feeds nerve impulses to your various organs, and it’s essential to your life. For those who suffer from a damaged spine, some of the most common symptoms include loss of strength, sensation, and shortness of breath. Spine damage is often irreversible, which can play a major role in the court’s decision to award compensation to you.
- Broken Bones – Broken and fractured bones, which can take many months to heal, are very common among accident victims. Sometimes, a single forceful impact can break a bone, while in other cases, a bone break is the result of repeated stress. Whatever the case, you should visit a qualified physician immediately after you break a bone.
- Burns – While burns are typically associated with exposure to fire, they can also happen to those whose skin comes into contact with harmful or corrosive chemicals. There are three major types of burns, with third-degree burns being the most severe. Serious burns can result in excruciating pain and numbness, along with scarring and permanent disfigurement.
- Amputations – While amputations aren’t the most common of procedures, they are less rare than you might expect and can severely affect your quality of life. Amputating a limb is usually a last resort, spurred by a limb falling victim to disease or unbearable pain. Traumatic amputations might occur during an accident, such as a serious car wreck that severs a leg.
What You Need to Know About Injury Law
One major component of personal injury law that all personal injury victims in San Jose should understand is the standard of comparative fault.
While total liability for all parties must always add up to 100 percent in an accident, comparative fault makes it so numerous parties can be held liable to varying extents. For instance, you may be found 45 percent liable for your accident; another individual might be found 45 percent liable; and a final party might hold the remaining 10 percent of the blame.
Any liability that you take on will ultimately be deducted from your potential damages on a proportional basis. That’s why it’s important to hire a San Jose personal injury lawyer who can show that you aren’t to blame for the accident that left you injured.
Also relevant is California’s statute of limitations for personal injury cases, which is two years. This means you must file your personal injury suit within two years of the date of your incident.
How to Structure a Claim
Many injury victims feel intimidated by the mere idea of building a personal injury claim, which is where a San Jose accident injury lawyer can come into the picture.
First of all, you will need to clearly demonstrate all of the losses your injury has caused you, whether they happened in the past, are occurring the present, or are expected to take effect in the future. We have found that many accident victims are surprised by the number of losses that they can—and should—document.
Examples of losses you may encounter as a result of your accident may include the following:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages or earning potential
- Property damage
- Retrofitting your home or vehicle to accommodate your injury
- Emotional distress
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of consortium
- Reduced ability to enjoy your life
When it comes to disclosing the struggles you’ve experienced as a result of your accident, you don’t want to leave anything out. You can and should be compensated for every hardship a negligent party has forced you to face.
Contact a San Jose Injury Attorney
Accident victims often feel despondent and helpless, but there’s no reason to give up hope. At the very least, we’ve found that the vast majority of injuries are treatable, and you can often receive substantial financial compensation to deal with the grave outcomes of your accident.
For personalized and experienced legal counsel, contact a San Jose personal injury lawyer today. Call us at 408-279-4222 or reach out by entering your information into the contact form at the bottom of this page.