Damages for an injury you sustained in a car accident, a slip and fall, a work accident, or some other accident can be a huge game changer. Without these damages, you may be left with incapacitating injuries that stop you from working – whether temporarily or permanently – plus medical bills that could literally bankrupt you.
Our lawyers represent victims, getting compensation for their injuries, and we typically do not get paid unless we win your case. This helps avoid additional out-of-pocket expenses, plus it gets you the damages you need paid. We also seek pain and suffering damages, which can help compensate you for the mental and emotional effects of an injury.
Call our Brooklyn personal injury lawyers today at The Carrion Law Firm for a free case review by dialing (718) 841-0083.
Personal Injury Case Basics in Carroll Gardens
When you face an injury, we need quite a bit of information to file your case. We can often investigate to gather a lot of the evidence to use in your case, but there must be a few basic elements met to have a case in the first place, plus elements of your actual legal claim:
Parts of a Case
To have a “case,” by the legal definition, you need an injured party (the “plaintiff”), the party that injured them (the “defendant”), and damages the court can redress.
In most cases, the plaintiff is the injured victim themselves, though some cases are filed by family. A common way this happens is if your loved one is killed or incapacitated by the injury, in which case the family can file the injury lawsuit or wrongful death suit instead. One technicality is that death suits need to be filed by particular representatives listed in the victim’s will or appointed under the law for the benefit of the family. There is no requirement that the victim be totally innocent under NY law. Victims who contributed to their accidents can be found to share a percentage of fault, losing that percentage of damages; but they can still sue.
Defendants are often individuals, but we can also take your case against companies, corporations, businesses, and other entities. Whether you are suing a driver who hit you with their car or a supermarket with an icy parking lot that caused you to slip and fall, our lawyers can research the proper parties to sue and file the claim against them.
Lastly, you need damages that the court can redress in order to have a case. Injury lawsuits cannot be filed just because you were worried about an accident potentially happening. There must have been actual injury, whether it be physical or mental/emotional, for you to have a case.
Elements of Injury Claim
An injury case is usually based on the defendant’s “negligence,” which has four elements. You can sue for intentional injuries as well, covering things like sexual assault and assault and battery, but negligence claims are often easier to prove because you do not need to show anyone meant to hurt you.
Negligence’s four elements start with a duty and a breach of that duty. These duties are often laid out in the law, such as a duty to stop at stop signs, local ordinances saying when to clear snow from a sidewalk, and building codes to keep people safe. A violation of an explicit rule meant to keep people safe can constitute a breach of duty needed for a claim like this. Alternatively, the duty can just be a duty to act reasonably, given the context. For example, doctors are judged as to whether the care they provided lived up to the standard of care by acting as other reasonable doctors would in the same situation if they had the same training and experience. Failing to uphold a duty like this is also a breach.
The last two elements are that the breach caused the victims damages and, like with the elements of a case, there must be actual damages. Causation is sometimes hard to show when the accident has a lot of vague details or when the victim is knocked out and did not see what happened. Additionally, some accidents are true accidents, and there is nothing the defendant could have done to avoid the accident. Outside of these rare circumstances, proving causation usually just means showing that the accident would not have happened but for the breach of duty and that what the defendant did was closely related in time and space to the resulting accident/injury.
Lastly, the damages you faced must be proven through documentation like medical bills, as well as your testimony and testimony from other witnesses about how the injury has affected you. For example, your doctor, therapist, or spouse could attest to how the injury has caused you pain, made you depressed, or caused trouble at home.
Damages for Injury Victims in Carroll Gardens
Our personal injury lawyers seek to get our clients reimbursed for all expenses related to the accident. The ultimate purpose of damages is to set back the clock and undo the harm from the accident. Anything that cannot be reversed – like injuries and scars – should at least be compensated by monetary damages.
Economic damages like the cost of medical treatment, therapy, and medication for your injury should all be covered. Additionally, any money you missed out on at work should be compensated as well, whether you missed some work during your recovery or now face a disability that keeps you from working forever. Along with these costs, any other expenses related to the injury should be paid for. Attorney’s fees can also be paid out of your winnings so that you owe us nothing unless you win.
Non-economic damages, on the other hand, compensate you for the mental and emotional effects of an injury, as well as the physical pain and discomfort you experienced. These damages also account for things like scarring and irreparable harm.
When suing for the loss of a loved one, damages are limited to non-economic damages in most cases, though you can sue for the victim’s pre-death pain and suffering.
Call Our Personal Injury Attorneys in Carroll Gardens Today
Call (718) 841-0083 for a free case assessment with The Carrion Law Firm’s personal injury lawyers today.