Each year, millions of injured Americans find themselves in a difficult position as a direct result of someone else’s actions.
Medical malpractice, car accidents, security failures, carbon monoxide poisoning, carjackings, and more can lead to life-changing injuries due to someone else’s negligence or wrongdoing. Yet most Americans do not know that pursuing legal action can help them obtain compensation for their injuries. Depending on your case, you could be losing out on millions that could address the harm done to you. However, compensation is just one of the many things you can gain by pursuing legal action. Here are some reasons why taking legal action might be right for you.
Addressing medical bills and adjusting for changes in lifestyle
No one can undo an injury but we can account for changes in your life as a result of an injury.
In a case where you are injured and it is someone else’s fault, we use the following list as a basis: the types of injuries, medical bills, lost wages while injured, lost future wages as a result of the injury, pain and suffering, and life adjustments as a result of the injuries including caretakers or special medical attention. Each case takes into account the particular effects of injury.
It can be extremely helpful and even necessary to pursue legal action following an injury. Should you pursue legal action, your case will account for financial and lifestyle changes incurred as a result of someone else’s negligence or wrongdoing. Otherwise, you are left to cover and deal with these items on your own.
Let’s take a brain injury case as an example. In one of our cases, our client suffered damage to his frontal lobe, from an accident, which led to impaired executive functioning. Not only did his injury affect the way he performed his job, but the manner in which he could interact with people and live his life completely changed. Without pursuing any legal action, he would have been left to adapt to life post-injury and cover medical bills without any compensation or legal recourse.
It’s good for the community
When a wrong in the community is not addressed, it lowers the safety of that community.
Individuals who harm others, especially when breaking established laws, put others at risk by that action. Let’s talk about an actual security risk case we handled. A business owner did not pay for proper security guards and he didn’t train his workers in proper security measures. In fact, there were no security measures in place at all even though there had been a history of crime at the establishment. While visiting that business, our client was robbed and sustained gunshot wounds.
The situation could have gone completely differently had there been basic security procedures. The lack of security recklessly endangered the patrons of that establishment and members of the community who were frequent visitors. Pursuing legal action is good for the community. It can help others by deterring rule breakers from committing the same violations again. This keeps people safe and can help someone else avoid being injured.
Holding people accountable
Holding people accountable decreases the chances careless behavior being repeated.
One of the benefits of legal action is holding people accountable for the harm they have caused others. Accountability can look like punitive punishment, enforcing an established law, or creating new regulations. Holding individuals accountable for breaking the law and injuring you makes people, not just rule breakers, aware that there are consequences for their actions; whether they are doctors, police officers, a person speeding, a property owner, or a landlord. When people are held accountable, they are less likely to turn around and do the same thing to someone else. By pursuing legal action, you have the chance to help someone else not suffer the same thing that happened to you or a loved one.
As an example, in one of our cases, a local politician hit one of our clients while heading to a fundraiser. Our client subsequently suffered a broken sinus which led to traumatically induced meningitis; a deadly and very serious disease that can easily lead to brain damage. The politician’s insurance company decided to go to court rather than settle as they believed the jury would not return a significant verdict against the politician. They were banking on the political status and fame of the politician to avoid punitive punishment. Instances like this happen all the time. Pursuing legal action can hold people accountable when they break the law.
Answers and closure
In many personal injury cases that we’ve seen, loved ones are left asking how an injury even occurred.
In any case, where an injury is sustained due to someone else’s action(s) and the cause of that injury is difficult to determine, taking legal action can help you get answers as to what happened. The law can compel doctors to answer questions, police officers, or other involved parties as to how the events transpired or what is medically wrong. In medical malpractice cases, for example, consulting another physician can affirm what went wrong. A licensed physician completes the necessary tests to give a diagnosis and evaluation of an injury.
We handled a case where a child was left with very apparent signs of brain damage but with no answers as to how the damage occurred. The doctors who treated her insisted they did not know what could have caused her brain damage. We got answers using a deposition dedimus or a deposition that allows taking a testimony. We sent it to doctors at the University of Birmingham as a sample from her was sent there and had tested positive for herpes simplex virus.
In this instance, finding answers was as helpful to the family in knowing what went wrong as it was in proving our case. When you’re given inadequate answers or none at all, turning to the law can help you get answers. The same can be said about wrongful deaths and police misconduct cases. If you want answers then pursuing legal action can be a good way to get them.
Justice
Justice for you begins with taking legal action. Seeking legal action forces harm caused to you by an offending person or people to be addressed; it becomes a priority that can’t be ignored. Without pursuing legal action, getting justice gets delayed or doesn’t happen at all. Legal action makes the offending party or parties aware of their actions, holds them accountable, gets you compensation, and makes things shake. Let the law work for you as it’s intended; to protect your rights.
Want to reach us about your case? Call us at (314)-645-9500 or email us at lawoffices1011@gmail.com. If you want to ask a question, go to the FAQ page on our website and write us one.
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