Do I have a Case?
In order to get a good settlement or win a verdict in a personal injury case, you must first have a case. What that means is that the law recognizes that you have been injured and requires another person or insurance company to compensate you for your injuries.
You have a case when three legal requirements are met.
First, another person or company must have done something that was wrong and is therefore at fault. The law defines fault differently in different types of cases. For example, in automobile accident cases the other driver is said to be negligent if the other driver speeds, runs a stop sign or follows to close. In drug injury cases, the pharmaceutical company is said to be strictly liable if the pharmaceutical company makes a defective drug or fails to warn patients and doctors of harmful risks or side effects. In medical malpractice cases the doctor is said to be negligent if the doctor fails to follow the standard of care in his or her specialty.
The second element needed for a personal injury case is damages. You, the injured party, must have been injured in some way. Usually that means a physical injury accompanied by pain and suffering. Examples of physical injuries are: broken bones, soft tissues injuries, whiplash, bruising, scarring and disability. In some rare cases, you may be legally injured if you have solely economic injuries or solely emotional injuries. Once you meet the legal requirement for suffering an injury, you are entitled to recover not only for your physical injury but also for lost income, medical bills, chiropractic bills, therapist bills and even loss of enjoyment of life.
The third element needed for a personal injury case is causation. What that means is that the party who is at fault caused your injuries. This seems rather obvious at first. For example, imagine that you are driving your vehicle and suddenly a careless driver runs a red light and nearly hits your car. This scares you but you are luckily unscathed. As you drive off, your brakes fail, your car crashes into a guardrail and you injury your neck. You do not have a case against the driver of the car who ran the red light. His negligence did not cause your injuries. On the other hand, if you doctor prescribes medication to you and that medication causes you an injury due to a side effect known to the manufacturer but concealed by the manufacturer to both your doctor and yourself, the wrongful conduct of concealing the dangerous side effect is legally considered to be causative of your injuries.
This may all sound very complicated. We analyze cases under these criteria every day. As a result, our experience allows us to quickly determine whether you have a case. Quite often we can tell you over the phone whether you have a case or not. Sometimes, we may need to do some research to determine whether you have a case. Whether we can tell you over the phone or whether we need to do some research, we will never charge you a fee for this service. We only charge fees on personal injury cases when we accept the case and obtain a settlement or verdict for you.
Let one of our Provo personal injury attorneys give you a free consultation on your personal injury case. You can either call us a 800-460-5760 or fill out a request for a free case review form.
