When you suffer an accident resulting in bodily injury and property damage due to someone else's negligence, you have the right to receive financial compensation for your losses. This is, in summary, the essence of personal injury law. However, although law is on your side, it does not mean that it is simple and easy to obtain a fair settlement from the responsible party or their insurance company. You will need the assistance of an experienced personal injury attorney in Colorado at Firouzbakht Law Firm..
We know how to obtain the information and evidence necessary to build your case and prepare a personal injury claim containing all the damages you are entitled to receive.. At the same time, we are aware of all the tactics insurance adjusters use to limit or deny your claim and know how to counter them and win the maximum compensation our clients deserve.
The definition of personal injury may be vague for many people. So we will present a detailed list of the most frequent occurrences and events that represent a personal injury case:
In most of the cases, the circumstances of these occurrences are not simple and straightforward. When there are several parties involved, or none of the parties accept fault, you need to have strong evidence to prove that you have the right to be compensated.
As we will explain below, the difference between the negligent party and the injured party lies in the percentage of fault.
The state of Colorado uses a principle called comparative negligence to determine whether an injured party can receive settlement amounts for their medical costs and other financial losses caused by an accident.
According to Colorado Revised Statutes 13-21-111, individuals have the right to seek compensation for their severe injuries and property damage if their percentage of fault for the accident is less than the other individual's. This means that you must be found to be less than 51% responsible for the occurrence that caused your injuries.
Moreover, the proportion of fault will affect the final settlement amount that the accident victim will receive. Thus, a percentage of fault of 20% for an accident that resulted in a settlement of $100,000 means that the individual will actually receive $80,000.
This aspect is one of the reasons why personal injury victims need experienced attorneys. The fault party's insurance company will attempt to claim that the victim's proportion of fault was higher, in order to pay less money.
Many people believe that they can handle filing their insurance claim on their own. In general, they will get a settlement amount that is insufficient to cover all their economic damages. Thus, apart from the effort to recover from a severe injury, they also have to struggle to cover their expenses for future treatments for physical recovery and counseling for the emotional trauma.
By the time they realize they did not get a fair settlement, it is too late to make any further legal claim. To avoid such a bleak scenario during this difficult time, you must hire an experienced accident injury attorney to handle your personal injury case.
Here are the main reasons to do so:
If you want to file a claim against insurance providers for your injuries, the burden of proof belongs to you. This means that you have to prove that:
Moreover, you also have to prove that the other party was more than 51% at fault for the accident. All these require time, effort, resources and know-how. As you are recovering in hospital or at home, you cannot do that. However, for an experienced lawyer, it is a regular task, that they can do efficiently, effectively and in a timely manner.
Most accident injury clients we worked with had no idea how much to ask in their claim. When you go to negotiations on your own, you will make one of the two mistakes: demand too little or too much money. For an experienced insurance adjuster, this is a clear sign that you do not know the type of compensations you are entitled to receive and the actual losses you incurred. Thus, they will strong-arm you and you will end up with a lowball amount, because you lack the know-how to offer legal counterarguments.
By contrast, an accident injury attorney will start by documenting the extent of your injuries and the costs you incurred to receive medical treatment for them. In many cases, our clients suffered catastrophic injuries, such as:
They usually require a long time in hospital, surgery and specialized treatments. The lawyer will calculate all these expenses, plus other current and future losses, such as lost wages, loss of earning capacity, costs of care if the victim is left with permanent disability or injuries.
Moreover, the lawyer will also include non-economic damages in your claim, to compensate you for mental anguish, physical pain, loss of quality of life and emotional distress.
Any claim you make must be supported by evidence. But where do you get it, apart for the photos and videos you took at the accident scene? An experienced Colorado personal injury lawyer knows where to look for evidence and how to use it.. Your claim will contain relevant evidence such as:
Personal injury legal guidelines include a specific period of time, called the statute of limitations, in which an individual can file a personal injury lawsuit. In the state of Colorado, this period is 2 years starting with the date of your injury (Colorado Revised Statutes 13-80-102).
If you need medical attention for months in hospital, followed by a long recovery period at home, you will probably be unable to start the necessary legal procedures on time. By the time you realize that your accident claim will not get you the adequate compensation you deserve, it may be too late to consider other legal actions. Filing a personal injury lawsuit even one day after the expiration of the statute of limitations will give the judge no other option than to dismiss it.
Who is the at-fault party in a car accident pile-up? Or when two or more negligent drivers crash in an intersection? What about a bus accident or a truck accident.? In such complex cases, you need a personal injury attorney with extensive legal experience in order to identify the party (or parties) you need to file a claim or lawsuit against.
Sometimes, it is not an individual but a business, or a government entity. In these cases, the legal procedures are different, you may have a shorter time period to file a lawsuit and there may be specific caps to the damage amounts you can request (as per the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act).
One of the ways in which adjusters try to limit your insurance benefits is by delaying the resolution of your case. They will extend the claims process just enough to leave you with no other recourse when they offer you a lowball amount.
An experienced accident lawyer will never let that happen. We know just how long the negotiation process should take before we realize that we cannot reach an agreement. In this case, we will advise you to stop negotiating with the bad faith insurance company and take your case to court.
For many people, the main impediment to hiring a personal injury attorney is the cost. As they are struggling with health and financial recovery, they wonder: "do I really afford to hire a lawyer"? The answer is: yes. The majority of personal injury law firms work on a contingency fee basis. This means that they will not charge you any fees, but collect them after they win your settlement from the compensation amount.
At Firouzbakht Law Firm, we are always ready to offer you a free case evaluation. Call us now and schedule your confidential consultation: (720) 547-2211!
