Personal Injury FAQs

If you’ve sustained an injury and you believe you deserve to be compensated for your expenses a personal injury attorney can advise you on your case and represent you in court. Common injuries that require a personal injury lawyer include medical malpractice, work-related injuries, traffic accidents, falling in a public or private place, repetitive strain injury, bronchial diseases, asbestosis, or mesothelioma.

The sooner you hire a personal injury lawyer to handle your case, the better. There are strict deadlines known as statutes of limitations that state how long you have to file a lawsuit. If you miss the deadline that applies to your case, you will lose your opportunity to file a lawsuit to recover the compensation you need.

By hiring a lawyer immediately after suffering an injury, you help ensure there is enough time for the full legal process to play out if needed. Not every injury claim will require a lawsuit, but it is always best to keep that option available in the event the insurance company or at-fault party is not willing to offer fair compensation.

If your personal injury attorney is able to prove that the injury you sustained was due to negligence on the other person’s part, you may win in a court case or decide to settle without going to court. Either way you will receive a payment for your medical bills, lost work wages, and pain and suffering. Generally the payment will be made in installments. If you don’t win your case, you don’t recover any money but you also don’t owe anything to your attorney if you’d agreed on a contingency fee.

Before you can file a personal injury lawsuit, you need to make sure that you have these two basic grounds for a personal injury lawsuit: Clearly Defined Harm and A Definable Duty. See our section on personal injury for more information.