Damages in a Texas Personal Injury or Wrongful Death Case
You have probably come to this website because you have suffered a bodily injury, or because you have lost a close family member that happened because of someone else’s negligence, error, or other wrongdoing. If so, you may have come across the term “damages” and are wondering exactly what that means in a personal injury context.
When you’ve been injured, whether in an accident, an assault, or a hazardous condition in the workplace or elsewhere, all kinds of negatives come into your life. You may be temporarily or permanently disabled and out of work, suffering from physical pain and mental anguish. You probably have piles of medical bills at a time when you’re not able to work, so unless you have better insurance than most of us do, you are probable having trouble paying them. And with the pain, disability, and stress, you may have so little pleasure in your life that you’re beginning to wonder if it’s even worth living. And all this because of something someone else did.
Where’s the Justice?
That’s where the legal concept of damages comes in. You have lost so much because of someone else’s error or deliberate wrongdoing, and it’s simply unfair that you and your family have to suffer for something that is not your fault. Texas law is with you there, and the legal system provides you, as an injured party, the right to make the person who caused your losses pay for them. In theory, you need to be made whole again, and your life needs to be put back where it was before the event that caused these losses to your health, finances, and quality of life.
Of course there is no magic wand that can give you back your health of return to life a loved one who has been taken from you. So the law provides you with the next best thing—the opportunity to demand an amount of money that will fairly compensate you for what you’ve lost. This is referred to as “recovering damages.”
Categories of Damages in a Personal Injury Legal Action
There are three kinds of damages that you can potentially recover in a personal injury civil legal matter:
Special compensatory damages
General compensatory damages
Exemplary or punitive damages
The first two categories—both “compensatory”—are the ones most commonly awarded in personal injury and wrongful death legal cases.
Special or Economic Damages
Special damages are economic damages. You’ve been injured; your medical bills need to be paid, both now and in the future. You’ve lost time from work, you need to be compensated for earnings you would have had, but for your injury. You can’t continue with your present career, you’ve lost potential future earnings and benefits that you and your family were counting on. Or perhaps your spouse was killed, and your family lost his or her income and services in the home and now must hire someone to handle those tasks.
Those are the big ones. There are others: prescriptions, medical devices, the cost of refitting your home with a wheelchair ramp or widening doorways, the cost of a lift and perhaps hand controls on your car, the cost of a home health aide to assist with your care, and many others. These are all economic losses. that you can quantify in dollars by showing bills, receipts, employment records, and other documentation. When your case has been resolved, your bank account and your ability to maintain your standard of living should be about the same as before your injury or the wrongful death.
General or Non-economic Damages
Non-economic or “general” damages are somewhat trickier. These are the losses to your quality of life: pain, suffering, loss of independence, disfigurement, loss of your ability to enjoy life, damage to family relationships, mental anguish, and others. These don’t come with an easy-to-determine price tag, and they vary according to what your life was like prior to your injury. Did you love to play baseball, and your right arm was amputated? Was reading your favorite pastime, and you lost your eyesight? These damages are very real, but they are also subjective.
If justice is to be served, you need to be compensated for these types of damages. They are probably more significant to you than any financial damages.
Exemplary or Punitive Damages
Finally, in a very few cases, you may be able to receive the third type of damages—punitive or “exemplary” damages. These can be awarded by a jury if the defendant’s act that caused your injury showed wanton recklessness or egregious disregard for the well-being of another. Punitive damages are designed to punish or make an example of the wrongdoer, in hopes of deterring that type of behavior in the future, both from the defendant and from others who realize that things could get really bad for them if they show such blatant disregard for other people.
Top Level Legal Advocacy Can Maximize Your Damage Recovery
To get the best possible recovery of damages in your civil personal injury or wrongful death case, you should only proceed with the help of the best Dallas personal injury attorney. Look for a Board Certified Personal Injury Trial Specialist who has been certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. That way you’ll know that you are being represented by a lawyer with the highest possible qualifications—one who has been carefully examined and vetted for excellence. Also check the attorney’s AVVO rating. The highest possible score is 10 out of 10. And finally, make sure that your lawyer is experienced and competent in the courtroom.
Recover Damages in Your Texas Injury Case
In Dallas, you can find this high level of representation by contacting the law firm of Aaron Herbert. He has 14 years of legal experience, is Board Certified in Personal Injury Law, and has the highest possible AVVO rating. Call today for a free consultation.
Children are very active and mobile, but are far less aware and careful than adults. The combination produces a lot of accidents, which, in turn, produce a lot of injuries and deaths. In addition to engaging in many inherently dangerous youthful activities like climbing and cycling, they are exposed to most of the same dangers as adults, like motor vehicle accidents and defective products.
Injuries to children present unique problems in any legal case asking for compensation. Since they are still developing in every way, some injuries may not even be fully visible until the child victim reaches a later stage of development. For example, how does a burn injury to a three year old affect that child’s adjustment to school and social situations, environments that the child has yet to encounter? The younger the child, the bigger the problem. The aid of a Dallas child injury attorney with specific experience in these cases is invaluable in obtaining adequate compensation.
Why Get Help From a Lawyer?
Hiring a lawyer from the Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, P.C. could help you and your family understand your rights after your child suffers serious injuries. Rather than believing what an insurance company has to say – potentially told to you in the hopes of reducing your financial recovery – you can benefit from receiving counsel from a party that has your best interests in mind. Dallas personal injury attorney Aaron Herbert is a Board Certified Personal Injury Trial Specialist with a long history of success in obtaining compensation for victims of other people’s negligence.
Your attorney can review the events leading up to your child’s injury, help you determine fault and name the defendant, and answer your questions openly and honestly along the way. A lawyer will explore ways of maximizing the compensation you receive from a personal injury lawsuit. An attorney can walk you through the claims process on behalf of your injured child so you can rest assured someone is handling your case properly while you focus on recovery.
What Parties Can Be Held Responsible?
Personal injury laws in Texas state that any injured victim – including a child – will have the right to hold an at-fault party responsible for his or her damages if the at-fault party reasonably should have prevented the damages in question. Anyone with the power to prevent the child’s injuries that negligently or intentionally failed to do so could be financially responsible for the victim’s damages. Many Dallas child injury cases involve defendants such as schools, school districts and daycare centers. Several different parties, however, could be defendants in a child injury lawsuit in Texas depending on the circumstances.
A school
A daycare center
A babysitter
A property owner
A product manufacturer
A driver
A doctor
A criminal or sex offender
The government
An individual
If your case involves more than one at-fault party, your Dallas child injury lawyer could help you bring claims against all appropriate defendants. In these cases, each defendant could be responsible for either his or her portion of fault or the victim’s full damages. Texas’ modified joint and several liability law states that if a defendant is more than 50% responsible for the accident, he or she must pay the full amount of the plaintiff’s damages. Less than 50% responsibility will mean the defendant must only pay an amount in proportion to his or her percentage of fault.
How Can I File a Claim on Behalf of Someone?
Someone who suffered severe injuries as a child typically has the right to file a claim him or herself at age 18. In Texas, the statute of limitations on personal injury claims will pause until the victim turns 18. The two-year statute of limitations means the injured child will have until age 20 to file a claim, in most cases. This is not the only option for financial recovery for a childhood injury, however. The Texas courts also allow a parent or legal guardian to bring an injury claim on the child’s behalf before the child turns 18.
Prompt claims filing on behalf of your child could benefit your case by initiating a lawsuit while evidence against the defendant is still available. Accounts of the incident may also still be fresh in witnesses’ minds. In Texas, a parent or guardian can file a personal injury claim on a child’s behalf within two years of the date of the injury. To file a claim, visit the civil court in the county where the injury occurred. Contact a lawyer to help you fill out the proper paperwork, then submit it to the court by the deadline.
How Are Child Injuries Compensated?
Although a personal injury lawsuit cannot take back the injuries or losses your child suffered, it could lead to important compensation for his or her past and future damages. A successful injury claim could give your family the recovery necessary to move forward. The defendant may owe your family a financial award that makes it easier to afford your child’s future health care needs – especially if the incident caused a permanent disability. In Texas, you could recover many different types of compensation for a successful child injury lawsuit.
Medical costs. A settlement or jury verdict could pay the full costs of your child’s existing and foreseeable future medical expenses. This could include the costs of surgeries, rehabilitation, therapies, medical devices and medications.
Disability costs. If another person’s recklessness or negligence gave your child a permanent disability, such as cerebral palsy, a spinal cord injury or brain damage, your family could receive an award for the lifelong estimated costs associated with the disability, including lost capacity to earn a living wage and the price of live-in care.
Pain and suffering. You could file a claim for your child’s physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, trauma, nightmares, humiliation and other noneconomic damages, as well as for your mental anguish as a parent.
Lost quality of life. If a permanent disability or traumatic event caused long-term effects that diminished your child’s quality or enjoyment of life, this could be a compensable damage. This includes the child’s inability to lead a normal life due to the incident.
Legal expenses. Your child injury lawsuit could also demand all attorney’s fees and filing costs related to bringing your claim. At the Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, P.C., we do not charge anything for our services unless we win.
The Texas civil courts allow families to seek both economic and noneconomic damages for child injuries. Some judges may also award punitive damages in cases involving gross negligence, malicious intent to harm or wanton disregard for the safety of your child. The total compensatory award your family could receive for a child’s injuries may provide closure, peace of mind and years of financial stability. If you lost your child in a negligence-related accident, you may also receive wrongful death damages such as funeral and burial expenses as a parent.
How Common Are Accidental Injuries to Children?
How common are accidental injuries to children? Very. The CDC reports that the annual cost of unintentional injuries in the US is nearly $11.5 billion, with injury treatment the leading cause of medical spending on children.
In the US, over 9 million children visit an emergency room each year for an unintentional injury and 12,175 children die from unintentional injuries. Some 2.8 million emergency department visits resulted from falls, alone, making falls the most common cause of nonfatal injuries among children.
The other most common causes of nonfatal injuries to children include:
Motor vehicle-related injuries (especially for older children)
The frequency of these injuries varies by the age of the children.
Transportation and travel accidents are the leading cause of fatal injuries to children, though again this varies by age group. These accidents most often involve riding in motor vehicles, but pedestrian-vehicle accidents and bicycling accidents also cause a substantial number of children’s deaths. In Texas during the years 2000 through 2005, 6753 children aged 19 and younger died from unintentional injuries. Over 2,800 of these deaths involved children riding in a motor vehicle. Just under 600 other deaths involved child pedestrians struck by vehicles.
Children’s Injuries Are Often More Damaging
There are several reasons that injuries to children can be more harmful than similar injuries to adults:
A child’s skeleton is still developing; further physical development may be hampered by injuries to a growth plate in a bone, scar contractures, or any serious skeletal injuries that restrict motion or limb length.
The child brain is still developing; if the brain is significantly injured, a child victim faces acquiring basic mental and intellectual skills for the first time with diminished capacity, while an adult victim has the advantage
The child’s personality and psyche are still developing; any injury that produces a deformity, visible scarring, or the like may fundamentally alter the victim’s ability to function in a social, educational or vocational environment
The child will endure the lasting effects of the injury for a longer time simply because the child has a longer remaining life span, unless…
The injury is of a type that decreases life span, in which case the child has more years of life to lose
Where Can Child Injuries Happen?
A child injury can occur anywhere an adult injury can, including on the road, in grocery stores and in public parks. A child is also at a higher risk, however, of suffering injuries in places such as schools and daycare centers. No matter where your child’s injuries occurred, someone else could be responsible if that person or entity breached a duty to care for the safety of your child.
At home. An injury at home may give you the right to file a lawsuit if a hazard such as a defective child’s toy caused the incident. If a negligent babysitter at your home contributed to the injuries, he or she could be liable. If your child was at another person’s house, the property owner could be liable.
At school. Child injuries at school can arise from lack of supervision, dangerous premises, defective playground equipment, bullies or sexual abuse. Any of these incidents could give parents the right to file an injury claim on behalf of the child.
At a daycare center. Daycare injuries could arise from child neglect, abuse or a dangerous premises. Any breach of duty of care at a daycare center that results in injury to a child could make the facility liable for damages.
In auto accidents. Motor vehicle accidents are a leading cause of serious childhood injuries and deaths. If your child suffered injuries in an auto accident, another driver or a vehicle part manufacturer could owe your family compensation.
At the hospital. A physician, nurse or surgeon could injure your child by engaging in medical malpractice. If your child’s injuries occurred at a birthing center, children’s hospital or surgical center in Dallas, speak to a lawyer about a potential medical malpractice lawsuit.
Child injuries in Dallas can happen anywhere, at any time. Your child could suffer life-changing injuries at school, daycare, a friend’s house, a hotel, a public swimming pool, an amusement park or on the road. It is how you react to the injuries that could decide your family’s financial future. Speaking to a lawyer from the Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, P.C. could help you understand the rights you have to bring an injury claim against one or more at-fault parties for your child’s injuries.
Get Help for Your Injured Child
If your child has been injured or you have lost a child to death from accidental injuries, time is very valuable. Not only do you have a limited time to sue for compensation, but every passing day makes it more likely that necessary evidence is being lost. The sooner you obtain experienced legal help, the better.
Call today before time limits expire. The sooner you get us involved, the sooner we can begin the crucial process of holding the people responsible for your child’s injuries responsible.
Children are very active and mobile, but are far less aware and careful than adults. The combination produces a lot of accidents, which, in turn, produce a lot of injuries and deaths. In addition to engaging in many inherently dangerous youthful activities like climbing and cycling, they are exposed to most of the same dangers as adults, like motor vehicle accidents and defective products.
Injuries to children present unique problems in any legal case asking for compensation. Since they are still developing in every way, some injuries may not even be fully visible until the child victim reaches a later stage of development. For example, how does a burn injury to a three year old affect that child’s adjustment to school and social situations, environments that the child has yet to encounter? The younger the child, the bigger the problem. The aid of a Dallas child injury attorney with specific experience in these cases is invaluable in obtaining adequate compensation.
Why Get Help From a Lawyer?
Hiring a lawyer from the Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, P.C. could help you and your family understand your rights after your child suffers serious injuries. Rather than believing what an insurance company has to say – potentially told to you in the hopes of reducing your financial recovery – you can benefit from receiving counsel from a party that has your best interests in mind. Dallas personal injury attorney Aaron Herbert is a Board Certified Personal Injury Trial Specialist with a long history of success in obtaining compensation for victims of other people’s negligence.
Your attorney can review the events leading up to your child’s injury, help you determine fault and name the defendant, and answer your questions openly and honestly along the way. A lawyer will explore ways of maximizing the compensation you receive from a personal injury lawsuit. An attorney can walk you through the claims process on behalf of your injured child so you can rest assured someone is handling your case properly while you focus on recovery.
What Parties Can Be Held Responsible?
Personal injury laws in Texas state that any injured victim – including a child – will have the right to hold an at-fault party responsible for his or her damages if the at-fault party reasonably should have prevented the damages in question. Anyone with the power to prevent the child’s injuries that negligently or intentionally failed to do so could be financially responsible for the victim’s damages. Many Dallas child injury cases involve defendants such as schools, school districts and daycare centers. Several different parties, however, could be defendants in a child injury lawsuit in Texas depending on the circumstances.
A school
A daycare center
A babysitter
A property owner
A product manufacturer
A driver
A doctor
A criminal or sex offender
The government
An individual
If your case involves more than one at-fault party, your Dallas child injury lawyer could help you bring claims against all appropriate defendants. In these cases, each defendant could be responsible for either his or her portion of fault or the victim’s full damages. Texas’ modified joint and several liability law states that if a defendant is more than 50% responsible for the accident, he or she must pay the full amount of the plaintiff’s damages. Less than 50% responsibility will mean the defendant must only pay an amount in proportion to his or her percentage of fault.
How Can I File a Claim on Behalf of Someone?
Someone who suffered severe injuries as a child typically has the right to file a claim him or herself at age 18. In Texas, the statute of limitations on personal injury claims will pause until the victim turns 18. The two-year statute of limitations means the injured child will have until age 20 to file a claim, in most cases. This is not the only option for financial recovery for a childhood injury, however. The Texas courts also allow a parent or legal guardian to bring an injury claim on the child’s behalf before the child turns 18.
Prompt claims filing on behalf of your child could benefit your case by initiating a lawsuit while evidence against the defendant is still available. Accounts of the incident may also still be fresh in witnesses’ minds. In Texas, a parent or guardian can file a personal injury claim on a child’s behalf within two years of the date of the injury. To file a claim, visit the civil court in the county where the injury occurred. Contact a lawyer to help you fill out the proper paperwork, then submit it to the court by the deadline.
How Are Child Injuries Compensated?
Although a personal injury lawsuit cannot take back the injuries or losses your child suffered, it could lead to important compensation for his or her past and future damages. A successful injury claim could give your family the recovery necessary to move forward. The defendant may owe your family a financial award that makes it easier to afford your child’s future health care needs – especially if the incident caused a permanent disability. In Texas, you could recover many different types of compensation for a successful child injury lawsuit.
Medical costs. A settlement or jury verdict could pay the full costs of your child’s existing and foreseeable future medical expenses. This could include the costs of surgeries, rehabilitation, therapies, medical devices and medications.
Disability costs. If another person’s recklessness or negligence gave your child a permanent disability, such as cerebral palsy, a spinal cord injury or brain damage, your family could receive an award for the lifelong estimated costs associated with the disability, including lost capacity to earn a living wage and the price of live-in care.
Pain and suffering. You could file a claim for your child’s physical pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, trauma, nightmares, humiliation and other noneconomic damages, as well as for your mental anguish as a parent.
Lost quality of life. If a permanent disability or traumatic event caused long-term effects that diminished your child’s quality or enjoyment of life, this could be a compensable damage. This includes the child’s inability to lead a normal life due to the incident.
Legal expenses. Your child injury lawsuit could also demand all attorney’s fees and filing costs related to bringing your claim. At the Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, P.C., we do not charge anything for our services unless we win.
The Texas civil courts allow families to seek both economic and noneconomic damages for child injuries. Some judges may also award punitive damages in cases involving gross negligence, malicious intent to harm or wanton disregard for the safety of your child. The total compensatory award your family could receive for a child’s injuries may provide closure, peace of mind and years of financial stability. If you lost your child in a negligence-related accident, you may also receive wrongful death damages such as funeral and burial expenses as a parent.
How Common Are Accidental Injuries to Children?
How common are accidental injuries to children? Very. The CDC reports that the annual cost of unintentional injuries in the US is nearly $11.5 billion, with injury treatment the leading cause of medical spending on children.
In the US, over 9 million children visit an emergency room each year for an unintentional injury and 12,175 children die from unintentional injuries. Some 2.8 million emergency department visits resulted from falls, alone, making falls the most common cause of nonfatal injuries among children.
The other most common causes of nonfatal injuries to children include:
Motor vehicle-related injuries (especially for older children)
The frequency of these injuries varies by the age of the children.
Transportation and travel accidents are the leading cause of fatal injuries to children, though again this varies by age group. These accidents most often involve riding in motor vehicles, but pedestrian-vehicle accidents and bicycling accidents also cause a substantial number of children’s deaths. In Texas during the years 2000 through 2005, 6753 children aged 19 and younger died from unintentional injuries. Over 2,800 of these deaths involved children riding in a motor vehicle. Just under 600 other deaths involved child pedestrians struck by vehicles.
Children’s Injuries Are Often More Damaging
There are several reasons that injuries to children can be more harmful than similar injuries to adults:
A child’s skeleton is still developing; further physical development may be hampered by injuries to a growth plate in a bone, scar contractures, or any serious skeletal injuries that restrict motion or limb length.
The child brain is still developing; if the brain is significantly injured, a child victim faces acquiring basic mental and intellectual skills for the first time with diminished capacity, while an adult victim has the advantage
The child’s personality and psyche are still developing; any injury that produces a deformity, visible scarring, or the like may fundamentally alter the victim’s ability to function in a social, educational or vocational environment
The child will endure the lasting effects of the injury for a longer time simply because the child has a longer remaining life span, unless…
The injury is of a type that decreases life span, in which case the child has more years of life to lose
Where Can Child Injuries Happen?
A child injury can occur anywhere an adult injury can, including on the road, in grocery stores and in public parks. A child is also at a higher risk, however, of suffering injuries in places such as schools and daycare centers. No matter where your child’s injuries occurred, someone else could be responsible if that person or entity breached a duty to care for the safety of your child.
At home. An injury at home may give you the right to file a lawsuit if a hazard such as a defective child’s toy caused the incident. If a negligent babysitter at your home contributed to the injuries, he or she could be liable. If your child was at another person’s house, the property owner could be liable.
At school. Child injuries at school can arise from lack of supervision, dangerous premises, defective playground equipment, bullies or sexual abuse. Any of these incidents could give parents the right to file an injury claim on behalf of the child.
At a daycare center. Daycare injuries could arise from child neglect, abuse or a dangerous premises. Any breach of duty of care at a daycare center that results in injury to a child could make the facility liable for damages.
In auto accidents. Motor vehicle accidents are a leading cause of serious childhood injuries and deaths. If your child suffered injuries in an auto accident, another driver or a vehicle part manufacturer could owe your family compensation.
At the hospital. A physician, nurse or surgeon could injure your child by engaging in medical malpractice. If your child’s injuries occurred at a birthing center, children’s hospital or surgical center in Dallas, speak to a lawyer about a potential medical malpractice lawsuit.
Child injuries in Dallas can happen anywhere, at any time. Your child could suffer life-changing injuries at school, daycare, a friend’s house, a hotel, a public swimming pool, an amusement park or on the road. It is how you react to the injuries that could decide your family’s financial future. Speaking to a lawyer from the Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, P.C. could help you understand the rights you have to bring an injury claim against one or more at-fault parties for your child’s injuries.
Get Help for Your Injured Child
If your child has been injured or you have lost a child to death from accidental injuries, time is very valuable. Not only do you have a limited time to sue for compensation, but every passing day makes it more likely that necessary evidence is being lost. The sooner you obtain experienced legal help, the better.
Call today before time limits expire. The sooner you get us involved, the sooner we can begin the crucial process of holding the people responsible for your child’s injuries responsible.
Premise liability injuries, including slips and falls, are some of the most frequent and serious of all injuries, and if you’ve been injured in a fall on someone else’s property, with the help of a good Dallas slip and fall attorney, you may potentially be able to receive money as compensation for your damages.
Who is Liable for My Injury?
The law in Texas requires that those who own or operate premises open to the public maintain the premises in a safe condition.
Slip, trip, and fall accidents are the most common type of premises liability accident. Those in charge of the premises owe a duty of care to anyone legally on the property.
If a property owner, lessee, manager, or maintenance contractor neglects to maintain and properly monitor the premises and fails to make repairs or post warnings, and a hazard occurs and is allowed to remain, if someone visiting the property is injured or killed as a result, the party responsible for the premises may be found liable for the victim’s damages.
If you have experienced a serious injury from a fall, chances are that you are in a lot of pain and are forced to restrict your activities substantially.
You may be unable to work or take care of your regular duties in and around your home, and you have probably incurred piles of medical bills.
When your fall was caused by a hazardous condition on someone else’s property in Texas, you may be able to recover money to compensate you for your economic and non-economic damages.
You will, however, need to prove that the property owner was negligent and caused or allowed a hazardous condition to exist.
This is best accomplished with the help of an experienced law firm and board-certified Dallas premises liability lawyer.
Do I Have a Premises Liability Case?
To have grounds for a premises liability claim, you or your lawyer will have to prove that you were lawfully on the property at the time of the accident, the defendant owed you a duty of care, the defendant breached this duty of care and you suffered injuries as a result.
The defendant may have owed you specific duties of care or none at all depending on your status as a visitor.
If the property owner expressly invited you to enter the property or implied an invitation (such as at a business), he or she will owe you the strictest standards of care: to search for unknown property defects, repair hazards and warn of possible risks.
A licensee also has the owner’s invitation to enter the property but does so for his or her own benefit, such as a salesperson or contractor. An owner owes the same standards of care to a licensee, other than the duty to search for hidden defects.
A trespasser does not have the landowner’s permission to enter the property. Thus, the property owner does not owe him or her any duties of care. However, a property owner cannot intentionally injure a trespasser and will owe other duties of care if the trespasser is under 18.
Your Dallas premises liability lawyer can analyze the facts of your case to determine what type of visitor you were at the time of your accident.
From there, your lawyer can ascertain the defendant’s duties to you and gather proof of a breach of duty, if applicable. A Dallas personal injury attorney can help you navigate every step of your premises liability claim in Dallas.
What Evidence Do I Need for a Premises Liability Case?
During any personal injury case, the burden of proof rests with the victim. When you hire a premises liability lawyer in Dallas, he or she can take care of this burden for you.
An injury attorney can help you gather evidence that could help you win your case – evidence that will stand up to the scrutiny of a judge or jury.
Your personal injury lawyer will need to show enough evidence to establish the defendant’s fault and your related damages.
Photographs or videos of the property defect,
Property records or leasing agreements,
Property maintenance logs,
Accident and/or police reports,
Statements from eyewitnesses,
Testimony from expert witnesses,
Homeowners insurance policies,
Medical records, and
Income statements and wage records.
The evidence your attorney preserves collects and submits during your claim will need to establish your classification as an invited guest to the property, the property owner’s breach of duty of care, and your injuries or losses due to the owner’s negligence.
Hiring an attorney from the beginning can help you prove your right to compensation under Texas’ premises liability laws. Your Dallas premises liability lawyer can take care of the burden of proof while you focus on healing.
What Compensation or Damages Could I Be Entitled To?
The compensation or damages you could receive through a claim may be enough to help you and your family move forward after a serious property-related accident.
With the help of an experienced Dallas premises liability attorney, you can potentially recover both economic and non-economic damages from a premises liability claim.
Economic damages are those that can be proven with bills, receipts, and employment records:
Medical and rehabilitation expenses,
Lost earnings and benefits,
Cost of medical or assistive devices,
Cost of household help to perform tasks you can no longer do, and
Other out-of-pocket expenses incurred because of the injury.
Non-economic damages are harder to assign a monetary value. They include:
Physical pain and suffering,
Emotional distress,
Disability,
Disfigurement, and
Loss of enjoyment of life.
The monetary value of your case will depend on factors such as how much your injury impacted your life and whether you will continue to need medical care or disability accommodations. It could also rely on what the defendant did to cause your injuries.
If the defendant was guilty of malice, fraud or gross negligence, you could receive additional compensation in the form of a punitive damage award. Speak to an injury attorney to learn what your case might be worth.
What to Do to Protect Your Right to Compensation for an Injury
If you’ve fallen on someone else’s premises, taking certain steps can improve the likelihood that you will eventually receive money for your injuries.
These are some of the things that you will benefit from doing (and avoiding). Clearly, your ability to do some of these things will depend on how badly you’ve been hurt.
Report the fall to property management without delay.
Take notes: record the name of the person you informed of the accident if it was someone other than the manager or owner.
Record the exact time and place your fall occurred.
If anyone saw your accident, get their name, address, and phone number.
Take pictures of the area, including the hazardous condition that resulted in your falling. If you don’t have a cell phone with a camera, ask someone else to get some pictures.
See a doctor of how and where your fall occurred.
Save the clothes and shoes you were wearing and don’t clean them.
Don’t give a recorded statement or sign any paperwork for the premises management or their insurance company’s representative. If they ask, tell them they will have to talk to your lawyer.
Make an appointment to speak with a certified Dallas premises liability injury attorney for a case analysis. You will find one of the state’s top-rated Dallas premises liability attorneys by calling the law offices of attorney Aaron Herbert.
Do allow an insurance adjuster or company representative to record a statement from you, and do not sign anything unless your attorney tells you to.
Premiss Accident Statistics
Slip and fall accidents send nearly nine million people to the emergency room each year, and the latest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) show the annual number of fatalities in the United States to be 30,208.
That’s right behind motor vehicle accidents (In 2013, 32,719 people died in traffic crashes) as a cause of death.
Here are some more statistics about fall injuries that illustrate the extent of the problem and the negative impact on the lives and health of many Americans:
In addition to the more than 30,000 annual fatalities, the CDC reports that about 9 million people suffer non-fatal injuries from falls annually in the United States, serious enough to require emergency room treatment.
Falls are the number two most common cause of death on the job, second only to motor vehicle crashes.
Workplace slip and fall accidents are responsible for, on average, more than 300,000 injuries every year.
Every two minutes, another American is injured in a workplace fall.
Falls are also the number two most common cause of fatalities in senior citizen communities and private homes.
The Most Vulnerable Sector of the Population to Falls
Although a person of any age can be injured in a fall, the most vulnerable are our senior citizens. They are naturally frailer than younger people and tend to suffer from more serious injuries when they fall, often leading to loss of mobility, loss of independence, and a decreased life expectancy.
Where and How Falls Occur
Falls are most common on public walkways, they can occur anywhere: on stairs, ladders, job sites, restaurants, malls, store aisles, and driveways.
They can be caused by fallen merchandise, food spills, potholes, and floors that have been over-waxed or are slippery and wet because of icy or rainy weather, or in areas that are strewn with items that create a tripping hazard.
Stairs may be in poor repair or may lack handrails, or lighting conditions may be poor. There are many conditions that can cause a person to fall, and many things a property owner can and should do to prevent falls and the injuries they cause, for example:
Providing adequate lighting,
Removing electrical cords out of areas where there is foot traffic,
Cleaning any spills without delay,
Posting warning signs or cordoning off any area that contains a hazard, such as a wet floor or fallen merchandise, until the problem has been cleared up,
Keeping stairways free of tripping hazards,
Providing handrails on stairways,
Filling potholes and cracks that create uneven surfaces on sidewalks and in parking lots, and
Aiming irrigation heads away from walkways.
Why Choose Aaron Herbert for Your Case?
We have been helping clients navigate through difficult situations for over 10 years, including taking dozens of premises liability cases.
We have a long record of success in and out of the courtroom and a lead attorney who has negotiated thousands of personal injury claims.
We put accident victims first, focusing on what the client needs based on in-depth conversations with him or her.
We are happy to help clients on a contingency fee basis, with no attorney’s fees unless we succeed in obtaining a financial award.
Contact a Dallas Personal Injury Lawyer Today
Slip, trip, and fall accidents can seriously disrupt your life. To get the compensation you need and deserve when your injury was someone else’s fault, call Aaron A. Herbert, P.C. to discuss your case with a top-rated, board-certified personal injury attorney.
To contact our law firm for additional information regarding premises liability claims, please call us at (214) 200-4878 or fill out our free online form.
When you’ve lost a part of your body, it feels as if you’ve lost a part of your self. After an amputation, you never see yourself in quite the same way as before. It is devastating! Every time you look in the mirror or try to perform some activity that you used to accomplish without a thought, you see a reminder of yourself the way you once were. You are forever changed, both physically and psychologically.
The road to recovery, which will of necessity be incomplete—is long and arduous. First there is usually a surgery to remove the part of your body that has been damaged (or repair the wound if the accident itself resulted in a complete amputation). After you have healed sufficiently from the surgery, the real and painful work of learning to live without the lost body part begins. You will usually be fitted with a prosthesis, and will have to go through extensive physical therapy as you learn how to move and function with the new part. This can be extremely painful, slow, and frustrating, not to mention expensive. You will probably be out of work for some time, and depending on the part of your body that was amputated, you may never be able to return to your same job.
At the Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, our Dallas personal injury lawyer understands serious injuries. We recognize all the ways in which a permanent injury such as an amputation can affect a client, from lengthy medical processes to having to start a new career. We are passionate about helping clients move forward with the compensation and financial security they need from those who caused their accidents and amputations to begin with. Contact our attorneys today for a free consultation about your amputation injury case in Dallas. You might be eligible for financial compensation.
Why Choose Us?
We have the resources and capabilities to take care of your amputation injury case from start to finish. We commit to seeing every case through until the end.
We can take amputation injury cases in Dallas to trial, if necessary. We will not settle for less than we believe your life-changing injury deserves.
We care about our clients and always spend the extra time to get to know them, their families and their goals before crafting personalized legal strategies.
We do not charge anything in attorney’s fees unless we are successful in winning your amputation injury case. Our law firm operates on a contingency fee basis.
Common Causes of Amputation Injuries
Many injuries that result in amputation injuries are preventable. They are accidents that stem from human errors such as texting and driving, creating defective consumer products, and failing to properly equip employees for dangerous jobs. At the Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, we can investigate your amputation injury to determine its cause. These are some of the injury types that may immediately or ultimately result in an amputation:
Once we identify how your amputation injury happened, we can determine the defendant(s). This will be the party we believe is responsible for causing your injury – who we will name as the at-fault party in your injury suit. Multiple defendants could be at fault for your amputation injury depending on the circumstances. We can assist you with the discovery of the defendant in your claim.
What Is a Traumatic Amputation?
Traumatic amputations happen in the moment – at the same time as the accident. They can refer to the immediate loss of a limb in an incident such as an explosion or losing a body part in a piece of machinery. It may or may not be possible to reattach a limb or digit after a traumatic amputation. Traumatic amputations are accident-related, while nontraumatic amputations are medically necessary. A medically necessary amputation may arise in a patient with diabetes, for example, or from a surgery to remove a tumor in a bone. Some medical amputations arise from traumas that did not sever the limb but caused enough damage to leave the limb irreparable or unable to heal.
You might have a claim to damages as a person with a traumatic or nontraumatic amputation. After a traumatic amputation, you might have a case against the person or party that caused the incident. You could have a claim against a drunk driver, for example, if he or she caused the car accident that severed your limb. You could also have a claim against the person who caused your accident if your injury eventually results in a medically necessary amputation. Our attorneys can investigate your amputation injury and let you know if we believe you have a claim against someone in Dallas.
Your Right to Be Compensated
If you have lost a body part in an amputation injury that was caused by someone else’s negligence or wrongdoing, the law in Texas allows you to make a claim for monetary compensation from the party who caused your injury. Obtaining this money can make all the difference in your progress, because it will help you get state-of-the-art medical treatment, rehabilitation, and prosthetic devices, as well as psychological therapy to help you adjust to the new reality of life without a limb or a digit. It will also help you and your family replace the money you lost—and may continue to lose—by your being unable to work. You could be eligible for many types of damages in a personal injury claim in Texas.
Past and future medical and health care bills
Disability expenses and accommodations
Lost past wages and benefits
Lost future capacity to earn due to your disability
Emotional distress, anguish and trauma
Loss of consortium or household services
Legal fees and out-of-pocket expenses
Punitive damages
Amputations are often complicated and difficult cases that require expert legal representation. An amputation is a high-stakes injury. You should never attempt to negotiate a settlement with the responsible party’s insurance company on your own. Insurance adjusters are well trained in the use of various tactics to deny or reduce the value of your claim. The insurer’s goal is always to pay out the least amount possible on every claim, and the company’s best interest is exactly the opposite of yours. An experienced personal injury attorney knows how to overcome these insurance company tactics in order to obtain justice and an adequate and fair recovery for you. Just be sure that the attorney you choose is highly qualified and has years of experience in this type of case.
Phantom Limb Syndrome
Even after your body has healed, you may experience severe and chronic pain in the amputated part—even though it is no longer there! Called “phantom limb syndrome“, this can be debilitating. And then there is the question of how to treat pain in a part of your body that no longer exists!
There are no easy answers to this question, and you may have to try many different kinds of therapy before you find one that gives you some relief. Many amputees find that alternative therapies provide the most relief. But insurance companies will often deny coverage for “non-standard” treatments—even if they are the only thing that works! Here are some examples of treatments that might help you, but may not be available through the insurance you have:
When an unconventional therapy is the only thing that works, having the money you’ve recovered for your amputation injury may be the only way for you to get the relief you crave!
Our personal injury attorneys can help you obtain the compensation you need for peace of mind and stability during this difficult and uncertain time.
Free Consultation with a Top-Rated Dallas, Texas, Attorney
If you or a loved one was injured in Texas, Dallas attorney Aaron Herbert is a top choice. He is a Texas Board Certified Personal Injury Trial Lawyer, a designation achieved by only the top 2 percent of the state’s lawyers. He also has the highest possible rating by AVVO—a perfect 10, and is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. With more than 50 jury verdicts under his belt, Aaron is recognized by insurance companies as a formidable adversary in the courtroom, so they are much more likely to offer you a fair settlement before having to go to court.
Call the Law Firm of Aaron Herbert today to arrange a free consultation. You’ll get all of your questions answered fully and honestly by an expert in the field, and you will incur no attorney fees, court, or legal expenses unless you recover.
