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 (631) 910-7493. We offer free case evaluations.

Why You Should Call an Attorney About Your Smithtown, NY Personal Injury Case

Taking legal action is rarely easy or simple. Most people hesitate or resist talking to lawyers because they fear entering a protracted legal battle and incurring high legal fees. While your case could potentially take a long time to complete, and legal fees should be discussed with your lawyer, the effort is often worth the payoff. If you decide to take legal action, talk to a lawyer as soon as possible, as your time to take action may be more limited than you realize.

The statute of limitations imposes a strict time limit on plaintiffs seeking to file legal claims. In New York, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims can be found under C.V.P. Law § 214, and it provides plaintiffs with 3 years to file their cases. This limitation period starts on the day of the initial accident, so the clock is already counting down. Your lawyer can review your situation and help you file your case on time so you do not lose your right to sue.

Your attorney should help you prepare and file the initial complaint. This is a formal and very important legal document that essentially kickstarts the case. When the complaint is filed and accepted by the court, and notice of the complaint is sent to the defendant in a timely manner, the case begins. Drafting and filing the initial complaint is difficult, as we need very specific and detailed information about how you were injured, your damages, evidence, and why we believe the defendant should be held liable.

Your attorney should also help you navigate complex legal rules and procedures. Court rules and procedures are highly complex, and even skilled lawyers are known to make mistakes. Knowing how to maneuver your case through these complex legal channels is crucial, and you need a lawyer with the right skills.

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.

Claiming Damages in Smithtown, NY Personal Injury Cases

Damages and injuries in personal injury cases may vary drastically based on the circumstances. You might incur huge costs and be able to claim hefty economic damages. Maybe you were deeply traumatized and suffered serious psychological harm. In that case, you might claim non-economic damages. Still, exemplary damages might also be available, but only in cases where the defendant’s behavior is especially outrageous or shocking.

Economic Damages

Economic losses can be quite steep in many personal injury cases. If your injuries were serious, you might have needed extensive emergency medical care. Ambulance rides, X-rays, emergency surgery, medication, and follow-up visits all cost money. Your medical bills might constitute a very large portion of your overall damages, and you should save all records of medical treatment so we can accurately assess these damages.

In some cases, victims are so severely injured that they can no longer work, at least not for a while. If you cannot return to your job, you may be able to claim the income and wages you miss out on. If you cannot work for the foreseeable future or possibly ever again, our team can help you estimate the value of future earnings you will miss out on and add them to your damages.

Many personal injury claims involve tumultuous accidents that not only injured the people involved but damaged or destroyed their property and personal belongings. If you were in a car crash, you might be badly injured, and your car might be totaled. You may claim the value of repairing or replacing damaged items and property.

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages are arguably more difficult to evaluate because they do not involve monetary costs. Instead, non-economic injuries may consist of physical, emotional, and psychological injuries that take a significant toll on your well-being. If you are unsure whether you have non-economic damages to claim, talk about it with our legal team.

Mental or emotional trauma and suffering are common in personal injury cases where accidents are traumatic. Severe, near-deadly accidents often come with a fair amount of psychological trauma. If your injuries do not heal properly or are otherwise extreme, you might have to live with permanent scarring and disfigurement, which can be difficult to grapple with emotionally. The same goes for permanent medical complications or disabilities. Learning how to live your life with new, permanent impairments can be extremely distressing.

Often, plaintiffs must contend with how all their injuries, complications, and pain have impacted their lives. The net effect of all these injuries and losses might lead to a greatly diminished quality of life, which deserves fair compensation.

Exemplary Damages

While the above damages are designed to compensate you for what you have lost and endured, exemplary damages are awarded for very different reasons. They are awarded as a way to punish defendants and hopefully deter future bad actions, but only under very specific conditions.

According to Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 41.003(a), exemplary damages may only be awarded if the plaintiff proves that the defendant acted with malice, fraud, or gross negligence. We must prove these claims by clear and convincing evidence.

While exemplary damages can be valuable, they are also limited. Under § 41.008(b), exemplary damages may be limited in one of two ways. First, your exemplary damages may be capped at two times the value of your economic damages in addition to compensation equal to the value of non-economic damages that may not exceed $750,000. Alternatively, they may be capped at $200,000. Whichever limitation provides greater compensation is the one that applies.

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 (631) 910-7493.