Chatsworth Personal Injury Lawyer
If you suffered an injury because of someone else’s negligence, you should get in touch with a personal injury lawyer in Chatsworth, CA. You may be entitled to receive compensation. A lawyer can help you file a lawsuit and look out for your best interests.
How to Maximize Your Compensation in a Personal Injury Case
If you want to sue a person or entity for your personal injury, you of course want to maximize your compensation. Here are a few ways to do this:
- Obtain Evidence: In order to prove that someone else caused your injuries, you need sufficient evidence. For example, if you were injured in a car accident, you should take photos of the accident scene and your injuries. If there was video surveillance, you should request the video for your records.
- Seek Medical Care Promptly: Even if you don’t feel too badly hurt, you should still see a doctor soon after an accident. Some injuries don’t always show symptoms in the beginning, and you don’t want to put your health at rik. Also, seeking immediate medical attention is critical for your legal claim. If the negligent party’s insurance company discovers that you didn’t see a doctor right away, they may argue that you aren’t truly hurt.
- Stay Off of Social Media: When you’re in the middle of a personal injury lawsuit, you should avoid social media as much as possible. Otherwise, you could accidentally post something that could jeopardize your case. For instance, if you claim that you injured your back during a slip and fall accident, but posted a photo on Facebook of yourself hiking, it could jeopardize your case.
- Hire an Experienced Lawyer: If you plan to file a personal injury lawsuit against someone, it’s important to have an experienced personal injury lawyer in Chatsworth, CA on your side. He or she can help you negotiate a fair settlement with the insurance company and protect your legal rights.
- Resist the Urge to Accept the First Settlement Offer: When you have thousands of dollars in medical bills and don’t know when you can return to work, you may be eager to accept the insurance company’s first offer. However, this can hurt you in the long run. Insurance companies rarely offer favorable settlements in the beginning. After all, they care about the bottom line first. It’s best to give your lawyer time to work out a fair settlement.
5 Types of Personal Injuries
1. Slip and Fall Accident
A slip and fall accident can happen anywhere and everywhere you might be walking. A wet floor at the mall, a torn-up piece of carpet at your cousin’s house, and an icy sidewalk outside your grocery store are all potential causes of slip and fall accidents. In order for you to file a personal injury claim against the insurance company, you have to be able to show that the business or property owner knew the hazard existed and did nothing to remedy it. A personal injury lawyer in Chatsworth, CA, can tell you more about whether you have a case from a slip and fall.
2. Workplace Injury
You spend most of your waking hours at work, so it’s only reasonable to expect you might be injured on the job. Whether it’s a hazard of the job such as working around toxic substances, a repetitive motion injury such as carpal tunnel syndrome or bursitis, or an accident such as a fall from a height, workplace injuries are frightfully common. Most are covered under workers’ compensation law, but if a third party is involved, for example, the manufacturer of a crane that toppled over, you may be able to file a personal injury claim against them with the help of Barry P. Goldberg, a personal injury lawyer in Chatsworth, CA.
3. Car Accident
Many people think that if it’s just an accident, it doesn’t count as a personal injury. They’re wrong. The vast majority of personal injuries are the result of negligence or recklessness, neither of which has malicious intent behind them. If you’ve been the victim of a car accident, you may be able to successfully pursue a personal injury claim against the insurance companies involved. A personal injury lawyer in Chatsworth, CA, can help you figure out if that’s the case for your claim.
4. Dog Bite
Being bitten by a dog is a frightening experience. However, it doesn’t have to become an expensive experience. You may be able to file a claim against the dog’s owner’s insurance to pay for medical bills and lost wages after the dog bit you. As a personal injury lawyer in Chatsworth, CA, Barry P. Goldberg may tell you whether it’s worth pursuing a claim in this case.
5. Birth Injury
A birth injury is one that occurs due to negligence or recklessness during childbirth. Improper use of forceps or a vacuum can cause brain injuries. Failure to perform a c-section could result in oxygen deprivation in the baby, leading to brain damage. Any breach of the standard of care for the mother or child could become a personal injury lawsuit.
Slipping and Falling On Someone Else’s Property
Slipping or tripping and falling on someone else’s property can lead to an awkward situation. In fact, many people are hesitant to even file a personal injury claim after something like this happens because they may feel embarrassed that it happened in the first place or may feel uncomfortable filing a claim against someone else when they are the ones who slipped and fell. However, just because you are the one who slipped and fell does not mean the accident is completely your fault. If you suspect that someone else’s negligence was fully responsible for, or contributed to, your slip and fall accident, it is a good idea to reach out to our office to see how we can help.
How does California law affect my slip and fall claim?
When you decide to move forward with a slip and fall claim, it is important to remember that there are certain laws in each state that will affect how and when you should file your claim. At Barry P. Goldberg, we know that some of the most important laws will be the:
- Shared negligence rules
- Statute of limitations
Shared Negligence. Once you decide to move forward with a slip and fall claim, a trusted Chatsworth, California personal injury lawyer knows that the person you are filing your claim against (likely the property owner) will probably be more than happy to step up and say you are partially at fault for the accident. This is called “comparative negligence.” When this happens, and if the property owner is successful with this claim, then you are likely to see a big amount of the compensation you are owed taken away from you. You want to speak with your lawyer about this and work to come up with counterarguments regarding comparative negligence.
Statute of Limitations. Each state will have statutes of limitations regarding personal injury accidents like slipping and falling. In California, you have two years from when the accident happened to file a slip and fall claim. In addition, if some of your property was damaged in the slip and fall, you will have three years to file a separate claim regarding property damage. There are almost always exceptions to the statutes of limitations in different states, so it is important to speak with your lawyer about the details of your accident and what you may qualify for.
Getting into a slip-and-fall accident can be scary. The seconds that it takes you to go from walking normally to hitting the ground can be devastating and can have a lifelong impact on your mental and physical health. You should not hesitate to get the legal help you need from our team after you were injured in a slip and fall accident.
Schedule a meeting with a personal injury lawyer in Chatsworth, CA like those at Barry P. Goldberg today.