When a personal injury attorney takes a case, they usually do so because it fits the profile of a winning argument. Those who provide personal injury law services can't tackle every claim that they're asked to handle, even if they feel they're good causes. It can be helpful to know these four things a lawyer looks at before deciding to accept a client.
Is There a Potentially Liable Party?
Put bluntly, it's hard to get compensation if there isn't an individual or organization that can be proven liable for what happened. Similarly, it helps that the proposed defendant has enough money or good enough insurance to justify the effort. For example, trucking accident cases almost always focus on fleet operators rather than drivers because the company is the one that's likely to carry insurance or to be self-insuring.
More than determining that a party might be held liable, other possibilities have to be ruled out. "Acts of God," in particular, have to be eliminated. If the weather was a driving factor in an injury, a defendant may be well-positioned to argue they couldn't stop what occurred.
Compensable Injuries
Being hurt isn't enough to make a case. The injuries have to be sufficiently bad that they can be compensated. Typically, injury cases are focused on compensation to address things like disfigurement, loss of physical or mental functions, pain and suffering, or the inability to earn money in the future. Such issues vary from client-to-client. For example, a broken wrist might not have much impact on the working ability of someone who rarely uses their hands on the job, but a typist or a computer programmer might lose significant earnings being unable to operate a keyboard.
The Proximity of the Cause
Beyond being involved in an incident, a responsible party must also be the most proximate cause. This often decides how a case is pursued. For example, if a railing failed along a set of steps, the property owner might assert that it was a product liability case due to poor manufacturing rather than an injury case due to negligence.
Enough Time
Statutes of limitations for cases generally impose two- or three-year time limits on filing for compensation. If a case was brought to a lawyer a few weeks before that deadline, they may just not have time to prepare it. Contacting a personal injury attorney as early as possible is always advised.
For more information, contact firms like Maruca Law.
Share25 September 2019
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