Personal Injury Lawsuits

A vector illustration of court scene

When you decide to start a lawsuit, it can be confusing to identify the responsible parties. Sometimes there are a lot of people involved in your injury; maybe you’re suing a business, and you’re not sure about its official name or who the owners are. Factual investigation is often a crucial part of starting a personal injury lawsuit.

You can select more than one defendant to sue if that person or company is somehow connected to the harm you suffered. There are “necessary” defendants — people without whom a court will not be able to evaluate all the facts of your case or reach a conclusion. “Permissive” defendants are not essential to the case, but if your dispute with them involves the same facts and issues as your dispute with the necessary defendants, you can usually include them in your lawsuit.

You may also want to expand your lawsuit to parties not directly involved but still liable. For example, if you are suing someone who harmed you in the course of performing a job, his or her employer may be liable. If a poorly designed or malfunctioning product is involved, you may be able to sue the companies and individuals involved in the product’s design, manufacture, distribution or sale.

Suing individual owners of corporations, or a corporate parent of a subsidiary, can be difficult. The corporate structure limits liability, but there are exceptions. A court will “pierce the corporate veil” when fraud is involved or when justice demands it.

Before filing your lawsuit, you need to consider all those who have a connection to your claim. An experienced personal injury attorney can help you evaluate the facts of your case and determine who to sue.

If circumstances have required you to get involved in litigation, you may find the process of selecting an attorney to be overwhelming. There are, however, some steps you can take to make the selection process a bit easier.

First, you should consider hiring someone who specializes in your type of case. If you had an automobile accident, consider hiring an attorney who exclusively practices personal injury law and preferably one with a track record of success in car accident cases. If you were wrongfully fired, hire a litigator with experience in employment rights.

Since you and the attorney you choose will be working very closely together, it’s important to choose someone with whom you feel comfortable. How long has the attorney been practicing law? Has the attorney ever handled a case like yours before? What was the outcome? How much are fees and how are they paid? Does the attorney seem like he or she is concerned about your case? Does the attorney seem knowledgeable about the area of law? Does the attorney articulate himself clearly and effectively? Does he have a credible and trustworthy demeanor? Remember, a judge or jury may be making the same assessments down the line.

With respect to fees, most attorneys will take a personal injury case on a contingency basis, meaning that you only pay if they succeed, typically about one-third of the judgment or settlement amount. You may be able to negotiate the percentage, especially if your damages are significant and your case against the potential defendant strong. In addition to contingency fee structure, you should also be aware that many attorneys will bill for “out of pocket expenses” such as $0.25 per page for photocopies, $1.00 per page for faxes and cost of hiring experts and consultants. Again, depending on the strength of your case, you may be able to negotiate these terms. If you’re involved in a commercial or contract dispute, most such cases are billed on an hourly basis. If you’re a plaintiff, a hybrid fee structure whereby you would pay a lower hourly fee but provide the lawyer with a percentage of the settlement may be an interesting option.

It’s also a good idea to find out how long the attorney believes the case will take. Obviously, many factors are beyond your attorney’s control, but you should be able to determine a general timeline and what type of resources the attorney will commit to your case. It’s also important to know how you will be kept updated throughout the proceeding. It can be very frustrating if your attorney does not keep you informed on the status of your case. Ask the attorney how he or she plans to communicate with you and how often you can expect a status report.

Choosing an attorney is a big decision. Before you decide to choose one based on the number of television commercials he or she runs, or the size of the yellow pages ad the firm maintains, it’s important to sit down with the attorney to make sure the relationship is the right fit for your case.

It’s not at all unusual for personal injury attorneys to handle cases involving a wide spectrum of injuries resulting from dog bites, car accidents, poorly maintained sidewalks or defective products. Generally, these injuries are relatively minor-cuts, bruises, broken bones and whiplash. Fewer attorneys, however, have extensive experience with catastrophic injury cases such as those involving dismemberment, brain injury and severe burns. It’s difficult, for instance, to convince insurers that the loss of a limb is worth the full limits of an insurance policy. It also requires a special ability to convince a jury that a brain injury has caused subtle but important changes in personality, memory and the ability to perform specific tasks related to an occupation.

In addition to a successful track record of obtaining outstanding compensation for individuals with similar injuries, your attorney should have a network of medical professionals who can provide insight into your claim, as well as expert testimony in trial. Only a physician can prove that hard-to-detect memory issues affect a person’s ability to perform the activities of daily living. A life care planner can accurately estimate the long-term costs of necessary at-home medical care. And a mental health professional can effectively identify, document and demonstrate hard-to-detect personality changes following a traumatic brain injury. When meeting with a personal injury attorney, ensure that he or she has a network of medical consultants that can be called on at key points in your case.

By working with an attorney who can demonstrate the knowledge and experience needed to effectively handle your serious injury case, you can take a step towards ensuring you will receive the financial compensation you need and deserve.

Each day, thousands of advertisements for personal injury lawyers can be found in local newspapers, on television stations and even on social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. Most of these ads explain that the firm does not collect any fees unless they win. Of course, there is usually a catch with this statement and it centers around what the advertising firm means by “fees” and what other costs you might be expected to pay regardless of whether or not you win your case.
Attorney fees usually involve the time and labor of the attorneys and their staff. These fees do not include the out-of-pocket case costs that are inevitable in any court proceeding. So while you may not be required to pay any attorney fees upfront or at all (unless you win), you may be required to pay all related case costs. Case costs are usually expenses charged by third parties for work on your case. These may include court filing fees, expert witness fees, cost of obtaining medical records, court reporter fees, etc. Depending on the scope of your case and the duration of these proceedings, these fees can easily be thousands of dollars.

While some firms will require you to pay case costs as they are incurred, others won’t require upfront payment (especially, if you have a very strong case) and will instead deduct these expenses from the final settlement. Combined with legal fees, these costs may add up to 50% or even more of the settlement. In selecting an attorney for your personal injury matter, it’s important that you take time to understand what expenses, in addition to attorney fees, you will incur.