Morrilton, AR Personal Injury Lawyer
After getting injured in Morrilton, you likely are and should be focused on your medical care. After that, we can help you recover compensation for those expenses and more by filing a lawsuit against the person who injured you.
No matter how personal injuries are caused, they often result in significant damages for victims. Besides medical bills, you might have lost wages because you could not work or left without transportation because your vehicle was totaled. Our team can negotiate on your behalf with insurance companies so ensure these costs are included. We can also guide you on when it might be better to reject an offer. If the insurance company tries to settle your case without compensating you for damages like pain and suffering, it will be better to reject it and pursue full compensation in a trial. If you are partially at fault, we can still help you cover some of your costs and fight to keep the reduction as little as possible.
Call our Conway personal injury lawyers today at (479) 316-0438 for your free and confidential case assessment.
Common Reasons to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Morrilton, AR
Personal injuries come in countless types and are caused for many different reasons, but at the heart of almost every accident is someone’s negligence. However, when that negligence violates a duty of care they owe to another person and causes damages, they can be held liable in a lawsuit.
Legal “duties” are created by situations and relationships. If a person breaches that duty of care, causing the injuries and subsequent damages, the court should award economic and non-economic damages. As such, personal injuries can occur in virtually any situation.
Arguably, the most common duty of care breached is the one drivers owe to others on the road in Morrilton. Every driver has a duty to act reasonably under the circumstances. If they do not, they can be sued even if they did get a ticket from the police. If they are cited, the traffic law violation can be used as evidence of negligence per se.
Another common example of violating a legal duty is when a doctor or healthcare professional breaches their duty to a patient. If a doctor, nurse, surgeon, or other provider deviates from the standard of care that another similarly trained and experienced medical professional would have provided.
Property owners have a duty to people who might be on their premises to make it safe or provide warnings for known dangers. They can be held accountable for premises liability if they fail to or do not regularly inspect the property.
Similarly, product designers and manufacturers have a duty not to make dangerous products or affix adequate warning labels to those that are. If a designer makes a hazardous product and does not recall it or a manufacturer negligently assembles it, they can be sued.
Whether your injuries were caused in a situation like those above or entirely different, our personal injury lawyers have the experience to prove your case. We will use different strategies for different cases, so you have the evidence you need to recover compensation.
How to Know When to Settle a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Morrilton, AR
The best way to know when to settle is to have our team handle negotiations with the insurance company. Insurance companies love to pressure injury victims desperate for help to accept offers far below the value they would recover in court. They figure you likely do not have the resources to find all the evidence you need to support your case adequately. We can gather it to start settlement negotiations from the strongest position possible.
We will start by gathering your medical records, pay stubs, property damage estimates, and other evidence to evaluate your economic losses. As we gather this information, we can assess your non-economic damages, such as mental anguish, PTSD, and physical pain. Once we accurately assess your complete damages, we can send a demand letter to the insurance company. This will set our baseline for negotiations.
However, you should expect your case to settle immediately, as there is usually some back-and-forth with the insurance company. If you suffer serious injuries, they might hesitate to pay the damages for future expenses you are likely to incur. In these situations, we can have experts, like medical professionals and accident reconstruction experts, provide statements to bolster your claim. If the case ends up in court, these experts can be called to testify to explain the issue’s complexities to the judge or jury.
If people witnessed your accident, we can contact them for you. If we can have them provide testimony during litigation, this can help settle the case quickly.
If the insurance company still does not agree to our demand after all this, we will take the claim to trial. Fortunately, most insurance companies are unwilling to take it that far most of the time, preferring to save time and money by just settling the case fairly.
Recovering Compensation When You Are Partially at Fault for Your Personal Injuries in Morrilton, AR
Some injury victims hesitate to file a lawsuit because they partially caused the accident or somehow contributed to the injuries being worse. Fortunately, you do not need to be blameless to recover compensation in a lawsuit. According to Ark. Code § 16-64-122, injury victims can recover compensation even if they were negligent as long as their negligence is not equal to or greater than the defendant’s. This rule is known as “modified comparative negligence.”
If the court determines that you are less than 50% at fault, you will be awarded damages, which will then be reduced by the percentage of fault you were assigned. For example, suppose the court awarded $100,000 in damages, and your proportion of fault was 40%. You would ultimately recover $60,000 in compensation. While this leaves to cover the other losses, it is far better than recovering nothing for your injuries.
Contact Our Morrilton, AR Personal Injury Lawyers Today to Discuss Your Case
For a free case review with our personal injury attorneys, contact us at (479) 316-0438.