Macon, GA Personal Injury Lawyer

While filing a personal injury lawsuit can let victims get compensation, it might also be intimidating. Our attorneys can help you navigate litigation so that it is a positive process for you.

By addressing your concerns about filing a personal injury lawsuit from the get-go, you can feel more confident pursuing recovery. A common concern is the length of claims. While lawsuits might take many months, our lawyers can hasten the process by identifying stalling settlement negotiations and efficiently proceeding with a trial. Victims concerned about a lack of evidence can still succeed in lawsuits, especially after thorough investigations. In addition to helping victims overcome comparative negligence issues in their claims, our lawyers can aid in documenting victims’ damages and calculating their deserved recoveries in Macon.

Call our Macon, GA personal injury lawyers at (410) 694-7291 for a free case assessment from Rice, Murtha & Psoras.

Addressing Common Concerns Personal Injury Victims Have in Macon, GA

Pursuing litigation can be daunting for victims, who might have understandable concerns about the recovery process. For example, some victims might be wary of how long lawsuits take, while others might think that proving fault is too challenging a task. Our lawyers can answer any and all questions you have about filing a lawsuit and explain what we can do to make the process easier for you.

Lengthy Cases

Lots of things could impact a case’s length in Macon. If you want to resolve the matter quickly, our personal injury lawyers may be able to negotiate a fair settlement soon after filing your claim. Alternatively, you could take your claim to court after negotiating briefly. Negotiations are typically what make personal injury lawsuits take long, as parties might go back and forth discussing a fair settlement for some time.

Some cases might take even longer when defendants intentionally stall negotiations. To address this situation, our lawyers can promptly change directions and take your claim to court, where a trial will commence. Depending on each side’s case, the trial itself might take only a matter of weeks in Macon.

Filing on Time

According to O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33, victims have three years to sue for personal injuries, so filing on time does not have to be a big concern. That said, it is common for time to pass quickly after accidents, especially when victims are going through numerous medical treatments and adapting to their new lives with debilitating injuries. We will keep the filing deadline in mind as we prepare your case so that you do not miss it in Macon.

Evidence Concerns

Another common concern injury victims have is the effort it takes to meet the burden of proof and demonstrate a defendant’s liability. Our lawyers can explain which standard of proof applies to your case. This will likely be a preponderance of the evidence standard. Simply put, plaintiffs need to convince juries that it is more likely than not a specific defendant caused their specific injuries and damages.

So, while you must meet the standard of proof, which will require evidence, the standard is not so high that you should be discouraged, even if there appears to be little evidence of the other party’s negligence. Our attorneys may uncover additional evidence to support your case upon deeper investigation into the accident.

For example, you might not have seen eyewitnesses at the accident site. However, after getting the incident report from law enforcement, our lawyers might learn that eyewitnesses were at the scene. This can lead to us getting eyewitness statements, which are evidence in injury claims.

Other evidence, like expert testimony, will not be found at the accident scene. Instead, our lawyers may enlist certain experts, like accident reconstruction or medical experts, to review certain evidence and testify during a trial.

Comparative Negligence Issues

Suppose a negligent driver hit you in Macon, and you apologized for the accident afterward. While that might seem like an innocuous statement to make, negligent parties might try to point to it as victims accepting partial fault for accidents. Victims might be wary of filing lawsuits when threatened with this, especially since being partially at fault could lower their damages, according to O.C.G.A. § 51-12-33.

Even when comparative negligence rules apply to claims, our lawyers may be able to thwart a defense by showing that the defendant had the last clear opportunity to avoid the accident but did not. Furthermore, threatening to use a comparative negligence defense is different from actually employing a comparative negligence defense. Our attorneys can assess the available evidence to gauge whether your actions could have contributed to the accident in any meaningful way that would affect your compensation.

Documenting Damages

You must submit proof of your damages to file a successful lawsuit in Macon. But, when suffering from serious injuries, you might not have the time or energy necessary to document all of your losses. Our lawyers can help by organizing your medical bills and records of your lost wages as you incur them. We can also alert you to other damages that you might not think are related to the incident in question, like transportation costs to and from the hospital and in-house medical care.

We will also consider your emotional damages, for which you can get compensation in your claim. Adding up non-economic damages is challenging and requires complex calculation methods. One of these is the per diem method, which involves assigning a dollar amount to your pain and suffering and multiplying that by the number of days you anticipate experiencing emotional distress.

Another way to calculate non-economic damages is to use the multiplier method. Depending on the seriousness of your injuries, we will pick a multiplier between 1.5 and 5 and multiply that by your total economic damages. Fully appreciating your damages before filing your claim is vital so that you know your case’s true value.

Call Our Macon, GA Injury Attorneys Today

Call (410) 694-7291 for a free case review from Rice, Murtha & Psoras’ personal injury lawyers.