Personal Injury Lawyer Las Vegas
What is a “Personal Injury” – How Can A Las Vegas Personal Injury Lawyer Help?
If you are around the Las Vegas area and have sustained an injury caused by someone else’s negligence, that is serious enough to require the services of a Las Vegas personal injury lawyer, before you create your list of personal injury lawyers, first consider the following information. Personal injury cases are some of the most common civil cases and the term serves as a kind of umbrella, encompassing a range of different claims and injuries. At its most basic level, personal injury cases are those where one person was harmed by another person.
That harm can be relatively minor or permanently debilitating. The harm can be the result of a slip-and-fall case or a dangerous car accident (that may require a car accident lawyer). Any situation where one person is hurt and another person is responsible can become a personal injury case, requiring an attorney at law.
Examples of personal injury cases – personal injury solicitors
One of the most common types of personal injury cases involving a Las Vegas accident includes car/truck/tractor-trailer accidents. Given the millions of vehicles on the road, it isn’t surprising that law firms are contacted daily, becasue so many of these accidents happen and that people get hurt with alarming regularity.
A personal injury law firm will handle all kinds of civil suits such as Slip-and-fall accidents, and dog bite cases to name a few. Personal injury attorneys also handle product defect/liability cases which casue personal injury. These cases are related to manufacturing or design defects of products that can, or have caused, harm to consumers. Though the particular facts of each category of personal injury claim may be different, the principle in each is the same: an injured plaintiff begins his or her attorney search to find a lawyer that will bring a legal challenge seeking financial compensation from the person (or persons) responsible for causing the harm.
What should you do after an accident/injury?
If you are the one injured in a Nevada personal injury claims case, the first thing you need to do before finding a personal injury lawyer, is assess your injuries. If you’ve been physically harmed and need medical attention or even if you suspect that you might have injuries, go immediately to a doctor to be evaluated. After assessing your injuries, you need to gather as much information as possible about your accident, to present to the injury lawyers or to your auto accident lawyer (in the case of a Las Vegas car accident). This information can prove critical down the road in winning your personal injury case.
A Car or Motorcycle Accident Las Vegas
What do you do if you are involved in a car or motorcycle accident in Las Vegas? First, if you’ve been involved in a car accident or another incident where emergency services should be involved, call the appropriate authorities. Police and other emergency responders are helpful not only in ensuring your safety, but also in writing reports which can contain valuable information about what happened, where it happened, who was involved and how the incident occurred, so that this information can be given to the auto accident attorney that you hire later.
If police aren’t needed, you’ll need to gather as much information as you can on your own. Who else was involved in the accident? Get their name and as much contact information as possible, including any insurance information. How about witnesses? If someone else was around and saw the accident occur, it is crucial to get their contact information as well so that you can present it later to the accident injury lawyer.
Once you have the contact details, it’s time to turn your attention to writing down facts and taking pictures. Spend a minute and jot down any details that you think are important or that you think might prove useful down the road. You might think you’ll remember the accident/injury clearly later, but the reality is that your memory starts to fade almost immediately. Write down as many details and specific facts as you can, helping to paint a vivid picture of what occurred. Finally, if you have your phone, start taking pictures. It’s really true that a picture is worth 1,000 words.
Record the scene where the accident/injury took place, take photos of the property damage that occurred and, if you have visible injuries, photograph those as well. It’s much easier and more effective to show a judge, jury or insurance adjuster what happened than it is to tell them about it.
Should You Get Medical Assistance?
Going back to the medical assistance issue, many people inadvertently undermine their cases by refusing to get medical treatment immediately following an accident. They think they’re doing the right thing, they may not be hurt that bad and don’t want to be seen as a complainer.
Waiting to seek medical assistance is seldom the right thing to do. The problem is twofold: First, by waiting, you run the risk of your injuries becoming worse. The sooner a doctor is able to examine you, the sooner he or she will be able to begin treatment. By delaying your first visit to the doctor, you’re delaying the time until you can begin getting better, something that can exacerbate injuries.
Furthermore, if someone had a head injury from the accident, when it it time to seek an attorney go for the Las Vegas personal injury attorney that is a brain injury lawyer that specializes in brain injury accidents and not one that has only acted as a Las Vegas DUI attorney, or a car accident injury attorney in general. When contacting the personal injury law firms, be sure to question them, NOT JUST on the personal injury lawyer fees but also on the extent of experience their attorneys have in various areas of personal injury law as mentioned above.
The second problem with waiting is that it can later be used against you by the defendant or insurance company. It’s very common for insurance companies to argue that a person is faking injuries and a delay in seeking medical treatment after an accident is often used as evidence of deception. The insurance companies argue that if a person were truly injured, they wouldn’t have waited days or weeks to seek help, they would’ve gone right away. A corollary to this is that while your injuries might be real, they were caused by something or someone else.
By delaying seeking medical treatment, the insurance company can argue with your Las Vegas attorney that you were injured elsewhere, or that some intervening cause is actually responsible for your injuries. Seeking treatment early avoids all these potential problems.
How can Personal Injury Attorneys In Las Vegas Nevada Help?
If you’ve been involved in a personal injury case you may feel that a personal injury lawyer is not important, in fact, you may be inclined to handle the matter yourself. If that’s true, let’s quickly discuss some of the ways that a skilled car accident injury lawyer or personal injury attorney, or a Las Vegas DUI Lawyer can assist with your case.
First, an experienced attorney will be able to help in quickly and accurately assessing the strength of your case. This is something most people would not be able to do on their own. Las Vegas attorneys have seen many cases like yours before and will know how much, approximately, your case could be worth and how much to push for, from the insurance company or defendant.
People that handle cases on their own seldom understand what their case is worth and can either over or underestimate, a mistake that can prove costly either way.
A personal injury lawyer is also helpful because he or she can cut through the confusing bureaucracy of filing a personal injury claim, taking the difficult tasks on themselves. A personal injury Lawyer understands the complicated courtroom procedures, filing deadlines, motions and other paperwork that must accompany a personal injury claim. Many Las Vegas lawyers that have a personal injury lawyer on staff can be trusted to handle these details (some may require some progress monitoring) But usually a good Las Vegas car accident attorney will free up your time so you can spend it on recovering from your injury.
Another benefit of hiring a Nevada personal injury attorney is that he or she has seen it all before. Experienced attorneys know what it’s like to work with other opposing attorneys and insurance companies. They have relationships with these people and understand what it takes to successfully move a case to its conclusion. Lawyers know how to negotiate with insurance companies and when to push for more or get up and walk away.
How long will your personal injury case take?
It’s very common for people to wonder how long their personal injury claim will take. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy answer to give. The time a case takes depends entirely on the specific facts. If the case is relatively simple, including minor injuries and some property damage, it may be resolved quickly, possibly with a settlement offer before ever appearing in court.
If the case is a complicated one, involving serious physical injuries, it could drag on for months or even longer. The overall value and complexity of the case, the combativeness of the insurance company, the personality of the opposing attorney, the schedule of the judge assigned to the case, the extent of evidence that must be gathered and analyzed, all these are factors that can impact the duration of a personal injury case. You’ll need to sit down and discuss this question with your Nevada personal injury attorney once he or she understands more about the particulars of your case and is in a better position to evaluate the time it may take.
Las Vegas Accidents – How much is your personal injury case worth?
Beyond the length of a case, another very common question is how much is your personal injury case worth. Sadly, this too defies easy answers. Again, the issue is that there are too many variables to come up with a one-size-fits-all response. The biggest factor that will determine the value of the case is the extent of injuries suffered. If you suffered relatively minor injuries, the value of your case will likely be on the low end. If the injuries were serious or have resulted in permanent disability, the value of your case will likely be much higher.
Time away from work is another factor in evaluating the overall value of a case. If you’ve had to take significant time off of work or have had your earning capacity lowered as a result of the injury, you’ll likely have a more valuable case. Another component is the extent of your medical bills. Those with pricey surgeries or those who will need ongoing medical treatment will likely have more valuable personal injury cases. Finally, if you are accident was serious and you are able to claim pain and suffering or emotional distress, this too can increase the value of your personal injury case.
How long do you have to file a personal injury case?
Sadly, too few people understand the importance of moving quickly when it comes to a Nevada personal injury case. They mistakenly believe that time is not a factor. This couldn’t be further from the truth. This is one reason to choose a personal injury lawyer as quickly as reasonable. For one thing, moving quickly to hire a personal injury attorney is crucial because evidence has a way of going missing. The sooner you’re able to hire your personal injury lawyer and he or she can get started, the better. The personal injury attorney can set to work interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence. By waiting, witnesses might move away or change their numbers, documents might be destroyed or disappear. Because of the Statute of Limitations, time is of the essence.
Beyond the urge to move quickly to secure evidence, you must also pay attention to timing due to the statute of limitations. Every state has laws that explain how long a plaintiff has to bring a claim against a defendant. The specific amount of time varies depending on the nature of the lawsuit. In Nevada, the law says that an injured plaintiff has 2 years to bring a personal injury lawsuit. Product liability cases must also be filed within 2 years, while medical malpractice claims vary between 1 and 3 years. Finally, property damage cases must be filed within 3 years of the date of the occurrence of the harm.
Accidents in Las Vegas – The waiting game – or is it?
So what happens if you have a car accident in Las Vegas and wait too long to file a suit? If you file a personal injury claim 2 years and 1 month after the incident occurred? Your case will likely be barred from court and tossed out by the judge. There will be nothing more a Las vegas accident attorney, or ANY Las Vegas law firms will be able to do to help you.
This is true even in cases of serious injury or where the defendant is clearly responsible for causing the harm. It doesn’t matter how strong your case is, the law will force the judge to dismiss a case that was filed outside of the statute of limitations. This is yet another reason why it’s important to reach out to a Las Vegas lawyer sooner rather than later, letting the attorney worry about the deadlines.
If you or someone you know is involved in an accident and in need of a Las Vegas personal injury lawyer we can help you find the lawyers in Las Vegas that handle personal injury cases to help you get fair compensation. Call us today for a free consultation.