At the Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, P.C.’s., our San Antonio personal injury lawyers are ready to help after an accident or serious injury. We have years of experience helping injured clients throughout Texas and are here to help you fight for justice and fair compensation.
We are committed to staying with you through each step, answering your questions and providing information you can trust during this difficult time. Start with a free, no-obligation consultation with our personal injury lawyers in San Antonio. Call (210) 435-7968 today to schedule yours.
Why Choose Our San Antonio, Texas Personal Injury Lawyer?
We are motivated to secure the best possible results for our clients through a genuine passion for helping those injured by negligence in Texas.
We are trial lawyers. Insurance companies will see our courtroom experience and be more inclined to offer a higher amount to settle your case.
We are happy to provide our services for no fees unless we recover compensation on your behalf. Our San Antonio personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis.
What Can a Personal Injury Attorney in San Antonio Do for You?
Going through your personal injury case alone can be frightening and disheartening. It can be easy to fall for insurance company bad-faith tactics and accept far less than your personal injury is worth. Making lowball settlement offers and delaying payouts are common strategies insurance companies use to make higher profits. After you hire an attorney, the insurance company will have no choice but to treat you fairly. Your lawyer will go up against the carrier and handle many other matters on your behalf.
Investigate the cause of the accident
Answer all of your legal questions
Identify the at-fault party (defendant)
Collect evidence of negligence or fault
Reconstruct the accident for a judge or jury
File your personal injury claim in the correct county
Help you prove the defendant’s fault
Demand maximum compensation from an insurance company
Take your case to trial, if necessary
A personal injury attorney in San Antonio, Texas can help you work through all the most difficult and complicated aspects of your claim. Your lawyer will make sure you receive a fair case outcome while you focus on other matters, such as getting well physically and emotionally. A lawyer can stand up to insurance companies for you to fight for the best possible results. Most importantly, a lawyer can give you peace of mind as a trusted advocate.
How Does Personal Injury Law Work? What Are Your Rights After an Accident?
In Texas, personal injury law is the area of law that allows injured accident victims to recover financial compensation from negligent or at-fault parties. If another person was reckless, careless, wanton or negligent in causing the accident that injured you or a loved one, you may be eligible for compensation from that person – most often through an insurance policy. However, this area of law is complex. Insurance companies can make it difficult to recover a fair amount of compensation from an at-fault party.
If you believe you have grounds to bring a personal injury claim in Texas, you must act within your state’s statute of limitations. This is an important law that gives claimants a deadline to file a lawsuit. Missing the statute of limitations almost certainly guarantees the courts will dismiss your case. Most injured parties in Texas have a maximum of two years from the date the cause of action accrues to file. You may count as an exception, however, if you do not discover your injuries until days or weeks after your accident, through the discovery rule. The discovery rule gives a claimant two years from the date of injury discovery to file rather than the date of the accident. Your deadline could be longer or shorter if other exceptions apply as well.
Another important personal injury law to know in Texas is the modified comparative negligence rule. In Texas, if a jury finds you partially responsible for your accident or injuries, this will not bar you from financial recovery. You will still be able to obtain partial compensation from the defendant for his or her percentage of fault. The courts will simply reduce your amount of fault from your recovery award. If you were 20% responsible for the accident, for example, you would receive 20% less compensation from the defendant. As long as you are less than 51% at fault, you can still recover compensation in Texas.
Do You Need to Hire a San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer?
Recovering financially from an accident in Texas generally requires that the injured party prove that a negligent party was responsible for their injuries. In establishing negligence, there are four basic elements that need to be demonstrated. These elements are duty of care, breach, causation and damages. Hiring a lawyer can make it easier for you to establish adequate evidence proving these four elements. Only then will a jury have enough information to rule the defendant liable during a personal injury claim. Most cases, however, do not go to court. With the right lawyer, you can improve your odds of settling for a fair and full amount without needing a trial in San Antonio. Your lawyer can negotiate successfully with the insurance company using aggressive and proven tactics.
What to Look for in Your Personal Injury Attorney
Choosing which attorney in San Antonio, Texas to hire is a very important decision. It can determine the rest of your legal experience, as well as the outcome of your case. The right personal injury lawyer will have all of the experience, resources and knowledge to present a strong claim to damages on your behalf. Look for an attorney with years of experience in the field, real case results, satisfied previous clients, local law offices, plenty of legal resources and a personal touch. You should feel confident in the ability of your lawyer to achieve the goals you have for your case. You should also feel like you can be honest with your personal injury attorney, and that he or she will be honest with you in return.
What Types of Personal Injury Cases Does Aaron A. Herbert Accept?
When searching for the right lawyer to hire in San Antonio, browse the practice areas listed on the law firm’s website to see if the lawyer has dealt with your type of case before. A law firm’s practice areas are the fields of law with which the attorney has on-the-job experience. At The Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, P.C., we have spent years accumulating experience in different types of cases within the practice area of personal injury law.
If you do not see your type of accident here, view our full list of practice areas for more. You can also call us directly at (210) 435-7968 to speak to an attorney about your specific personal injury case. Our initial consultations with clients are always 100% free and come at no risk to you, as we do not obligate you to hire us after a case review. We make it easy to find reliable answers to your personal injury questions.
What Compensation Is Available?
The main goal of a personal injury claim in Texas is to have the at-fault party pay for the injured victim’s damages. The personal injury claims process is in place to give a victim the ability to become whole again. A successful claim will result in the negligent party paying bills and expenses to restore the victim to his or her pre-accident state. If your lawyer succeeds in winning your case and making a defendant pay, you could recover financial compensation for several different damages.
Medical expenses (past and future)
Lost wages
Lost capacity to earn a living
Lost quality or enjoyment of life
Disability expenses
Live-in care
Travel costs
Out-of-pocket costs
Legal fees
Property damage repairs
Pain and suffering
Emotional injuries or distress
Wrongful death damages
The two main damage categories are compensatory and punitive damages. Compensatory damages make a victim whole again, while punitive damages are meant to punish the defendant. Your eligibility for punitive damages will depend on the actions of the defendant. A judge may grant you a punitive damage award if the defendant was grossly negligent, malicious or intentional in his or her wrongdoing against you. A lawyer from The Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, P.C. can help you claim both compensatory and punitive damages for your accident to achieve a full and fair financial outcome.
How Much Is Your Case Worth?
Obtaining financial compensation from a defendant after a serious accident in San Antonio can be critical. A car crash, for example, could leave you with thousands of dollars in hospital bills and vehicle damage repairs, on top of losses of income while you recover. If you did not cause the car accident, you should not be the one that has to pay for these damages. Understanding how much your personal injury case might be worth can allow you to better plan for the future. Estimating the value of a claim is difficult, however, and generally requires help from an attorney.
A personal injury lawyer will review your losses and how significantly the injury impacted your life to estimate the value of your case. First, your lawyer will calculate the value of your economic damages based on evidence such as bills, receipts and pay stubs. Economic, or special, damages are the out-of-pocket costs of your accident, such as vehicle repairs and medical expenses. Then, your lawyer will estimate the value of your noneconomic, or general, damages. Noneconomic damages refer to physical pain, emotional suffering and other intangible losses. The value of noneconomic damages can be difficult to estimate, as how much to award is entirely up to a jury’s discretion.
Although a jury does not need to use any specific method to award pain and suffering damages, most choose an equation to come up with a fair amount. The most common equation is the Multiplier Method. This method takes the full amount of your economic damages and multiplies it by a number from one to five, with one representing minor injuries and five representing the worst catastrophic injuries. In general, your personal injury claim will be worth more money in Texas if the accident gave you or a loved one serious, life-changing injuries. Our lawyers can help you estimate your claim’s value during a free legal consultation.
How Much Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Charge?
A personal injury lawyer should give you peace of mind about your claim, not something else to worry about while you are trying to recover. When you hire an attorney who operates on a contingency fee basis, you will not take on any financial risks associated with your case. Your lawyer will front 100% of the costs of your claim, including filing fees, court costs and the price of hiring experts. While you focus on healing and moving forward, your lawyer will work through the legal aspects of your case for you for no money upfront.
With a contingency fee payment system, your lawyer will only get paid when you get paid. Your attorney will deduct his or her fees directly out of the settlement or jury verdict obtained on your behalf. The percentage deducted is something you and the lawyer will work out ahead of time, before you sign a contract. You should have no hidden fees or surprise costs with the lawyer you choose. With this arrangement, you do not ever have to pay your attorney out of pocket. You will only pay him or her if and when the lawyer wins your case and recovers compensation from the defendant. If your lawyer does not win your case, you will not owe a cent in attorney’s fees.
Contact a San Antonio Personal Injury Lawyer Today
At The Law Firm of Aaron A. Herbert, P.C, we understand how emotionally and physically devastating a serious accident can be. We have also seen firsthand how expensive the costs of an accident are for injured victims. It is our mission to help people in San Antonio and throughout Texas recover on all levels. Let us address your needs by connecting you to the right doctors, providing peace of mind and aggressively going up against the party that caused your accident in pursuit of maximum compensation. Contact us today for a free case evaluation near you.
