What Kind of Cases Do Personal Injury Lawyers Handle?

Personal injury law, also known as tort law, covers situations where one person harms another or causes loss. Millions of people suffer accident injuries or accidental deaths each year. Car accidents injured over 2.28 million people in 2020 and caused 38,824 deaths. Over 211,000 employees suffered slip-and-fall accidents in the workplace that same year. 

Car accident and slip-and-fall victims are just some injury victims that personal injury attorneys represent. Let’s examine what personal injury lawyers do, the cases they handle, and how a personal injury lawyer can help you after an accident. 

What Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Do? 

Personal injury attorneys ensure you have grounds for a claim and prepare your case.

Investigate and Build Your Case

Your lawyer or legal team investigates your accident and confirms the events leading to your injuries. Your legal team investigates to ensure they have all relevant evidence and information to identify who’s at fault for your accident.

Relevant evidence can include the following:

• Eyewitness testimony
• Maintenance records
• Photos
• Police reports
• Video footage
• Weather reports

Your lawyer uses the evidence they find to support your claim. Your lawyer must be able to prove the defendant’s negligence or gross negligence caused your injuries to win your case. Negligence is based on the standard of reasonable behavior most people would exhibit under the same circumstances. When a person acts or fails to act the way most people would, it can be argued their actions or inactions constitute negligence. 

Suppose someone spilled a bottle of water on the floor of a grocery store. The supervisor closing the store saw the spill but was tired and decided to leave it for the staff to clean up the next day. You slipped on the floor before the morning staff noticed the spill, fell, and suffered a head injury. In this scenario, your legal team can argue that the supervisor’s negligence caused your accident. 

Gross negligence applies when someone acts in a manner they know could cause harm to another person or deliberately hurt someone. It can be argued that street racers know the likelihood of a crash that could harm others is greater when people drive at high speeds. Despite this knowledge, street racers break the law, constituting gross negligence. 

Prepares Legal Paperwork and Files Case

Florida allows personal injury victims 24 months to initiate a claim in most cases, and your attorney ensures this filing is correctly prepared and filed with the courts before the filing deadline. Your attorney also serves the defendant with a copy of the filing paperwork and responds to any requests from the defendant’s attorney during the discovery period. 

Helps Calculate Damages

Your lawyer ensures you consider all grounds for compensation when calculating the damages to seek from your claim. 

Grounds for economic damages include the following:

• Burial costs
• Childcare expenses
• Funeral expenses
• Home and yard maintenance expenses
• House cleaning bills
• Job retraining fees
• Lost income
• Medical bills
• Personal care costs
• Property damage
• Transportation costs

While economic damages reimburse victims for past and future injury expenses, non-economic damages compensate victims for their suffering. Reasons victims can seek non-economic damages include the following:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Grief
• Loss of intimacy
• Loss of life partner
• Loss of quality of life
• Pain and suffering 
• Phobias
• Post-traumatic stress disorder

Your attorney will also determine if you have grounds to seek punitive damages. Punitive damages apply to cases involving gross negligence. Proving the at-fault party recklessly endangered your life and the lives of others can justify punitive damages. 

Negotiates Settlements

Your attorney handles communications with the defendant’s insurance company and tries to negotiate a fair injury settlement during pretrial negotiations. Resolving your claim without going to court ensures you receive your compensation as soon as possible. It also alleviates the stress of facing a potential trial. 

Represents You at Trial 

Sometimes, insurance companies dispute claims and refuse to settle. This can occur because the insurance company has a policy against negotiating settlements or they dispute their client’s liability. If there are multiple at-fault parties, the insurance companies may dispute their clients’ percentage of liability, making it hard to negotiate a settlement. If the insurance company refuses to settle, your case can end up going to trial, where your personal injury attorney will represent you.

Types of Cases a Personal Injury Attorney Handles 

Personal injury attorneys handle multiple types of injury claims: 

Motor Vehicle Injury Accidents

There are several classifications for motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) that affect the claim and who is at fault for the accident, including the following:

• Car accidents: These MVAs involve passenger vehicles
• Motorcycle accidents: When one or more vehicles involved in an MVA are motorcycles, it’s categorized as a motorcycle accident
• Truck accidents: Truck accidents are MVAs involving commercial vehicles, such as semis and garbage trucks. All vehicles involved may be commercial vehicles, or the accident may involve both personal and commercial vehicles. 

Personal injury lawyers also handle rideshare and self-driving car accidents. These accidents have distinct categories because specific laws apply to rideshare vehicles and self-driving cars that can affect claims.

Some car accidents have distinct factors that may provide grounds for a criminal trial and a civil claim. Personal injury lawyers handle the following:

• Distracted driving injury accidents
• Drunk driving injury accidents
• Hit-and-run accidents

Other types of vehicle accidents handled by injury lawyers include aviation and bicycle accidents.

Medical Malpractice 

Although we trust medical professionals to address our health needs, there are times when medical professionals fail to deliver the care required. Personal injury lawyers handle medical negligence and malpractice claims.

Medical negligence involves unintentional errors. This could include failing to diagnose a patient’s condition or failing to provide appropriate treatment.

Medical malpractice occurs when the healthcare provider deliberately chooses not to provide the care you require. 

Suppose you go to the doctor and report several severe symptoms. Your doctor tells you you’re imagining things and sends you home. You go to a different doctor two months later. That doctor orders tests and confirms you have cancer. You could have grounds for a medical malpractice claim against the first doctor because they failed to order appropriate tests and diagnose your condition.

Birth injuries are common grounds for medical negligence and malpractice claims. Suppose a doctor disregards risk factors that could cause birth injuries, and your newborn suffers a birth injury. In that case, you may have grounds for a claim. 

Premises Liability Cases

Premises liability cases involve injuries on public or private property. Dog bite claims fall under premises liability if the dog harms a person on their property. Circumstances may determine whether the victim has grounds to make a claim. Suppose they were trespassing, intending to break into your home and steal items. The courts may feel the dog was protecting its property, and the dog bite victim may not have grounds for a claim. However, if you were invited to a friend’s home and they said their dog was friendly, but the dog attacked you, you could have grounds for a dog bite claim. 

Slip-and-fall injuries are another common reason for premises liability cases. Victims can seek compensation if the property owner or manager knew or should have known about a potential hazard on the property but failed to take steps to warn visitors or eliminate the hazard.

Injuries From Criminal Acts

Anyone injured during a criminal act may have grounds to sue the person responsible for their injuries. This includes victims of sexual assault, assault and battery, and attempted murder. 

Wrongful Death Lawsuits

When a person dies a wrongful death, their family may have grounds to file a wrongful death suit. Wrongful death claims could stem from accidents, such as fatal MVAs, or criminal actions. 

If You Have Been Injured, Let Bernstein & Maryanoff Injury Attorneys Help You Recover the Damages You Deserve

Bernstein & Maryanoff Injury Attorneys is here to help Miami residents cope with an injury or losing a loved one. As your personal injury lawyers, we will explain your legal options and what to expect once we file your claim. We’ll keep you informed as your case progresses and handle the investigation and legal matters so you can prioritize your recovery or grieve your loss. We know no amount of money will undo the life-altering impact of a catastrophic injury or wrongful death. Still, we will fight for you to receive fair compensation so you don’t suffer financially.

Sources:

Lawyers: How to Become a Lawyer. (2024). 

Number of road traffic-related injuries and fatalities in the U.S. from 1990 to 2020. (2024). 

Traumatic Occupational Injuries. (2022).