Injuries from many different types of accidents can be compensated through insurance claims or through a personal injury lawsuit. Many injury victims might not fully understand their right to seek compensation or think that a lawsuit is out of reach for them. Our personal injury lawyers can help you protect your rights, file a claim, and get compensation for your injuries, often without any upfront payments.
Injury claims often work on a contingency basis, meaning that the lawyer charges no fees except those paid out of the winnings. This gives many injury victims access to experienced counsel and professional help with their injury claims. Moreover, everything from car accident lawsuits to slip and fall claims to product injury cases can be filed to help you get the damages you need.
For a free review of your potential case, call (954) 751-4258 to speak with the St. Lucie County personal injury attorneys at The Law Offices of David I. Fuchs, Injury & Accident Lawyer.
Types of Personal Injury Cases You Can Sue for in St. Lucie County, FL
Many different injury cases can justify an insurance claim or a personal injury lawsuit to cover the damages you faced from an injury. Many victims might not be aware of their right to damages, but our St. Lucie County personal injury lawyers can help you understand when a lawsuit can be filed and what kinds of claims you can file.
In most injury cases, the basis of the lawsuit is “negligence.” This means that someone – the “defendant” – violated a legal duty that they owed you and caused you injuries because of it. This can happen in many different ways – most commonly because they broke some traffic law and injured you in a car crash or because their property was unsafe and you were injured in a slip and fall or other premises liability accident.
Identifying the right party to file your claim against can sometimes be difficult. For example, in car accident cases, the other driver is often the one to sue – but if they were a commercial truck driver, then the trucking company they worked for could also be on the hook for damages. Similarly, property owners are often liable for slip and falls and similar accidents – but in rented commercial spaces or apartments, the tenant might be liable instead of the owner.
All in all, our lawyers can help with car accident claims and slip and falls, as mentioned. However, we also help with product injury cases, medical malpractice lawsuits, and other injuries caused by a person or a company’s careless or thoughtless behavior.
Insurance Claims vs. Lawsuits for Personal Injury Cases in St. Lucie County
Our injury attorneys help with both injury claims filed through insurance and with lawsuits. In some cases, an insurance claim will be sufficient to get you the damages you need, but many insurance companies refuse to pay all of your damages, and a lawsuit could be necessary to make up the rest of the damages.
Filing Through Your Insurance
In some injury cases, you file with your own insurance. This primarily happens in car accident claims where drivers have no-fault insurance. There, your own insurance will cover a portion of your damages, but you usually have leftover damages that they do not cover. In those cases, it is important to work with a lawyer to potentially file a third-party insurance claim against the at-fault driver or to sue them directly for the remainder of your damages.
Filing Through the Defendant’s Insurance
When you file an insurance claim against the at-fault party’s insurance, the insurance company will often deny your claim or attempt to settle at a low value. In many cases, they will try to pay you just under what it would cost them to fight the case in court rather than truly trying to reimburse you for your actual injuries and costs. In many cases, these insurance companies can be negotiated with, but that will sometimes end in frustration.
When to File a Lawsuit
If the insurance company refuses to pay or the defendant has no insurance to cover this particular injury case, then we will take the case to court. There, the judge and jury can decide the case and order the defendant to pay you any and all damages that are related to your injury. Here, our lawyers might even be able to get you punitive damages to punish bad actors for the injuries they cause you. However, the ultimate decision on how much your case is worth is left to the jury.
Is a Lawsuit Worth It?
In many cases, it is better to go to court. Doing so does not mean that your case needs to ultimately go to trial, just that the option is there if settlement negotiations break down.
If you have a strong case but the defendant and their lawyers refuse to pay up, then going to trial might be your best bet at recovering compensation. Instead of relying on insurance companies to give in to your demands or pay an amount that is economically agreeable to them, a lawsuit can help you get what you deserve in damages.
However, there are always downsides, too. For one, there is always a risk that the jury will not believe your claim and might rule against you. They could also undervalue your claim, and you could potentially end up with a lower award than the settlement offer would have paid you. In any case, your lawyer can advise you on when a lawsuit is best and when to settle.
When to Settle
Most injury claims do settle, whether through insurance claims or in an out-of-court settlement after the case is filed. Even up until everyone is physically at the courthouse for trial, “courthouse steps” settlements can be negotiated and paid.
However, the time that you usually get a fair settlement offer is at the “discovery” stage of your case. This is after the initial filings and is the stage in the case where both parties get to depose witnesses and review the other side’s evidence. By this point, the defendant and their insurance company will know how weak their case is, and they will likely be more amenable to settling for a fair value to avoid having to pay their attorneys more to go to trial.
Contact Our St. Lucie County Personal Injury Attorneys Today
For a free review of your case, reach out to the St. Lucie County personal injury lawyers at The Law Offices of David I. Fuchs, Injury & Accident Lawyer by calling (954) 751-4258.