Should You File A Personal Injury Case In California?

You might incur economic and non-economic losses when you get into an accident. Not only might you suffer from physical injuries, but you will also deal with medical expenses, income loss, and emotional distress.

So, if someone else was responsible for your accident, you must hold them liable. Under California personal injury law, liable parties who have been negligent are legally compelled to compensate for a victim’s losses.

What Is A Personal Injury Claim In California?

A personal injury claim is filed to compel a negligent party for causing your injuries. For example, if you get into a car accident because another party was recklessly driving, they are legally responsible for your medical expenses, property damage, income loss, emotional distress, and so on.

This should be standard practice. But unfortunately, some negligent parties or their insurance providers will refuse to compensate you. Sometimes, they’ll lowball your compensation by trivializing the severity of your injuries or pushing some of the fault onto you. When this happens, a personal injury claim in California will compel them to compensate you, even if they refused to do so initially.

Can I Sue Multiple Parties In A Personal Injury Claim?

There could be multiple parties that can be named as defendants in your case. For example, your car accident might be caused by the negligence of several parties, including other drivers, car manufacturers, or a government agency. Likewise, if you get injured in a public pool, the owner, manager, and other staff might also be named in a premises liability personal injury claim in California.

As long as a party has a duty of care and violated it, they can be named liable under personal injury laws. Consult a prescreened California personal injury attorney to help identify all possible defendants in your claim.

What Are The Most Common Personal Injury Claims?

Personal injury claims aren’t limited to road accidents. Several types are litigated in California, including but not limited to the following:

• Airplane Accident

• Bicycle Accident

• Boating Accident

• Burn injury

• Bus Accident

• Car Accident

• Catastrophic Injury

• Defective Products

• Dog Bite Injury

• Motorcycle Accidents

• Pedestrian Accident

• Slip & Fall

• Spinal Cord Injury

• Swimming Pool Accident

• Train Accident

• Truck Accident

• Uber and Lyft Ride Sharing

• Workers’ Compensation

Remember, the key to personal injury claims in California is negligence. So if someone else has been negligent, caused an accident, and subsequently caused injury, then they can be sued under California personal injury law.

What Can You Get From A California Personal Injury Claim?

A successful personal injury claim in California can get you the following:

• Medical expenses

• Surgery fees

• Doctor’s fees

• Income/wage loss

• Property damage

• Emotional distress

• Pain and suffering

• Mental anguish

• Loss of the enjoyment of life

Basically, the goal of personal injury claims is to get you to a place before the accident happened. After all, you wouldn’t suffer financial losses and emotional distress if the accident had not happened. Hence, you need evidence of your losses, including receipts, documents, witness statements, and even personal journals.

What If I Am Partially At Fault?

California adheres to “comparative fault” laws. This means damages can be split between two parties if they are to blame to some degree. For example, if your damages amount to USD 100,000, USD 20,000 will be deducted from your claimable damages if you were 20% to blame for the accident.

So, just because you’re partially to blame doesn’t mean you can’t claim damages in California. Even if you were mostly to blame, the comparative fault laws would still reduce the damages you’ll have to pay the other party.

Bottom-line

Personal injury claims ensure you get the compensation you deserve and that liable parties are held accountable. The best thing you could do is to avoid altercations with the other parties, admit fault (even if you’re trying to console someone), and negotiate settlements without a lawyer