How Do You Determine Liability in Catastrophic Injury Cases?

What Are “Catastrophic” Injuries?

If you or one of your loved ones sustains a catastrophic injury in Southern California – now or in the future – because someone else was negligent, get legal help promptly by calling the offices of a San Diego catastrophic injury attorney.

Catastrophic injuries are tragic, sudden, and life-changing. They can happen unexpectedly to anyone. Unlike typical and common injuries that heal in days or weeks, catastrophic injuries are long-term or permanent and may mean partial or complete disability and lifelong medical care.

Your medical costs will be substantial, so your compensation should also be substantial. If another person’s negligence is the reason you are catastrophically injured, immediately schedule a consultation to discuss your injury and your rights with a San Diego personal injury lawyer.

What is Important to Know About Catastrophic Injuries?

Catastrophic injuries may include but aren’t limited to burn injuries, injuries that require amputation, severe traumatic brain injuries, nerve damage, severe spinal cord injuries, fractures, and blindness. These injuries happen in a number of ways including:

1. traffic accidents
2. work-related accidents
3. sports collisions and swimming pool accidents
4. the use of defective consumer products
5. slipping and falling or tripping and falling
6. medical malpractice incidents

Almost any accident may cause a catastrophic injury. The financial, physical, and psychological cost of a catastrophic injury is immense. When it is not directly life-threatening, a catastrophic injury may cause organ damage or loss, the loss of a limb, blindness, disfigurement, or paralysis.

What Costs Are Involved With Catastrophic Injuries?

Should you sustain a catastrophic injury that requires ongoing medical attention and lengthy hospitalizations, your medical costs may include (but probably will not be limited to):

1. numerous surgeries
2. physical therapy
3. institutional or home nursing care
4. prescription medicines
5. counseling
6. medical equipment (such as a wheelchair or portable oxygen concentrator)
7. transportation expenses

Who May Be Held Liable for a Catastrophic Injury?

Depending on the details of your case, one of these parties could be held liable for a catastrophic injury:

1. a negligent or intoxicated driver
2. a property owner who failed to repair a hazard on his or her property
3. the manufacturer of a defective consumer item
4. a malpracticing medical provider or facility
5. any party whose negligent or reckless behavior causes a catastrophic injury

How Will a Personal Injury Attorney Help You?

If your catastrophic injury was caused by another person’s negligence, you’ll need an attorney who can recover the maximum compensation amount. If more than a single party has liability for your accident and injury, your attorney will identify all of the potential compensation sources.

Your lawyer will investigate the accident and how you were injured. Your lawyer will then develop a strategy for recovering your compensation. In a Southern California case based on a catastrophic injury, the injured victim or “plaintiff” and his or her lawyer must prove that:

1. The defendant – that is, the negligent party – owed a “duty of care” to the plaintiff.
2. The defendant acted negligently, breaching that duty of care.
3. The plaintiff’s catastrophic injury was a direct result of the defendant’s negligence.

Don’t speak with the defendant’s insurance company, and do not sign any insurance documents before consulting your lawyer. Don’t accept a first settlement offer. Instead, let your lawyer do the talking. Your lawyer will insist on a fair and reasonable settlement.

What Compensation is Available for Catastrophic Injury Victims?

Catastrophic injury victims lose the ability to earn an income while they simultaneously incur considerable long-term medical expenses. When a victim will require years of treatment and lifelong care, that victim will need the maximum amount of compensation that’s available.

California law entitles you as a catastrophic injury victim to recover compensation for your lost earnings and projected future lost earnings, your current and projected future medical costs, suffering, pain, and other injury-related damages and losses.

What if No Out-of-Court Settlement is Available?

Most catastrophic injury cases are resolved privately, but if the liability for your injury is disputed, or if no acceptable settlement offer is forthcoming, your San Diego catastrophic injury attorney will take your case to trial.

At trial, your attorney may call expert witnesses – such as a medical authority or an accident reconstruction expert – to provide testimony or a statement in support of your catastrophic injury claim.

Your attorney will explain to the jury why you were owed a duty of care and how the defendant breached that duty of care and caused your injury. Then, your attorney will tell the jurors why they should order the defendant’s insurance company to compensate you.

What Else is Important to Know About Catastrophic Injury Cases?

You have a time limit for bringing a personal injury claim. The deadline (or “statute of limitations”) in this state is – with several narrow exceptions – two years from the date of the injury. Do not, however, wait two years to contact a San Diego personal injury lawyer.

Seek medical help first, and then reach out to a personal injury lawyer immediately. Your lawyer needs to examine the evidence before it can be lost, altered, or contaminated, and your lawyer needs to speak with any witnesses before their recollections fade.

How can you afford an attorney if you’re not working and your medical bills are piling up? Relax. Your personal injury attorney will represent you on a contingent fee basis. You’ll pay nothing upfront to your lawyer, and you’ll owe nothing until your compensation is recovered.

Why Should Benner Law Firm Represent You?

The personal injury team at Benner Law Firm represents and advises catastrophic injury victims in San Diego County and across Southern California. We know how to deal with catastrophic injury claims, and we know how to recover the compensation you need.

California injury attorney Craig Benner heads up the legal team at Benner Injury Law. He has extensive experience resolving the most complicated and difficult catastrophic injury claims, and he has established a reputation for legal excellence and extraordinary client service.

To begin the legal process now or to find out more about the rights of catastrophic injury victims, call the Benner Law Firm promptly at 714-497-2544 to schedule a free strategy session with no obligation.