Personal Injury Attorney in San Diego, California

Personal injury is a branch of law also referred to as tort law, that discusses damages to people and property at the hands of others. Personal injury law allows injured parties to seek financial compensation and restitution for certain types of losses, including the restoration of their previous quality of life. Tort law promotes advocacy for parties who have been hurt financially, emotionally, physically, or intimately. If a plaintiff is unable to speak for themselves, they can use the services of legal advocates and personal injury attorneys in San Diego. 

What Do Personal Injury Lawyers in San Diego Do?

The lawyers hired by clients seeking representation due to personal injury are well trained, very skilled, and highly qualified in the many-layered legalities of personal injury law. They are tasked with defending individuals who have been hurt, require alternate means of financial sustenance, and deserve compensation so they can live as independently as possible.

Personal injury cases can be difficult to prove. The ability to discern, for example, negative surgical outcomes from the expected side effects of a condition that necessitated surgery in the first place, can be rather elusive. That is why hiring a San Diego personal injury lawyer who is fluent in legal statutes and medical protocols, is a necessary and vital part of your defense arsenal.

In addition to their legal know-how, personal injury attorneys can help with a number of other things with which injured parties typically need assistance.

Professionalism and Objectivity

Pain and suffering often accompany injuries, whether they are the result of medical traumas, car accidents, or mechanical error. While these phenomena can take a toll on how you function throughout your day-to-day life, they can also greatly impact how you think, perceive, and respond to information presented to you. A San Diego personal injury attorney, however, can act as a voice of reason, calmly explain how your case is likely to proceed, be realistic about anticipated outcomes, and help you soundly navigate through legal procedures. 

Receipt of Appropropriate Medical Care

In order to file a personal injury claim, you must be thoroughly and carefully examined by a medical provider in a timely fashion. Your San Diego personal injury advocate can work with your medical team to ensure that legal, as well as medical concerns, are being addressed. In addition, a personal injury attorney who possesses a solid understanding of these laws can also help you meet with additional medical providers if necessary. In fact, they may even be able to recommend doctors and ancillary service providers who are the best in the specialties in which you require care. 

Explanation of Your Legal Options

Although being in pain and requiring sufficient compensation for your or your loved ones are both logical reasons to pursue a personal injury case, they do not necessarily carry legal weight. When you hire an accomplished personal injury attorney whose demonstrated legal proficiency speaks for itself, you can rest easy—or at least easier—knowing that your legal options and due will be explained, laid out, and aggressively pursued.

Help Filing Claims Within the Statutes of Limitation

A good deal of legalese is necessary in order to complete the requisite paperwork for a personal injury claim. And not only is there a need to understand the judicial guidelines and parameters within which your personal injury case lay. You must also be able to complete ongoing administrative tasks while going to the doctor, receiving necessary therapies, filling prescriptions, sorting lost wages, and navigating the emotional toll the entire process is bound to take. With so much going on for, around, and within you, your personal injury lawyer’s services can be truly invaluable.

Careful Evaluation of the Defendant’s Case Presentation 

Personal injury lawyers in San Diego are skilled litigators, trained evaluators, avid listeners, and compassionate attendants. Not only do they need to understand and be able to convey the breadth and depth of your medical concerns, but those of the defendant as well. 

Generally speaking, insurance carriers and the parties who are alleged to have caused your injuries, try hard to refute claims, deny full compensation, and in some cases, lay blame at the feet of the victim. A personal injury attorney who is worth their salt, will know how to navigate through the legal muck so that you are awarded restitution that is just, fair, and sufficient.

Peace of Mind

Recovery after an accident is hard work: fraught with pain, discomfort, learning how to re-adapt to your environment, frequent medical appointments, and a new way of living—whether temporary or permanent. The changes that you experience after a serious injury can be nothing short of life-altering, which is why having an experienced personal injury lawyer on your side can make the difference between getting the compensation you need and struggling more than you should.

Data Collection and Records

Personal injury cases, like any lawsuit, require extensive documentation. This includes, but is not limited to, police reports, eyewitness statements, medical records, insurance forms, medical equipment orders, pharmacy receipts, copies of your prescriptions, hospital, nursing home, rehabilitation, or long term nursing facility records, and travel expenses. And because you are likely to have been unable to work during your convalescence, you may be required to submit records of your lost wages, tax statements, and copies of your unemployment forms. Taken individually or collectively, that is a lot of paperwork to deal with while also feeling ill and in pain. Having a personal injury attorney in San Diego, California can truly make the difference between excess stress and at least a modicum of calm during what is sure to be a difficult time for all involved.

What Kinds of Injuries Require a Personal Injury Attorney?

In order for a case to qualify as a personal injury claim, it must meet certain criteria set forth by the law. While the law seeks to protect and provide for individuals who have experienced such injuries, there must be guidelines followed that define the types of occurrences personal injury attorneys in San Diego, California can represent. 

Personal injury law covers a wide scope of injuries that may include anything from vehicular accidents, animal bites, deficiencies in product manufacturing, and criminal attacks. If you have experienced any of the situations and injuries listed below, it is highly recommended that you seek the services of a personal injury lawyer. Remember that while this is not an exhaustive list by any means, it does provide solid examples upon which claims are often based.

Slip and Falls

Slipping and sliding may seem like fun when you are a little kid, but it can result in dangerous falls, broken bones, surgical interventions, and much worse. Personal injuries that result from slips and falls can happen during winter ice storms, on freshly mopped restaurant floors, as a result of improperly installed rugs and carpets, and more. Injuries, particularly for the ill and elderly, can cause catastrophic medical and psychological complications, too. 

Wrongful Death

Deaths that occur as a result of another person’s wrongful actions, due to negligent behavior, nonadherence to rules of the road, safety regulations, or standard medical practices, can serve as the basis for a wrongful death claim.

Product Liabilities

Defective products, medications with unexpected, unanticipated, or adverse side effects, vehicles that flip over, work accidents, and plane crashes that result from mechanical problems or pilot error, all lay the groundwork for a personal injury claim.

Crime Victims

Family and survivors of victims who have died as a result of a crime can sue their loved one’s perpetrators. While there is no amount of money or compensation that can undo the crime or bring their loved one back, a financial award can, at the very least, help them pay their rent, buy groceries, and support themselves. This is a huge issue for all survivors, but an even larger one for those who have suffered the loss of their family breadwinner. 

Automobile Accidents

Automobile accidents are ubiquitous, as demonstrated by the more than 40,000 deaths that occurred as a result of vehicular accidents in 2018 across the United States. Automobile accidents that result in serious injuries occur daily due to distracted drivers, intoxicated drivers, mechanical errors, slippery road conditions, and faulty road signs. Drivers, as well as passengers, are at risk of personal injury in motor vehicle accidents. 

Intentional Injury

It should probably go without saying, but malicious intent to hurt others in any situation that causes harm or suffering, is fair game for a personal injury suit. 

Bicycle accidents

Bicyclists who do not follow traffic rules, veer out of their designated lanes, intentionally ride into others, drive over roads in disrepair, or are injured by other cyclists or drivers are likely candidates for personal injury claims.

Pedestrian accidents

Pedestrians who are injured by drivers or get hurt as a result of cracked sidewalks, uneven pavement, or poorly laid cement, can and should consider filing a personal injury claim.

Uninsured motorist accidents

These types of accidents are similar to the motor vehicle accidents already discussed, but introduce an additional layer of concern for drivers who are not insured. Uninsured motorists are responsible for the expenses the court would typically have an insurance company cover, making their burden that much greater. Uninsured drivers are not only motorists who do drive illegally, but at great expense to the other drivers, pedestrians and themselves.

Dog Bites

Personal injury lawyers in San Diego, California can support and defend individuals who have suffered as the result of a dog bite, too. These instances include bites by dogs you know, those you do not, and once friendly turned not-so-friendly canines. 

What Does it Mean When Your Insurance Company Acts in Bad Faith?

Insurance companies are expected to pay victims and survivors in nearly all personal injury cases. Perhaps not all that shockingly however, insurance companies tend not to want to pay the full amount a plaintiff has been awarded. In fact, some insurance companies may delay payments, refuse to cover additional medical costs, choose not to pay at all, pay less than they are supposed to, and in general, add to the stress and pain of your original injury. This is not to color “all” insurance companies in a negative light. Nevertheless, there are, unfortunately, insurance companies that behave in such a manner and are deemed to be acting in “bad faith.” 

How Can You Prove Your Insurance Company Has Acted in Bad Faith 

Your San Diego, California personal injury attorney must prove, according to the State of California Civil Code, Division IV, Part I, Title II, Chapter I, Article III, Section 3294, that there is clear and conclusive evidence that the insurance company has acted out of malice and fraud, as a means to subjecting the already injured party to more injury. That is a mouthful for sure but if it can be proven, you may receive not only the restitution you are due from your initial claim, but damages for the additional pain, suffering, and demeaning behavior to which you were unnecessarily subjected. 

Why You Need an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney in San Diego

Dealing with a personal injury case is, simply put, a difficult situation with which to contend. Your responsibilities, as the person who has endured pain and suffering due to someone else’s poor judgment, lack of skill, immaturity, neglect, or malice is likely to be long, arduous, and difficult. Ideally, you should be able to concern yourself only with your healing, recovery, and a return to health. Unfortunately however, we know that this is not the scenario with which most survivors are faced. And that is why the attorneys at the Law Offices of Elliott Kanter are here for you. 

Our expertise in personal injury law, how to best navigate the legal and medical worlds in such cases, and our care and concern for our clients, speaks volumes both in and outside the courtroom. If you ever experience personal injuries as the result of someone who should have known better but did not, you need to call us. The very least we can do is provide you with peace of mind and the knowledge that justice, in whatever form, shall be served.