Serious, preventable injuries bring heavy physical, financial, and emotional consequences to the Lake City community. You may find yourself struggling to bear the load, especially if you have suffered those severe injuries due to someone else’s negligent actions.
If another party’s negligence led to your injuries, however, you may not have to bear those consequences alone. A personal injury claim can help provide some of the funds you may need to recover from your accident.
Did you suffer serious injuries in a Lake City accident caused by another party’s carelessness or negligence? Steven A. Bagen & Associates can help. Contact us today the best personal injury lawyer in Lake City at (800) BAGEN-LAW to learn more about your rights.
Steven A. Bagen & Associates: Lake City Personal Injury Attorneys
Dealing with the aftermath of a serious personal injury on your own may leave you struggling to recover the compensation you really deserve for your injuries. At Steven A. Bagen & Associates, we have more than thirty years of experience in the Florida court system.
We know Lake City laws and regulations and how they may impact your right to compensation, and we work to help our clients maximize the compensation they can recover for their injuries.
Trusted Legal Advice from Experienced Lake City Personal Injury Lawyers
At Steven A. Bagen & Associates, we provide our clients with comprehensive legal advice that can benefit them from the earliest days after their injuries. Our attorneys work with clients to help govern their interactions with insurance companies so that they can maximize their compensation and recover the financial damages they really deserve following a serious incident. Our advice has helped many past clients navigate the difficulties that often go along with serious personal injury claims.
Aggressive Legal Representation
Dealing with insurance companies should not leave you feeling uncertain and out of sorts. At Steven A. Bagen & Associates, we aggressively represent our clients, providing them with the support they need to negotiate for the compensation they really deserve following severe accidents and immense injuries.
Comprehensive Investigation and Evaluation
To file an effective personal injury claim, you may need to establish who caused your injuries. We will work to uncover the details of your accident, from who may have caused or contributed to your injuries to the evidence you need to establish liability and pursue compensation. We will look over witness testimonies, check out video footage, evaluate the scene of your accident, and go over your medical records to help establish your right to compensation following a serious incident.
Lake City Personal Injury Claims
At Steven A. Bagen & Associates, we help our clients deal with many personal injury claims in Lake City.
Car Accidents
Even a minor fender bender can cause catastrophic damage to the vehicle and, in many cases, injury to the people inside it. Car accident injuries can prove immensely complicated and even devastating for many victims. Due to your car accident injuries, you may lose your ability to care for yourself—either temporarily or permanently—or find yourself struggling to go back to work.
You may also face immense rising medical bills, whether you suffered multiple broken bones that required substantial, expensive treatment, or traumatic brain injury, which may require ongoing occupational therapy to help you cope with the limitations imposed by your injury.
Motorcycle Accidents
Lake City Motorcycle accidents often result in more serious injury than the average car accident, since they frequently involve more trauma to the victim. Even motorcycle accident victims wearing a helmet at the time of the accident may suffer from traumatic brain injury. Motorcycle accidents can also involve multiple broken bones, back and neck injuries, including spinal cord injuries, amputations, and severe road rash.
Sometimes, after a motorcycle accident, it can prove difficult to establish liability and show that the other driver caused your accident. An experienced personal injury attorney can help fight intrinsic bias against motorcycle riders and give you a better chance of proving that the other driver bears liability for your accident, which may help secure your right to collect on a personal injury claim.
Truck Accidents
Big trucks fill the roads around Lake City and across Florida. When a truck driver commits an act of negligence on the road, it can lead to severe injury for the victims in the other vehicle. A big truck’s greater mass can cause much more severe injury than the average passenger vehicle, even at lower speeds.
A big truck accident may also require much more in-depth investigation than the average passenger vehicle accident. After a big truck accident, you need an attorney to take a look at the truck driver’s driving record as well as the truck driver’s company.
That investigation may help uncover the trucking company’s liability for the accident, particularly if the company has dangerous policies that increase the risk that their drivers will cause serious accidents out on the road.
Nursing Home Abuse
You likely exercised a great deal of care in choosing a nursing home for your loved one, seeking one that would provide a high standard of care and improve your loved one’s quality of life. Unfortunately, in some nursing homes, seniors suffer from abuse rather than receiving the high standard of care they should expect from their care providers.
Nursing home abuse may include:
- Physical abuse
- Emotional/mental abuse
- Sexual abuse
- Financial abuse
Identifying nursing home abuse can prove extremely difficult, especially if you do not see your loved one regularly. An attorney can help give you more information about what signs could suggest abuse and how to pursue assistance and compensation for your loved one following serious abuse in a nursing home.
Medical Malpractice
Doctors bear a high duty of care to their patients. They must provide a professional standard of care, and treatment based on norms across the industry and specific treatment standards. Unfortunately, when a doctor fails in his duty of care to his patients, the outcome can prove catastrophic.
Physician negligence may include everything from failing to properly inform patients of the risks associated with a particular procedure or course of treatment to misdiagnosing a patient or failing to provide the treatment those patients need for diagnosed ailments. Medical malpractice may also include “never events,” which usually occur during surgery or childbirth, and usually involve life-altering consequences for the patient.
Serious Injuries
Serious injuries, also known as catastrophic injuries, include injuries that permanently impact a patient’s quality of life. Serious injuries may require a more in-depth investigation of all potential causes of that accident and sources of compensation for the victim.
Catastrophic injuries may include:
- Damage to eyes or ears that results in a loss of vision or hearing
- Traumatic brain injury
- Spinal cord injury/paralysis
- Burns
- Amputations
- Facial injuries
Slip and Fall Accidents
Slip and fall accidents, which often result from the negligence of a Lake City property owner or a business operating on a specific property, can cause catastrophic, often life-altering injuries for some victims, especially elderly victims or those with underlying health conditions.
Slip and fall accidents may result in broken bones, especially in the hands and arms or hips, or may result in traumatic brain injury or back and neck injuries. Often, victims need to pursue considerable compensation for the suffering faced after a slip and fall accident.
Wrongful Death
Losing a loved one not only causes immense emotional trauma, it may cause considerable financial devastation for many families. While a wrongful death claim cannot restore your loved one to your family, it can provide you with much-needed financial assistance that may make it easier for you to rebuild your life following the loss of a loved one.
If someone else’s negligence causes the victim’s death, either immediately after the accident or while trying to recover from those injuries, the party that caused that accident may bear liability for the losses faced by the family.
How Much Compensation Can You Expect in a Lake City Personal Injury Claim?
Pursuing compensation for a Lake City accident can take time and involve an in-depth investigation. At Steven A. Bagen & Associates, we cannot guarantee the compensation that any victim will recover for the injuries sustained in a serious accident. However, most personal injury claims in Lake City do involve these common elements.
Compensation for Medical Costs Sustained Due to the Accident
Medical bills can prove financially devastating after a serious accident. You may have to start with the cost of emergency medical treatment, which may prove incredibly expensive. Then, you may have ongoing medical costs related to your recovery.
Depending on the extent of your injuries, you may have bills for surgery, follow-up appointments, long-term care at a facility or home, or physical and occupational therapy. As you put together your medical bills related to the accident, you may also want to include costs like durable medical equipment or modifications to your home that will help you maintain your independence while you recover.
Talk to your attorney about how to calculate those vital medical costs after your accident.
Compensation for Lost Income
Dealing with lost income can pose almost as much financial difficulty as dealing with the medical expenses associated with your accident. Your injuries might prevent you from working due to pain, weakness, or limitations. Your employer might not want you to come back to work until you make a full recovery.
The more serious your injuries, the longer they may interfere with your ability to work, leading to a gap in your income that may prove particularly devastating at a time when your bills have already grown higher than normal. Most personal injury claims include compensation for income lost due to those injuries.
If you permanently lose the ability to work in your former profession because of your injuries, you can also claim compensation for lost earning potential, which can help you gain new certifications and rebuild your life.
Compensation for Pain and Suffering
While your finances may take a hit from your accident, you may also find yourself with other serious damages related to the accident: most notably, the pain and anguish you have to contend with throughout your recovery.
Serious injuries can limit your life permanently, and you may find yourself struggling to rebuild your life around those limitations. Talk to your attorney about the limitations imposed by your accident and how to include compensation for pain and suffering as part of your personal injury claim.
Who Caused Your Lake City Accident?
To file a personal injury claim, you will need to identify the liable party, or, in some cases, parties. A lawyer will ask several key questions to help determine what factors may have contributed to your accident and who may bear liability.
Did the negligent party bear a duty of care to you at the time of the accident?
To determine who may bear liability for your accident, an attorney will start with a look at who might have held a duty of care to you. For example, a doctor with whom you have a doctor/patient relationship has a duty of care to treat your injuries or illnesses to the best of his ability.
How did the negligent party violate that duty of care?
Most often, that violation occurs due to general negligence, rather than malicious action. For example, a doctor might ignore your symptoms due to a lack of knowledge on his part. Other times, however, it may occur because someone deliberately commits an act that could put another party in danger.
How did that negligence injure you?
If you plan to file a personal injury claim, you will need to establish that you suffered an injury because of the other party’s negligent actions. If you saw a speeding driver on the road, for example, but that driver did not injure you, you can’t file a personal injury claim.
Do You Need a Lake City Personal Injury Lawyer?
If you suffered serious injuries in Lake City due to the negligence of another party, contact Steven A. Bagen & Associates today at (800) BAGEN-LAW.