Lavaca, AR Personal Injury Lawyer

If you have been injured by another person’s negligence in Lavaca, you can get compensation by filing a lawsuit. Our lawyers can help you get this process started immediately.

Winning a personal injury claim can be challenging as every case has several challenges that need to be overcome. Our team can help you get over the hurdles by collecting evidence that shows the defendant owed you a duty of care that they breached when they negligently injured you. We will also use the evidence to argue how their negligence caused your damages. Further, we will ensure your case is filed before the deadline passes or determine if an exception applies to your situation if it already has.

Call our personal injury lawyers at (479) 316-0438 to receive your free case assessment today.

Proving the Elements of a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Lavaca, AR

Personal injuries can occur in countless situations in Lavaca. Many are caused by car accidents, while others result from medical malpractice. Regardless of the complexity of the case, every personal injury claim must prove certain factors to be successful. Further, victims must provide evidence that shows it is more likely than not that the defendant is liable, known as a “preponderance of the evidence.”

The preponderance of the evidence is established by proving four distinct elements: duty, breach, causation, and real damages. Each element builds on the other, so if any one of them remains unproven, the defendant will not be held liable for the accident. Fortunately, our personal injury attorneys know what evidence and arguments you will need to prove these factors. With our experience, we are familiar with the types of information that link the elements together.

Duty of Care and Breach of Duty

First, we need to establish that the defendant owed you a ”duty of care.” This is a legal obligation placed on people, depending on the circumstances. Essentially, legal duties are based on the relationship between the parties of a lawsuit. For instance, drivers owe a duty of reasonable care to others on the road, doctors owe a duty to their patients, and property owners have a duty to make their premises safe for those visiting.

When someone acts negligently, failing to use reasonable care under the circumstances, they have “breached” the duty of care.

Causation

Duty and breach are usually not the challenging elements in your case. Causation is often the factor most argued over in a personal injury claim. We could prove that the defendant had a duty of care that they breached, but the case will fall if causation is not established. Proving causation typically involves assessing the evidence as a whole, including medical records, accident reports, and witness testimony.

We recommend getting medical care immediately after your accident so the accident and your injuries are closely linked in time. This will also help distinguish between your current injuries and injuries from your past so the defendant cannot claim you were already injured. However, you can claim damages if past injuries were made worse by your recent accident.

Damages

The last element is “real” damages. “Real” in the legal sense means having losses that are more than just hurt feelings. Economic damages are the primary form of damages victims claim. These include medical expenses, lost wages, property damages, and out-of-pocket costs.

Non-economic damages, also known as “pain and suffering,” are just as “real” as the damages listed above, although they are less tangible and harder to calculate. These damages compensate victims for the impact their injuries have had, like causing daily pain and emotional distress. You can also recover from loss of enjoyment in life, lost time with your spouse and children, and other subjective consequences.

Our team’s job is to gather the evidence from your providers to prove these damages. We will review your medical bills and other documents to assess your economic losses. To prove your pain and suffering, you can provide testimony of your experiences since the accident, as well as submit evidence from therapists and journals you might have kept following the incident.

How Long You Have to File a Personal Injury Claim in Lavaca, AR

Besides proving the elements above, the other major hurdle in every personal injury lawsuit is the statute of limitations. As you might already know, this is the deadline placed on your right to file a claim for a particular incident. If it is not filed in time, you will likely not be able to recover any damages. Thus, you take a serious risk by waiting to file your claim.

Ark. Code. § 16-56-105 only provides three years following the accident to file a personal injury lawsuit. That time limit is even shorter if you were the victim of medical malpractice. § 16-114-203(a) allows victims only two years to file these claims. Like most laws, though, there are exceptions that can preserve your right to sue even after the statute of limitations has passed.

When You Might Have More Time to File Your Personal Injury Case in Lavaca, AR

Arkansas law recognizes several situations where imposing the general statute of limitations would in victims would be unfair. For example, children are not of legal age to bring a personal injury lawsuit, so it would not make sense to apply the three-year limitation to them. Thus, § 16-56-116(a) gives minor victims three years to file after turning years old. This law also allows those with mental disabilities three years to file from the date the disability does not prevent them from exercising their rights.

Victims should not be penalized if they cannot reasonably discover their injuries within two years. For example, if a surgeon left a foreign object in your body and you did not discover it until after the statute of limitations passed, you will have one year to commence your case from either the date you actually discovered it or the date you should have reasonably discovered the foreign object, whichever date is earlier, according to § 16-114-203(b).

If the foreign object was left in a child, § 16-114-203(c) provides two years to file from the date of discovery or when the child turns 11, whichever date is later. However, if the medical injury could not have reasonably been discovered before the child turned 11, they have two years from discovering the injury or the child’s 19th birthday to file a claim, whichever is the earliest of the two.

Call Our Lavaca, AR Personal Injury Attorneys Today to Get the Support You Need

To get your free case review with our personal injury attorneys, contact us at (479) 316-0438 today.