Park Slope Personal Injury Lawyer
Someone else’s negligent act might change your life forever, leaving you with distressing injuries and damages. Fortunately, those damages may be compensable when you file a personal injury lawsuit against the liable party.
Personal injuries happen for various reasons, often because of negligent drivers, property owners, and product manufacturers. Car accidents, slip and falls, and defective product accidents could cause permanent and serious injuries that warrant compensation. To get that compensation, you need medical evidence of your injuries, so make sure you go to the hospital immediately after an accident. While you get the necessary medical care, our lawyers can begin preparing your case so we can file it well before the three-year deadline for personal injury lawsuits in New York. Missing that deadline would bar you from recovery, which is not an option when dealing with expensive damages due to negligence.
To get a confidential and free case review from our Brooklyn, NY personal injury lawyers, call The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083.
Why Personal Injuries Happen in Park Slope
Some of the most common causes of personal injuries include car accidents caused by negligent drivers, slip and fall accidents caused by negligent property owners, and defective product accidents caused by negligent manufacturers. After these accidents and others caused by negligence, we can help victims identify liable parties and build compensation claims.
Negligent Drivers
Cars are massive pieces of machinery capable of causing considerable damage, especially at high speeds. Park Slope’s proximity to I-278 and I-478 presents a risk of highway accidents, and there is also a risk of accidents at busy intersections in the area.
Negligent drivers typically cause the worst accidents when they hit other cars head-on or perpendicularly. These accidents often cause traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries, which might be permanent or fatal.
New York’s serious injury threshold limits when victims can sue negligent drivers. To file claims, victims must show that their injuries meet the definition of “serious” under I.S.C. Law § 5102(d). Common injuries that enable victims to sue include loss of limb, disfiguring injuries, fractures, traumatic brain injuries, and paralysis injuries, and our attorneys can compare your medical records to the serious injury threshold to confirm if you have a case.
Negligent Property Owners
Property owners have a duty to ensure reasonably safe environments. Ignoring dangers to visitors, like wobbly railings or potential tripping hazards, could cause an accident for which the property owner would be liable. Quickly preserving evidence is crucial, particularly in these cases. The property owner might have surveillance systems on-site that our personal injury lawyers can access to secure video evidence. This is often the case in slip and fall claims for accidents in restaurants, retail shops, or other commercial establishments with security cameras.
Negligent Product Manufacturers
If not made properly or affixed with the necessary safety instructions, various products could prove dangerous for consumers. This is especially common on construction sites, where workers might interact with hazardous machinery or equipment daily. If that equipment is defective, an explosion or other serious accident could occur. In these situations, the product manufacturer or distributor could be liable for a victim’s economic and non-economic damages.
Proof and Evidence to Support Your Park Slope Personal Injury Case
No personal injury case can succeed without evidence. We must present evidence of how the defendant’s negligent actions directly caused your injuries and other damages. Depending on the situation, this might mean lots of small pieces of evidence that come together to form a larger picture. It might also mean a few larger, key pieces of evidence that hold the case together. A good rule of thumb when it comes to evidence is the more, the better.
Evidence of Injuries and Damages
We must establish how badly you were injured. If we cannot prove your injuries, you likely will not receive any compensation. For some, injuries are so severe that they show up to court, often months or even years after the accident, with visible signs of injuries. Others recover from their injuries by the time they get to a courtroom, so the jury cannot see the injuries for themselves. Whatever the case may be, we should have copies of your medical records to help us prove your injuries. Remember, we do not need your entire medical history. We only need the records from when you were treated for injuries sustained in the accident at the heart of your case.
We might also use photos of your injuries to show the jury exactly what your injuries looked like. It is one thing to hear about painful injuries from medical records, but allowing jurors to see the injuries for themselves might make your case more persuasive. If you took photos after you were injured, tell your lawyer about the pictures.
Testimony
Not all evidence involves physical items or documents we can hold up in a courtroom. Many cases rely on witness testimony. Witnesses may only testify about their personal, first-hand knowledge of the accident and your injuries. Second-hand information someone heard from someone else about the accident is inadmissible hearsay.
Eyewitnesses might be people who were there when you were injured. If you remember who was there, tell your lawyer right away. We should find them and ask them about what they remember as soon as possible.
Your testimony might also be important. If there are few other witnesses, or there are details that only you can talk about, you might have to take the witness stand. This can be difficult for some plaintiffs, but it might be a necessary step.
Police Reports
When searching for evidence, we might need some assistance. If you call the police after your accident, which is very common, the authorities might have conducted an investigation. This is normal in cases involving defendants who have violated the law or serious accidents where law enforcement must investigate to determine what went wrong.
The police report is typically inadmissible as evidence, but it may be used as a guide to find more evidence. For example, if you know there were witness at the accident but you do not remember their names, the police might have spoken to them and included their names and contact details in the report.
What to Do After Personal Injuries Happen in Park Slope
Make documenting your injuries your top priority after an accident. Take photos of injuries at the scene and call 911 if you need transportation to the hospital. Do not forego medical treatment, as that could weaken your future claim.
Collect the negligent party’s information as well. When hurt by negligent drivers, victims should request their names, phone numbers, registration, driver’s license, and insurance information. Police officers can help victims get this information, another benefit of calling 911.
You should get the property owner’s information when hurt at someone’s home or business. Inform them about the accident. Do not discuss the incident at length with the liable party, as you could risk misspeaking and contradicting future statements or aspects of your claim.
You should go straight from the accident scene to the hospital. Delaying medical care, even if it is because you think you are unhurt, could threaten your recovery. If paramedics arrive after you call 911, let them take you to the emergency room. When you get to the hospital, physicians may evaluate you further and run various tests to diagnose your injuries. These immediate medical records will help our lawyers show you were hurt because of the accident and that you sought the necessary treatment. That alone is important, as showing you are committed to your physical recovery can emphasize your commitment to your financial recovery.
Available Damages in a Park Slope Personal Injury Case
Your damages represent the losses, injuries, costs, and painful experiences you wish to claim in your civil case. Identifying and evaluating damages is not easy, and if anything is overlooked or undervalued, you risk losing out on financial compensation. To make things more complicated, not all damages are based on financial costs, and determining what kind of financial compensation your damages warrant can be challenging.
Compensatory Damages
Compensatory damages may be awarded to make up for all the things the plaintiff lost or endured because of the accident. These damages include economic damages representing actual costs and non-economic damages representing more subjective injuries.
Economic damages include the things about the accident that cost the plaintiff money. These damages may be proved with things like receipts, bills, or other proof of cost. A major component of these damages will likely be medical costs. After a bad accident, you likely needed emergency medical treatment, which is almost never cheap. If your injuries were severe or required long-term care, your costs might be incredibly high. Other economic damages might include the cost of damages property and the loss of income if you cannot continue working while you are injured.
Non-economic damages are more subjective and often not related to financial costs. Instead, these damages may be based on personal, painful experiences. You might claim the pain you endured from your injuries as part of these damages. Pain can be difficult to deal with, especially when it persists for a long time. You might also claim mental or emotional distress and suffering. This is common in cases involving more traumatic accidents or injuries that leave plaintiffs with disabilities or disfigurements.
Punitive Damages
Unlike compensatory damages, punitive damages are not designed to compensate plaintiffs for any specific kind of loss or injury. Instead, these damages are meant to serve as a punishment for defendants whose behavior was especially heinous or shocking.
Unlike some other states, punitive damages in New York are rooted in common law and case law, not any specific code or statute. According to these laws, punitive damages may be awarded if a plaintiff can prove by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted willfully, with wanton negligence, or a very high degree of moral turpitude. This is a very high bar to meet, and punitive damages as a whole are rare.
Cases where plaintiffs sustain severe injuries and defendants exhibit such negligence as to shock the conscious are more likely to be eligible for punitive damages. If you are unsure if your case is eligible, ask your attorney when you start evaluating your damages.
There are no caps on punitive damages, and they may be as large as the trier of fact deems necessary. However, they may not be overly excessive. The defendant may challenge an excessive award, and the court may reduce it to something more reasonable.
When to File Lawsuits Personal Injury Lawsuits in Park Slope
According to C.V.P. Law § 214(5), victims may only file lawsuits for injuries during the three years after an accident unless an exception applies. There are a few instances when time might pause, like if the victim is a minor, the defendant intentionally conceals their identity or leaves the state, or the victim does not discover their injuries until later.
The three-year filing deadline is for most personal injury claims, but medical malpractice lawsuits follow a different rule. Instead of having three years to sue for medical negligence, victims have two and a half years. This slight difference in filing deadlines could confuse victims or make them file late, and our attorneys can ensure this does not happen by confirming the appropriate deadline for your case and proceeding accordingly.
Before filing your lawsuit, our lawyers must ensure we have sufficient proof of negligence and damages to support your case. Filing too soon could cause issues with meeting the standard of proof or lead to a lack of evidence to leverage during negotiations. We can bring your case only after being confident in its chances of success and the evidence in your favor.
Call Our Injury Lawyers in Park Slope Now
Get a free case assessment from our personal injury lawyers by calling The Carrion Law Firm at (718) 841-0083.