An injury can take a significant toll on your personal life, professional life, and finances. You should not have your life upended because someone else caused an accident and injured you. Speak to a lawyer about filing a personal injury case. You may be entitled to significant financial compensation for your damages and injuries.
Personal injury cases cover a broad spectrum of accidents, injuries, and damages. You might file a claim related to an auto collision, a nasty slip-and-fall injury, or the wrongful death of a family member. While all these are legally considered personal injury claims, they are governed by different laws, and you need a lawyer who knows how to apply the law to your specific circumstances. An experienced lawyer can help you begin your case by filing a legal complaint, assessing evidence and damages, and developing effective legal strategies. Your evidence will vary based on your claims, and some evidence might be unavailable or inadmissible. Even so, that does not mean your case is impossible or invalid. Similarly, your damages are unique, and you should review them with a lawyer right away.
Get a claim evaluation for free from our White Plains, NY personal injury attorneys by calling The Martello Law Firm at (914) 685-6950.
Different Kinds of Personal Injury Cases You Might File in North Castle, NY
The field of personal injury law covers a vast array of cases, injuries, claims, and damages. Generally, a personal injury claim must involve a plaintiff with bodily injuries. You may file other claims for things like property damage along with your injury claims, but a personal injury claim must involve some sort of physical harm. As you can imagine, there are innumerable ways a plaintiff might be injured, and you should hire an attorney familiar with claims like yours.
Auto Accidents
Auto collisions are fairly common. Even so, no two accidents are exactly alike. The way your accident occurred may inform our personal injury lawyers about who is responsible, the available evidence, and the most effective legal strategies we can use. For example, a T-bone accident in the middle of a red-light intersection may be handled very differently than a sideswipe accident.
We should also think about the vehicles involved. What kind of vehicle was the defendant driving? Were you struck by a car, truck, or bus? Were you in your own vehicle or on a motorcycle? Maybe you were not driving at all but were instead a pedestrian trying to cross the street. These details and many more should be discussed with your attorney as soon as possible.
Slip-and-Falls
Another possible accident is a slip-and-fall accident. While claims like these are not always highly regarded by others, they often involve severe injuries, costly damages, and a lot of pain and suffering for victims.
A classic example of a slip-and-fall case is slipping on a wet, slick, or icy walkway. Maybe you slipped on a freshly mopped floor in the grocery store, and nobody bothered to put up a wet-floor sign. Maybe you were walking up someone’s steps during the winter and slipped on ice that was not properly cleared away. The owners of these properties should be held responsible for negligently allowing the premises to become unsafe.
Wrongful Death
Some accident victims do not survive their injuries, but their legal claim may still live on. Family members of victims may file wrongful death claims to recover damages they incurred as a direct result of their loved one’s passing. According to E.P.T. Law § 5-4.1(1), the deceased person’s personal representative – usually someone named in their will or an attorney – may file the claim. Damages may include the lost financial support of the deceased person, funeral and burial costs, lost companionship, and more.
You may also file a survival action along with the wrongful death claim. A survival action allows surviving family members to claim damages on behalf of the deceased person that they might have claimed on their own if they had survived. This includes various personal injury damages such as medical costs, trauma, pain, property damage, and more.
How an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help You Get Compensation in North Castle, NY
First, your lawyer can help you by filing your case on time. What many people do not realize at first is that there is a time limit on their claims. According to the statute of limitations for personal injury claims in New York under C.V.P. Law § 214, you may only have 3 years to begin your case. While this might seem like a long time, it really is not. The limitation period begins on the day of your accident, which means your time is already slipping away. It also takes many plaintiffs months and months to effectively prepare their cases before filing them. It is best to talk to a lawyer as soon as possible so you maximize your time to get ready.
Your attorney may also help you begin your case by gathering the information you need to get started. A case cannot start with mere allegations alone. We need information about your damages and evidence that supports your claims. If damages are not evaluated and claimed in the initial complaint, they might be forever out of reach. Also, we need evidence to show the court that you have a valid cause of action. However, we do not need enough evidence to meet the burden of proof, at least not right away.
How to Start Building a Claim for Personal Injuries in North Castle, NY
Speaking of evidence, it is unique in every case and often difficult to obtain. Even if evidence is abundant and available, not all of it may be admissible in court. Review all our evidence with your lawyer to determine what can and cannot be used to prove your claims.
A great place to start is with photos and videos related to the accident. You or someone with you might have taken photos of the accident’s aftermath, including the general area, your injuries, and the other people who were present. There might also be video footage. If there were security cameras in the area or someone was recording, video evidence can be extremely powerful.
Reach Out to Our North Castle, NY Personal Injury Lawyer
Get a claim evaluation for free from our personal injury attorneys by calling The Martello Law Firm at (914) 685-6950.