Accidents happen all the time, and not everyone walks away unharmed. You might be badly hurt and in need of emergency medical treatment. Your injuries will likely take a significant mental, physical, and economic toll on your life, and you deserve fair compensation. A personal injury claim can help you get what you need to put your life back together.
Personal injury cases must involve some form of bodily injury, and many cases stem from accidents and negligent defendants. After an accident, you may need medical attention, and you should get to a hospital as soon as possible. You should also gather records and evidence you can use to build your case, including medical records and documentation of the accident itself. Your case may involve steep economic and non-economic damages, which may lead to substantial financial compensation.
Call (617) 925-6407 and ask our personal injury lawyers at the Law Office of John J. Sheehan for a free case evaluation.
How Do You Know if You Have a Personal Injury Case?
The field of personal injury law is vast, and numerous cases and claims may be grounds for a lawsuit.
The common thread running through all personal injury cases is that plaintiffs have experienced physical injuries. People sometimes mistakenly believe that personal injuries involve losses of a personal nature, but this is inaccurate. These cases involve injuries to the person or to the body.
Personal injury claims are commonly rooted in accidents, and defendants often argue that they never meant to cause harm. If you believe the other person in your accident acted negligently, you may be able to file a personal injury claim against them.
One more sign that you have a personal injury claim on your hands is that you have incurred significant debts and losses. Accidents and injuries are rarely cheap, and the emotional toll of the accident might weigh on you tremendously.
What Medical Care Should You Get Following an Injury in Hopkinton?
One of the most important things you must do is get medical attention as soon as possible. What kind of care you need will vary based on the accident and your injuries.
A good rule of thumb after almost any accident involving injuries is to go to the emergency room immediately. Even if you do not think your injuries are that serious, you should still go, as you might have internal injuries that will only get worse without treatment. Once at the ER, a doctor can assess you and determine what kind of care you need.
In serious cases, more extensive treatment may be necessary, and you might be in the hospital for a while. You might have to see specialists after your initial treatment, or you might need physical therapy. Keep track of all the doctors you see and the treatment you receive, as our personal injury attorneys need this information to establish your damages.
You may also need to continue seeing doctors long after the accident for follow-up care. You may need physical therapy, routine check-ups, medication refills, and future treatments or procedures as your condition changes.
What Records You Need After an Accident
Preparing a personal injury case often requires extensive preparations, including gathering specific records and documentation pertaining to your injuries. What records you need and how to obtain them will likely depend on the nature of your claims.
As discussed before, you should go to a doctor as soon as possible after an accident, ideally on the same day. After you receive treatment, we should obtain copies of your medical records so we can prove the extent and severity of your injuries and the costs of treatment.
We should also collect records or documentation of the accident. This might involve getting photos of the accident scene, security camera footage, witness testimony, and possibly more.
If the police were involved in your accident, they may have conducted an investigation and written a report. Police reports are often inadmissible as evidence because they violate the evidentiary rule against hearsay. However, these reports may contain valuable information collected by the police during their investigation and can guide us to admissible evidence.
Compensation Available in Personal Injury Cases
You might be entitled to significant compensation, and the first step toward getting justice is accurately evaluating your damages.
Depending on the nature of the accident and how badly you were injured, you might have incurred some serious non-economic damages. These may include injuries that cannot be proven by evidence of expenses, such as pain, humiliation, loss of enjoyment of your life, and emotional distress.
You might have also racked up big bills that you cannot afford. Medical expenses, the cost of replacing damaged property or belongings, and lost income from being too injured to work are just a few possible economic damages.
How Attorneys Are Paid in Hopkinton Personal Injury Cases
A major concern among injury plaintiffs is how much it costs to go to court. The answer to this question will undoubtedly vary from case to case, and you may discuss payment options with your attorney to find something that works for you.
One possibility is that your attorney charges you a flat fee for their services. This tends to be more common where representation is only necessary for a short time, and the service provided is more finite. A one-time consultation may be charged a flat fee, for example,
After retaining an attorney, they may charge an hourly fee for their services. In such cases, attorneys and their staff must diligently track how much time they devote to a case so that clients are charged a fair price. The longer your case takes, the more you might have to spend.
Another option is a contingency fee, where the attorney will charge a fee only if certain outcomes are obtained. For example, many lawyers charge fees on the contingency that they win the case. If they lose the case, the client pays nothing.
Discuss Your Case with Our Hopkinton Personal Injury Attorneys
Call (617) 925-6407 and ask our personal injury lawyers at the Law Office of John J. Sheehan for a free case evaluation.