When someone else’s negligence causes you serious injury, you may find yourself with a lot of questions—not to mention immense bills that can interfere with your ability to manage your finances. Not only do you have to deal with the losses associated with your injury, you may have lost your income and suffered other financial devastation.
Are you dealing with the aftermath of serious injuries due to someone else’s negligence in Palatka? Do you have questions about your right to compensation and how to move forward? Steven A. Bagen & Associates can help. Contact us today at (800) BAGEN-LAW to schedule your free consultation with a compassionate Palatka personal injury attorney.
Steven A. Bagen & Associates: Palatka Personal Injury Lawyers
At Steven A. Bagen & Associates, we have extensive experience dealing with a wide range of personal injury claims and helping victims pursue the compensation they deserve for their injuries.
Our dedicated team of Palatka attorneys has spent more than three decades practicing law in Florida. If you suffered serious injuries in Palatka due to another party’s negligence, we can help you learn more about your right to compensation.
We offer our clients more information about the compensation they may deserve.
Following serious injuries, you may not know how much compensation you should expect—and that puts the power in the hands of the insurance company, since they may try to press you to accept an offer that simply does not reflect your needs.
At Steven A. Bagen & Associates, we provide our clients with a full breakdown of the compensation they should expect after a serious accident so that they have the power to push back when an offer does not meet their needs.
We help investigate all the contributing factors in your accident.
A personal injury claim relies on determining who caused your accident. At Steven A. Bagen & Associates, we know that in many cases, more than one factor may contribute to an accident, which can leave both parties liable for your injuries.
We help look at all potential causes of your accident to give you a better idea of whom you need to sue for compensation for your injuries. We also help collect evidence that can help our clients prove who caused their accidents.
We support our clients from the first contact with the insurance company through a resolution to their claims.
You can benefit from having a lawyer to help with your Palatka personal injury claim from the earliest days after your accident. We can help walk you through how to deal with your insurance company, your right to compensation, and information about what you can share with friends, family members, and social media. With our comprehensive legal advice, many of our clients have effectively maximized the compensation they have recovered for severe injuries.
Palatka Personal Injury Claims
At Steven A. Bagen & Associates, our team of experienced personal injury attorneys has helped deal with a wide range of potential accident claims.
Car Accidents
Auto accidents can prove devastating for many victims. You may find yourself suffering from traumatic brain injury, back and neck injuries, broken bones, or a host of other serious injuries that can have an immense impact on your daily life and freedoms.
Following a car accident, you should not settle for the first settlement offer issued by an insurance company, particularly since the insurance company may try to limit the compensation you can recover. Instead, work with an experienced car accident attorney to learn more about the compensation you really deserve for your injuries and how to pursue it.
Motorcycle Accidents
Motorcycle accidents can cause even more severe injuries than truck accidents because motorcycles do not provide any protection from the pavement or from the vehicle that strikes the motorcycle rider. In the aftermath of a motorcycle accident, motorcycle accident victims may find themselves contending with rising medical bills and immense limitations.
Some police officers may also have an intrinsic bias against motorcycle riders that can make it difficult to prove that the other driver caused your accident. An attorney can help fight on your behalf, collecting evidence of who caused your accident and calculating the compensation you deserve.
Truck Accidents
A truck accident investigation often requires an in-depth look, not only at the accident scene, the vehicles involved, and the injured parties, but at the truck driver’s record and the company he works for, including any company policies that may have contributed to the accident or its severity.
Often, truck accidents result in severe injuries for the victims due to the immense size and weight of the truck. An attorney can help look into the details of the truck accident, evaluate those vital records, and give you more information about how to pursue compensation for those life-altering injuries.
Nursing Home Abuse
When you choose a nursing home for a loved one, you expect your loved one to receive a high standard of care that will support a higher quality of life than he could have on his own, if he chose to remain at home instead of residing elsewhere.
When abuse occurs, it can prove devastating, not only for your loved one’s physical condition, but for your emotional wellbeing and peace of mind.
Nursing home abuse may include:
- Physical abuse
- Emotional abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Financial abuse
If your loved one suffers any type of abuse in a nursing home, you may need to act quickly to help prevent further problems. An attorney can help investigate those allegations, collect evidence, and make it easier to establish liability.
Medical Malpractice
Doctors often hold their patients’ lives—and the quality of their lives—in their hands. When a doctor engages in negligent behavior, it can threaten a patient’s quality of life for a long time moving forward.
Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor fails to provide the high standard of treatment expected across the medical community, resulting in serious injury to a patient. It may include elements like failure to diagnose, misdiagnosis, or failure to treat.
In extreme cases, medical malpractice may also involve “never events”: events that should never occur while taking care of a patient, like surgical errors or errors that pose severe damage to the patient.
Serious Injuries
Serious injuries, also known as catastrophic injuries, include those that may permanently impact the quality of the victim’s life. Often, serious injuries result in long-term disabilities, which may pose considerable ongoing financial strain as well as long-term pain and suffering for the victim.
Serious injuries may include:
- Facial injuries
- Loss of or damage to vision or hearing
- Traumatic brain injury
- Burns
- Spinal cord injuries
- Amputations
Slip and Fall Accidents
A slip and fall accident can prove catastrophic for some victims, especially victims who may have underlying health conditions or who sustain severe injuries as a result of their accidents. Slips and falls can cause broken bones, especially in the hands, arms, and hip; traumatic brain injury; and severe lacerations.
Often, slip and fall accidents occur due to the negligence of a property owner who fails to properly maintain his property: one who does not clean up promptly after a spill, for example, or one who does not take care of needed maintenance on stairs or flooring.
Wrongful Death
When one party dies as a result of the negligent actions of another, surviving family members may have the right to file a wrongful death claim that will aid in the quest for compensation for the loss of a loved one. A wrongful death claim may not bring back a lost loved one, but it may provide vital financial assistance that can help a family devastated by the loss and the financial challenges that go along with losing a wage-earning family member.
Recovering Compensation for Palatka Injuries: What to Expect
Often, Palatka personal injury victims do not know how much compensation they should expect for their injuries, and they may have a hard time determining when to accept a settlement offer and when to keep negotiating. At Steven A. Bagen & Associates, we cannot guarantee the compensation accident victims can recover for their injuries. We do, however, work to help our clients break down the compensation they should expect based on these categories.
Medical Costs Related to the Accident
Following a serious accident, you may have equally serious medical bills. In fact, some people find that their medical costs pose more stress than the injuries themselves. You may start accumulating medical bills when you seek emergency care immediately after the accident and continue to build medical costs until you finally stop physical therapy after the accident.
For some victims, medical costs may even prove ongoing, especially if you have sustained life-altering injuries in the accident. You can include all the costs associated with medical treatment in your personal injury claim.
Talk to your attorney about factors like durable medical equipment, modifications to your home that make it possible for you to continue to live independently, or the ongoing cost of physical and occupational therapy associated with your accident.
Income Losses Due to Your Injuries
Recovering from serious injuries can make it difficult, if not impossible, for you to go back to work. Some injury victims simply cannot complete their job responsibilities or may have a long road to recovery before they can return home, much less get back to work.
Your employer might not have the ability to work with you and help you get back in the office sooner, or might prefer that you focus on your recovery for a time after the accident. You may, as a result, lose your source of income while you recover.
For many people, that loss can prove even more devastating than mounting medical costs, since it can interfere with your ability to pay your other bills as well as your medical costs. You can claim compensation for your lost wages as part of your personal injury claim.
Did your injuries prevent you from returning to your former profession at all? Talk to your lawyer about how to pursue compensation for lost earning potential.
Pain and Suffering
Most personal injury claims, in addition to compensation for the direct financial losses you faced due to your injuries, may also include compensation for your non-financial losses. You may have the right to claim compensation for the anguish you suffered after your accident, including PTSD, loss of enjoyment of life, and the loss of relationships that may go along with your injuries.
Determining Liability for Your Palatka Accident
To help you file a personal injury claim, your attorney will need to identify all parties that may share liability for your Palatka accident. Sometimes, you may need to pursue compensation from more than one party that contributed to your accident, which may help you maximize the compensation you can recover for your injuries.
An attorney will look at several key elements of your accident and how it occurred.
Who bore a duty of care to you at the time of the incident?
A duty of care simply means that the liable party should exercise some care to prevent injuring you. For example, nursing home staff members bear a duty of care to provide high-quality care that helps their residents maintain their quality of life.
How did the liable party violate that duty of care?
A violation of the duty of care means that the liable party committed an act that somehow led to your injuries, usually due to negligence. In a nursing home, for example, the care provider may have allowed abuse to take place.
How did that violation lead to your injuries?
To establish your right to compensation, you will need to show that the violation somehow caused you to suffer injuries or damages. If you did not suffer injuries due to the incident, you might not have the right to file a claim.
Do You Need a Palatka Personal Injury Lawyer?
If you suffered severe injuries in an accident in Palatka, do not try to handle your personal injury claim on your own. Instead, contact Steven A. Bagen & Associates today at (800) BAGEN-LAW for your free consultation.