East Point, GA Personal Injury Lawyers

Your financial recovery is paramount after sustaining personal injuries, and we can help you on your path to compensation by filing a claim against the liable party.

After an accident due to negligence, victims must be careful not to apologize or accept liability for their injuries. Otherwise, comparative fault rules could affect their future claims and recoveries, and our lawyers can help ensure victims make consistent statements when discussing accidents and their injuries throughout their cases. We can also start preparing victims’ claims soon after they sustain injuries so that they do not miss the filing deadline or face evidentiary issues in the future. Regarding victims’ recoveries, they should get compensation for economic and non-economic losses due to negligence, whether from a settlement or jury award.

Call Rice, Murtha & Psoras’ Atlanta personal injury lawyers for a free and confidential case assessment at (470) 287-3070.

What Not to Say After Suffering Personal Injuries in East Point, GA

While you are still at the accident location, be mindful of any statements you make, whether to the police, eyewitnesses, or the at-fault party. If you say the wrong thing, you might unintentionally accept some liability for your injuries and subsequent damages.

For example, while exchanging information with a negligent driver after a car crash, victims should not apologize for the collision or recount what happened. If they do, they could risk misspeaking and accepting partial fault for an accident, possibly lowering their recovery under O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33.

Victims should follow the same guidelines after other accidents, including slip and falls. If you are injured by negligent property maintenance, inform the owner. Calling 911 can make documenting these accidents easier for victims, as police officers can collect information as victims get the appropriate care from paramedics.

If you call the police to report personal injuries, be honest with law enforcement about what happened and how the at-fault driver was negligent. The resulting report can help your claim in various ways, and not being candid with law enforcement at the scene could result in an incomplete or inaccurate report. If you are too injured to talk to officers at the scene, go to the hospital, and they can contact you afterward if they need more information. Victims with serious head trauma or other severe injuries might fall under this category.

How Soon to Initiate Your Personal Injury Case After an Accident in East Point, GA

Victims should initiate their claims almost immediately to confirm they have a case and preserve vital evidence that could get lost with time. Waiting unnecessarily long to file bring lawsuit could delay your access to compensatory damages, and we can help avoid this by filing soon after accidents.

Physical and photographic evidence could get lost or destroyed as time passes. This is a common issue in car accident cases, as first responders might clean up scenes almost immediately so other drivers are not endangered by debris or other matter on the road. Victims can preserve physical evidence at crash sites or other injury locations by taking photos. In addition to assessing pictures taken by victims, our personal injury lawyers will review photos from law enforcement and eyewitnesses and any footage recovered from nearby security cameras.

The sooner we begin preparing your case, the sooner we can locate and collect other crucial evidence, like eyewitness statements. If you wait to initiate your case, eyewitnesses might forget important details, making their testimony less useful to your recovery. Victims who notice witnesses after accidents can ask for their contact information, enabling our lawyers to schedule interviews immediately.

There is also the matter of the statute of limitations to consider, which restricts how long victims can file lawsuits after sustaining personal injuries. Unless your case qualifies for an exception, you cannot file a compensation claim against a negligent party more than two years after an accident in East Point, according to § 9-3-33.

Types of Damages You Can Recover in Your East Point, GA Personal Injury Lawsuit

Personal injury lawsuits aim to make victims whole again after accidents, compensating them for their economic and non-economic damages. To recover damages, you must prove you incurred them, and our lawyers can achieve this by closely tracking all losses stemming from the accident.

Economic damages refer to any financial losses due to negligence. The most egregious for victims typically comes from medical costs. These damages start piling up immediately with a victim’s first trip to the emergency room after an accident. Starting to track victims’ medical damages right away is vital, as otherwise, their records might become disorganized, making it harder for them to show proof of damages in court.

Economic damages include lost wages, which victims might incur if they cannot work because of injuries caused by a defendant. Permanent injuries might substantially reduce or eliminate a victim’s earning capacity, leading to long-term and compensable lost wages.

Victims can also receive compensation for their pain and suffering. Calculating these damages takes different tactics since non-economic losses do not have an inherent monetary value. We can support requests for intangible damages by submitting statements from therapists or other experts confirming your daily struggles since an accident and medical records exhibiting the toll injuries have taken on your life and body.

In rare cases, juries might award victims punitive damages. This happens when plaintiffs show, through clear and convincing evidence, that defendants exhibited willful misconduct or malice when causing their injuries, according to § 51-12-5.1(b). Gross negligence is a step above ordinary negligence, and our lawyers can determine if getting punitive damages is possible for you when initially reviewing and preparing your claim. Again, punitive damages are awarded by juries, so victims only get these damages when they take their claims to court in Georgia.

Call Our East Point, GA Lawyers for Help with Your Injury Case

Call Rice, Murtha & Psoras at (470) 287-3070 today to get help with your case from our personal injury lawyers.