If you or a loved one has been hurt in New Orleans, LA due to someone else’s recklessness, negligence, or malice, then you may be entitled to compensation for a range of damages, including medical bills, lost wages, and the pain and suffering of your injuries — to name a few. Whether you are filing a claim with an insurance company or planning to seek damages directly from the at-fault party, working with a New Orleans personal injury lawyer is a critical step to take. Many injured victims believe that hiring an injury lawyer is not financially feasible, but our firm operates on a contingency fee basis, meaning that we collect a percentage of your final settlement, and you don’t pay if we don’t win. Representation by a personal injury law firm is within your reach, and it’s one of the best decisions you can make before working with the insurance companies.
Contact Now For a Free Consultation
Our New Orleans, Louisiana law firm offers a free consultation for personal injury victims in order to establish a basic understanding of the case and learn more about how we can work together. During this case free consultation, we provide a comprehensive case evaluation that will help you understand your own situation in the context of Louisiana law. We are also happy to go through some examples of similar personal injury cases our New Orleans, Louisiana law firm has covered. This first conversation helps us establish the type of work we can do together by explaining the role that personal injury attorneys play in these situations and give you a sense of how we can specifically assist you. Knowing that you are not alone can be a significant stress relief and help you look towards the future with confidence.
Read more below about New Orleans personal injury cases, and contact our law firm as soon as possible to schedule your free consultation. The sooner you are connected with a personal injury attorney, the sooner you can focus on your recovery without the added stress that trying to advocate for yourself with insurance companies can cause.
Examples of Common Types of Personal Injury Cases
The following are just a few of the many different ways you can be involved in a personal injury accident. Whether or not you see your situation listed below, the important thing to keep in mind is this: was your accident injury caused by someone else? Was the at-fault party engaging in dangerous or careless behavior such as distracted driving, selling a faulty product, or providing you with dangerously incorrect medical advice? If the other party failed to keep you safe in a way that is expected of them, then they may be obligated to compensate you for a wide range of damages that personal injury lawyers can help you identify, calculate, and negotiate for.
In most instances, there is a one-year statute of limitations for personal injury cases in Louisiana. While this may seem like ample time to find a New Orleans personal injury lawyer and move forward with your case, we strongly encourage you to reach out to our law firm as soon as you have addressed your immediate medical issues. The more that personal injury lawyers have to investigate and build a comprehensive case, the more likely it is that they may avoid a lengthy lawsuit and trial. Whether or not your injury accident is explicitly mentioned below, contact us to schedule your free consultation as soon as possible to improve your chances of reaching an out-of-court settlement.
Car Accidents
After a car accident, it is standard practice to identify which of the drivers caused the accident, and the victims file a claim against their insurance company. These car accident claims often seek repayment for property damage such as repairs to the vehicle or replacement costs of a new car.
Truck Accidents
Truck accidents can be much different than car accidents for many reasons — particularly the fact that a massive semi-truck or tractor-trailer can cause extensive damage to a smaller passenger vehicle, particularly while hauling a load. As such, commercial insurance companies often have policy limits in excess of $1 million for these types of vehicles. With a higher limit, there is more money to compensate you for your damages than after passenger car accidents. This still does not mean that they will pay what you deserve without a fight.
Dog Bites
According to Section 2321 of the Louisiana Civil Code — Damage caused by animals, a dog owner is responsible for the actions of their dog (or other animal) only if it is proven that their negligence led to the attack. This means that the owner may attempt to argue that they had given “reasonable care” while trying to keep others safe from their animal, and your personal injury lawyer will need to argue the contrary: that the attack was a result of the owner’s negligence.
Medical Malpractice
Louisiana Revised Statutes section 9:5628 dictates that a victim of medical malpractice has one year to file a claim, either from the date of the injury or from the date that the victim discovered their injuries. Failure to do so will bar you from taking any legal action against a negligent medical professional. Whether or not you are certain that your experience is considered malpractice, speaking with a New Orleans personal injury attorney can help you make the most sense of your situation.
Nursing Home Injuries
New Orleans has many great options for nursing home facilities, but there is always a risk of negligence, or even abuse, in the home that can lead to serious injuries or the wrongful death of an elderly loved one. These situations are not to be taken lightly, and partnering with our law firm can help you seek financial justice for your injured family member.
Catastrophic Injuries
A catastrophic injury is any injury that will prevent the victim from performing meaningful work for the rest of their lives. This could be a permanent brain injury, loss of a limb, paralysis, or anything else that will keep them from returning to work in any significant capacity. It is important to work with an experienced personal injury lawyer who can help extrapolate the impact of these injuries across the rest of the victim’s life to ensure that all damages are paid.
Determining Compensation After An Injury Accident
After an injury accident in New Orleans, there are additional damages such as medical bills that insurance companies are quick to offer payment for. Many victims fail to realize that they are entitled to far more than just their medical expenses, including things like the actual pain and suffering of their injuries and many other emotional and psychological impacts that are typically overlooked during a claim. As you go through your claim, it’s important to remember that insurance companies do not make a profit by paying the exact amount that victims are owed. They profit by paying as little as possible while resolving any legal threat against the agency or their policyholder for this particular incident.
When you are working with New Orleans personal injury lawyers, you can be confident that they are working through a well-established series of best practices intended to identify ALL of the damages that you, their client, is owed. Since our law firm operates on a contingency fee basis, we are highly motivated to reach a settlement or win an award in the Louisiana courts that adequately compensate you for your suffering and us for our work.
Personal injury lawyers in New Orleans and across the United States seek compensation for their clients through two distinct sub-categories of actual damages: economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages make up the basis of a personal injury claim. This category of compensatory damages includes any impact from your accident and injuries that is measurable in terms of dollar value — namely, anything that comes with a bill, an invoice, a receipt, or an income statement that can prove measurable financial losses. The most obvious economic damages are a victim’s medical expenses and their lost wages, but there are a number of less-obvious damages even as they specifically relate to these two main categories. For one: ride services to and from medical appointments, assistive devices that you purchased to help you around your daily life, and any other services that you needed to hire to perform tasks you would have otherwise done yourself are included. Additionally, and paid time off or sick leave you use to cover missed time at work must also be repaid.
There are many other economic damages that an attorney will be able to identify. One of the most valuable benefits of working with a proven New Orleans law firm is your attorney’s attention to detail, tracking down seemingly inconsequential damages that all add up to a substantial amount of money that you are legally entitled to.
Non-Economic Damages
While there are many economic damages that can be confusing or complicated, non-economic damages are confusing by their very nature. These types of damages seek compensation for any impact of your accident that does not have a measurable financial value associated with it. One of the most common non-economic damages is “pain and suffering,” which seeks compensation for the pain that a victim’s injuries have caused, both during the accident and throughout the recovery process. As you can imagine, it can be difficult for an inexperienced individual to reach a dollar amount for this damage and even more difficult to then defend this figure to the insurance company during settlement negotiations.
There are many more non-economic damages that your attorney will work to include in your claim, each of which will need to be calculated using one of a number of tools at their disposal to reach a fair and legitimate dollar amount. In wrongful death cases, there are many other damages that the surviving family members and loved ones may seek, including the loss of companionship and emotional support that the deceased provided before their avoidable death.
Understanding Punitive Damages
In certain instances, a victim may be awarded punitive damages by a judge or jury, but these damages are meant to punish the at-fault party and discourage a repeat of their particularly dangerous or reprehensible behavior in the future. These damages will not be considered or requested at any point. These damages are therefore omitted from any calculations. If your New Orleans attorney believes that you may be entitled to punitive damages, they may opt to move straight to a lawsuit without any attempts at negotiating a settlement. These situations are rare and will be best discussed with your attorney during your case evaluation and throughout your work together.
Contact Our New Orleans Law Firm Today
The sooner you reach out for your free consultation and case evaluation, the sooner we can start building your case today. We know that it can be confusing and overwhelming to know where to turn after a New Orleans personal injury accident, but we are here to help you understand your options and get a better sense of what the future looks like.