personal injury cases

A Phoenix personal injury attorney is an attorney that helps people who are injured as a result of someone else’s negligence. Personal injury attorneys typically help all injury victims, regardless of how the injury occurred. The most common types of injuries are car accidents, motorcycle accidents, slip and falls, bike accidents, construction accidents, and nursing home abuse cases. Of course, there are many other ways that people are injured, including dog bites, pedestrian accidents, assaults, and swimming accidents. Whenever someone is injured or there is a fatal accident and it is due to the fault of another individual, it is likely that a personal injury lawyer is the correct type of lawyer to seek legal guidance from to see if you have a valid claim. Injury lawyers work hard to uncover evidence and put together information to prove that the innocent individual was injured because of the negligence of another person.

Phoenix Personal Injury Statistics

Here are some of the Phoenix personal injury statistics from the past several years:

• There were 29,062 Phoenix car accidents in 2010, leaving 149 dead and 15,050 injured, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT).
• There were 525 Phoenix pedestrian accidents in 2009, according to AZ Central.
• There were 467 Phoenix bicycle accidents in 2009, according to AZ Central.
• Approximately 1,000 people are treated every day for dog bite injuries in the United States, according to multiple sources, and approximately 4.7 dog bites occur each year, according to the American Humane Association.

Contact a Phoenix Personal Injury Attorney

If you have been injured by the fault of another person, it is best to consult with a personal injury lawyer to see if you have a claim. Many claims that are brought against at-fault parties help prevent future injuries to other people. There are many statute of limitations, though, that are necessary to know and that can be hidden in the law. An injured person or the family should at the very least be informed about their legal rights. To understand your legal rights when you are injured or have a loved one that was involved in a fatal accident, call the Breyer Law Offices, P.C. for a free consultation.

Almost every Arizona personal injury case ends one of three ways. The first way is that the case can be dismissed. At times, the person who was hurt decides not to push it any further for their own reasons. Or a judge orders that the case does not have sufficient merit. When this happens, the case simply ends; there are rarely any other options to pursue.

The second and by far most common way a case concludes is by settlement. This means both the defendant and the plaintiff come to an agreement before the case goes to trial. In other words, the person alleged to be at fault and his or her insurance provider agree to an amount of money that is fair compensation under the circumstances and the plaintiff, with the help of a lawyer in most cases, accepts. Settlements are not always favorable to both sides. And even if both sides benefit, they do not always benefit equally.

Sometimes, a settlement is extremely favorable to the injured person and the insurance company or at-fault person are unhappy with it. Other times, it works the opposite way and the person who proposed the settlement ultimately feels slighted. The defendant or insurance company often tries to engineer the settlement to their advantage using the leverage a large insurer possesses. In numerous cases, settling a lawsuit out of court leaves both sides unhappy and wishing a better solution could have been found. However, the only truly relevant key to a settlement is that it be agreed upon by both parties. Neither party can literally force a settlement. A settlement only occurs when both parties agree that they will not accept the risk of going to trial (where either side faces the possibility of losing) or spend the time and money necessary for further litigation.

Finally, some cases are resolved by a judgment or through the appeals process. Both are the result of taking the case to trial. A judgment is a simply an official piece of paper signed by the judge. Usually, a judgment occurs after a jury trial at which the jury has rendered its verdict. The verdict could be an award to the plaintiff or not. But the jury verdict is not final, although it would appear that way to us because of the way most television courtroom dramas depict trials. The jury verdict leads to a judgment that must be signed by the judge to become valid. The judgment is most often approved for the same amount that the jury has rendered. After the judgment, the case is eligible to be taken up on appeal. If you are curious about learning more about your legal rights and options in a potential personal injury case, please contact the skilled Chandler accident attorneys at Breyer Law Offices for a free consultation. We can help.

Mark Breyer, Arizona personal injury attorney, continues his discussion of requirements that are incumbent upon any personal injury plaintiff to prove to win their case.

Fortunately, most negligent acts do not result in an injury. It is also fortunate that even where an injury occurs to an innocent person, and even where that injury was caused by someone else’s neglect, the injury is often minimal. Most injuries that are inconsequential are not worthy of bringing an Arizona personal injury claim.

To have a valid personal injury claim, it is not enough that a negligent act caused an injury. Instead, the victim must be able to prove that he/she suffered an injury as a result of another’s negligence. While the allegation of a new injury (or aggravation of prior injury) must be true, it must also be able to be proven with evidence.

We frequently get calls from people that were involved in an Arizona auto accident caused by the negligence of someone else. Though these individuals were not injured, they are understandably angry that their lives were impacted by another’s carelessness or, sometimes, outright recklessness. We are asked by these people whether they can bring a personal injury claim. The answer is no.

Of course, to whatever degree their lives were impacted by the event, they have a theoretical right to make a claim. The defendant or insurance company for the defendant may be willing to offer a small settlement in order to close the claim to and eliminate financial exposure for a belated injury claim. However, to have a personal injury case one must be able to prove an injury resulting from the initial incident. If someone cannot prove they suffered an injury, they have not met this necessary element of a personal injury claim.

This type of question from someone who was not injured in an incident most often takes the form of someone who was involved in a Phoenix car accident. The people who raise this question are usually relieved that they were among the lucky ones who were not hurt. However, they may need their car repaired, or need a rental car, or have a need to get the car declared a total loss so they can purchase a new car. Of course, the law does provide protection to someone with car damage or any type of property damage, due to another person’s negligence; however, this is not really a “personal injury” action, but a “property damage” claim.

The insurance industry – both in the insurance policies they write and in the way they process the claims – usually treat property damage separate from an injury claim. Anything related to a rental car, items damaged in a car at the time of an incident, loss of value to a vehicle, and so forth often are handled as distinct claims from an injury claim.

From a practical standpoint, it is usually lawyers that handle personal injury claims that also take care of these property damage claims for their clients. The legal issues are similar, the factual issues are similar, and it simply makes the most sense for one law firm to handle these issues for their clients.

However, it is important to understand this distinction between a personal injury claim and the related property damage claim: if no injury can be proven, no “personal injury” action exists.

Mark Breyer, Arizona personal injury attorney, continues his discussion of requirements that are incumbent upon any personal injury plaintiff to prove to win their case.

A personal injury claim only exists when someone other than the injured person recklessly or negligently causes an injury to the victim. For instance, over the years we have talked to people who wanted to know if they could make a claim where they were injured in an Arizona auto accident that they, themselves, caused. By way of example, one mother called us after her daughter negligently drove into the rear end of another vehicle. The mother wanted to know if her daughter could make a claim through her insurance policy as a result of the medical bills incurred by her daughter.

We explained that it is possible that the daughter may be able to receive reimbursement of her medical bills from their own insurance company, depending on which insurance coverage had been purchased prior to the incident. However, the first step in a personal injury claim begins with being able to prove that another person was negligent. Well, in this example there was someone that was negligent: the mother’s own daughter. An injury victim that was the cause of her own injuries has no personal injury claim. Since no one else caused the injury, the potential “case” would not make it past this first requirement in the analysis.

There are many types of injuries that are suffered as a result of someone else’s negligence. However, not every injury is meant to be compensated under the law. In fact, although we have no statistics on the subject, it is probable that most injuries are not compensable under the law.

Regardless of the type of case, most Arizona personal injury cases have specific requirements that must be met under the law in order to have the opportunity to obtain compensation for the injury victim. What evidence is required under the law to meet these criteria can vary widely depending on the type of personal injury case, but these different considerations must always be taken into account. These requirements that are incumbent upon any personal injury plaintiff to prove include:

1. prove a person/party was negligent and responsible for the incident;
2. prove that the negligence/incident caused an injury;
3. prove the extent and duration of the injury and any damages that arose as a result; and
4. be able to obtain the money owed from the responsible party/parties

As each of these elements are vital to the ability to pursue a personal injury claim. Although these criteria are each distinct and necessary elements of an injury claim, remember that this is not a situation where “most” is good enough. Either all four requirements must be met or no recovery is likely to occur.