People throughout Doylestown are injured because of the conduct of other individuals or entities. The devastating negative ripples from an unexpected injury could adversely affect an injured person’s health while straining their financial resources. If you were injured, you do not have to handle the situation alone. The Reiff Law Firm has represented injured individuals for decades.
A serious injury impacts more than just the health of the victim. Depending on the severity of the injury, a person could face significant medical expenses, ongoing costs for therapy or healthcare, and a substantial loss of income. If you were not at fault, you deserve compensation for your losses. An attorney can help you prepare a formal complaint, obtain important evidence, and evaluate your damages so that you get the maximum amount of compensation possible.
Contact our personal injury attorneys by calling (215) 709-6940 and make an appointment for a free case review with our team at The Reiff Law Firm.
Why You Need an Experienced Personal Injury Attorney for Your Doylestown, PA Case
Anyone who has been through a lawsuit or even a single legal hearing can tell you that the judicial system is extremely complex. The law is highly complicated, and the procedures of simply getting a case into a courtroom are dizzying for those with no legal training or background. This is why having a lawyer is crucial to your personal injury case.
To begin, you might realize that someone has harmed or wronged you somehow, but you might not fully understand how the situation might constitute a legal violation of your rights. Your attorney should be able to recognize the nature of your claim when you explain how you were injured. Maybe you have a typical car accident claim. Maybe you have a premises liability case on your hands. Still, perhaps you have a product liability claim against a retailer or manufacturer. Meeting with an attorney as soon as possible will help you start your case on the right foot.
Once you understand the legalities of the situation, your next step is to work on getting your case before a judge. While we might think of filing a lawsuit as a single action (e.g., filing paperwork with the court), it is actually much more than that. An intense amount of preparation, planning, and strategizing goes into a case before it ever sees the inside of a courtroom. It is not unusual for an attorney to spend months getting a case ready. Doing so on your own is not advisable. Call our experienced lawyers to help you.
Personal Injury Lawsuits in Doylestown, PA
Personal injury lawsuits in Doylestown are legal disputes arising from incidents where a person is injured or suffers harm. Additionally, another individual or entity is legally responsible for the injury and any incurred damages. Often, the insurance company for the responsible party will compensate the injured victim for medical expenses and costs.
For instance, in a car accident, the at-fault driver’s insurance provider would typically pay for the medical expenses, while in a medical malpractice case, our personal injury attorney could be working directly with the physician’s or hospital’s insurance company.
If you are injured due to another’s negligent behavior, our experienced personal injury attorney will typically attempt two approaches to settle the matter.
Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Doylestown
In personal injury cases, we will file a civil complaint against the individual or entity responsible for the harm you sustained. Sometimes, a case has multiple defendants, and we will work to include any party that might be responsible for your injury.
The details in the complaint must be thorough and specific. You must include information about you, the defendant, the accident or incident that led to your injuries, and how your injuries affect you. Additionally, you need information about evidence. You do not have to include all possible evidence or even enough evidence to meet your burden of proof. However, there should be sufficient evidence to show that you have a valid cause of action and that a trial is warranted.
Finally, we must include details about your damages and what kind of relief (i.e., financial compensation). We cannot pull a number out of thin air. We must explain why your damages are so valuable and how we arrived at our estimate for fair compensation.
Rules regarding the format of the complaint can be found under the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure. According to 231 Pa. Code § 1018, the complaint must include a case caption. The caption must include important details such as the names of the parties, the name of the court where the case is filed, and a filing number. If there is no case caption, the complaint may be deemed insufficient.
Another important rule is found under 231 Pa. Code § 1019 and explains how details of the complaint are to be laid out. Facts and information are to be listed as averments. Each averment is like a bullet point of information. A single averment should include one or two facts. Complaints are often full of dozens of averments. Trying to convey information another way might cause your complaint to be rejected.
Common Types of Personal Injury Lawsuits Filed in Doylestown, PA
Personal injury lawsuits are filed for a wide variety of injuries. Motor vehicle accidents are one of the most common occurrences that give rise to personal injury lawsuits. Every time someone gets behind the wheel in Pennsylvania, they assume a certain risk. However, that risk is often compounded by the negligent conduct of other motorists on the road. It is important to note that accidents are not limited to cars – motorcycles, trucks, buses, and ATVs are also involved in accidents in Doylestown.
Another common reason people file personal injury claims is medical malpractice. We trust our medical professionals and healthcare providers to make informed and accurate decisions concerning our health and well-being. However, medical errors occur, often resulting in devastating and long-lasting injuries.
Medical malpractice encompasses many types of conduct, including surgical errors, failure to diagnose a condition, birth injuries, and mistakes in prescribing or dispensing medication. Our personal injury attorneys have the resources and medical experts available to prosecute a medical malpractice claim vigorously.
People are often injured because of unsafe conditions in and around the property they are inhabiting or visiting. Property owners, landlords, and managers have a responsibility to ensure that their properties are reasonably safe. An injured individual could file a “slip and fall” lawsuit if they are injured due to unreasonably hazardous conditions of a walkway or staircase. Likewise, a property owner or manager could be held accountable in a premises liability lawsuit if someone is injured because they failed to properly maintain their property.
Possible Damages You Can Claim and Recover in a Doylestown, PA Personal Injury Case
Your damages should encompass everything you have endured and lost because of the defendant’s harmful actions. For many, damages include painful injuries and medical costs to treat those injuries, but the true extent of your damages may be greater. Talk to our personal injury attorneys about your case so we can help you identify and evaluate all possible damages.
As mentioned before, your injuries and medical costs are likely a major factor in your calculations for damages. Even minor injuries may require costly medical care. The more severe your injuries are, the more expensive your treatment will likely be. Some people with severe injuries incur thousands upon thousands of dollars in medical debt that they have no hope of paying for on their own.
You must also consider the value of the property you lost in the accident. This is common in personal injury claims for things like car accidents, where vehicles and the contents inside might be damaged or destroyed. Common examples of damaged property include cars, laptops, cell phones, jewelry, watches, bags, and various other personal items.
Personal injuries often come with a cost that transcends money. Your pain, suffering, and humiliation might not have come with a price tag, but they still should be compensated. Assessing these kinds of non-economic damages is often difficult, as they are inherently subjective. As such, juries usually have the final say on what they are worth.
How You Can Find Evidence to Use in a Personal Injury Case in Doylestown, PA
Evidence is arguably the most important aspect of your personal injury claim. Without it, your case cannot possibly survive, let alone succeed. How and where you obtain evidence varies based on your legal claim, accident, and injuries. This is why hiring a lawyer is so crucial, as they should have the skills and knowledge to help you find the evidence you need.
We can start our search for evidence in the area where you were injured. Were you hurt in an accident on the road? Maybe you were injured in your own home or someone else’s home. The location of the accident or incident might have a lot of valuable evidence. It is a good idea to snap pictures or record videos of the scene immediately after the accident. This way, if the scene is cleaned up or altered, we at least have photographic evidence of what it looked like when you were hurt.
We might also look at your medical records to prove the extent of your injuries and related damages. Medical records might be important in cases where the plaintiff’s injuries have healed by the time they get to a trial. They are also important when the injuries are complex, unique, or unusual.
Other Considerations in Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit
Timing is important when filing a personal injury lawsuit. Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations sets the legal deadline to file a personal injury claim at two years from the date of the injury. Therefore, if you want to utilize the civil court system to petition for compensation, you must make sure your claim is filed before the deadline passes. Additionally, there are pragmatic reasons for beginning the process sooner rather than later. A successful personal injury claim requires evidence, and any delay in retaining the services of our Doylestown attorney could result in crucial evidence becoming lost or unavailable.
Additionally, to hold a defendant liable in a personal injury lawsuit, our Doylestown attorney must prove the behavior was negligent. Establishing negligence requires showing four elements.
- The plaintiff was owed a duty of care
- There was a breach of that duty
- The breach caused the plaintiff’s injury
- The plaintiff suffered actual damages because of the injury
Call Our Doylestown Personal Injury Lawyers for a Free Consultation
For a free initial claims review to begin your case, call our personal injury lawyers of The Reiff Law Firm at (215) 709-6940.
