Smithtown, NY Personal Injury Lawyer
If you were hurt in an accident, getting your injuries treated at a hospital and then calling a personal injury lawyer should be your first priorities. When you get help from an experienced personal injury lawyer, your attorneys can help identify the at-fault parties, collect the evidence you need to prove your case, and fight to get you the damages you need.
Dealing with an injury is often a full-time job, and you might not have the time or ability to collect evidence and work on a legal case while trying to recover. Allow our Smithtown personal injury lawyers to handle your case for you while you concentrate on healing and getting your life back on track after a serious injury.
For help with an injury case, call the Smithtown, NY personal injury lawyers at The Carrion Law Firm today at (718) 841-0083. We offer free case evaluations.
Identifying At-Fault Parties in a Smithtown, NY Injury Case
When accidents happen, they are rarely true “accidents,” and someone is often to blame for your injuries. In many accidents involving a dangerous or defective product, the company that manufactured the product could be to blame. And in most accidents on someone else’s property, the owner of the property could potentially be responsible for what happened to you. Our Smithtown personal injury lawyers explain the potential at-fault parties in a wide range of personal injury cases:
Auto Accidents
Often, the driver who hit you can be blamed for accidents where they committed some traffic violation or otherwise made mistakes behind the wheel. In accidents involving commercial drivers, the company that hired the driver can often be held responsible for equipment failure or simply because they are responsible for their employee’s mistakes behind the wheel. Talk to a Smithtown personal injury lawyer about determining fault in complex car accident cases involving multiple parties or unique situations.
Pedestrian and Biking Accidents
In most auto accidents involving pedestrians, the driver of the car that hit them is responsible. Similarly, drivers in an automobile are often to blame for injuries to bikers. However, traffic laws might make bikers and pedestrians share some degree of fault in many situations, so you should always work with a lawyer to help protect your rights and mitigate any victim-blaming.
Dangerous Product Cases
As mentioned, many dangerous product cases can be blamed on the product manufacturer. These cases often involve problems at the design stage, the manufacturing stage, or the packaging stage (where necessary warnings might be left off).
Premises Liability and Slip and Fall Cases
Many accidents on someone else’s property are caused by dangers that they should have repaired or cleaned up. Things like snow, ice, spills, uneven flooring, dangerous stairs, electrical hazards, and fire hazards can all be causes of serious slip and fall injuries or other “premises liability” accidents. Courts can hold homeowners, landlords, business owners, and other property owners liable for these kinds of accidents.
Medical Malpractice
Errors committed by doctors and other medical professionals can often allow courts to hold them responsible for medical malpractice. Depending on whether the health care professional was a hospital employee or not, hospitals can also be held liable for these issues in some circumstances.
Evidence Needed for a Personal Injury Case in Smithtown, NY
In any injury case, you will need evidence of what happened, who is at fault, and what damages you faced. Our Smithtown personal injury lawyers can help you collect this evidence and present it in court or in an insurance claim to help get you the damages you need.
Evidence of What Happened
Evidence that can help explain the facts of the case to the court will often come in the form of witness testimony. Any eyewitnesses, including the victim, can be called to the stand to discuss what they saw and what they heard to help show how the court what exactly occurred in the accident case. Other evidence can also be presented through witnesses, such as photos or videos that they took of the accident, reports or records they created about what happened, and even physical evidence they might have seen involved in the accident (such as a defective product or a broken handrail).
Evidence of Fault
In most cases, evidence of what happened will also be evidence of fault. However, the value of your evidence often comes down to the way your Smithtown personal injury lawyer presents it. For example, your lawyer can challenge a store worker’s testimony that they did not know about a spill by presenting testimony from another store patron who says they notified the worker about the spill 20 minutes before your slip and fall.
Your attorney will also be able to explain how the evidence in your case shows fault during their closing arguments. At this stage, your lawyer is allowed to talk directly to the jury and argue that certain pieces of evidence show the defendant’s fault.
Evidence of Damages
In order to get damages paid in your case, you need to be able to prove that the damages exist. Evidence of damages often comes in the form of bills, statements, and financial records that show how much money the accident cost you. This can include medical bills as well as pay stubs showing what wages you missed because of the injury. Damages for pain and suffering are harder to prove and are typically based on your testimony about how the accident and injuries affected your life.
Call Our Smithtown, NY Personal Injury Attorneys for a Free Case Review
If you or a loved one was injured in an accident in Smithtown, NY, call the Smithtown personal injury lawyers at The Carrion Law Firm for a free case review. Our office number is (718) 841-0083.