Houston Personal Injury Law Attorney

Call Our Houston Personal Injury Law Firm if You are in Need of a Personal Injury Attorney

Michael Grossman from Grossman Law Offices and his colleagues have prepared this brief informative article to help you understand the basics of personal injury litigation and to discuss your legal rights after an accident. The attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have had over two decades of experience litigating personal injury cases and are available to assist you now.

Personal Injury Lawsuit Basics

In a personal injury lawsuit the victim brings a claim against the defendant, who is the liable party. This lawsuit is a part of civil law, not criminal law. The victim cannot expect the defendant to merely hand over money for injuries caused; rather the victim must be able to prove this and have the court order the defendant to make compensation. As the victim, you must be able to prove that the defendant's negligent behavior directly contributed to or actually caused the plaintiffs injuries and consequent damages. In this case damages refers to the financial losses that you may have suffered because of your injuries. These damages may include medical bills, loss of wages because of necessary hospitalization, loss of future potential income, as well as compensation for pain and suffering. The whole point and the goal of filing a personal injury lawsuit is to have the victim reimbursed for any financial losses that he or she suffered because of the negligence of the defendant. If no financial losses, or damages, occurred then there is no basis for a lawsuit.

It also must be proved that the defendant was the proximate cause of the victim's injuries. In this case the term proximate means that it was some type of negligence on the part of the defendant that caused or at least contributed to the injury of the victim. As an example, let's look at a typical accident that occurs after driver has been drinking at a bar and then injures someone. In this case, the bar itself is the proximate cause of the accident since without their negligence that driver would not have been drunk on the roads and caused the accident. Thus the restaurant or bar would be named as being liable along with the drunk driver himself. A Houston personal injury law attorney becomes critically important in cases when there is more than one defendant. All liable parties must be accurately identified and separate cases must be built against each liable party involved.

Three Elements to a Successful Claim

There are three elements to any successful personal injury lawsuit. All three must be present to be able to win your case. They are:

• Duty: It must be proved that a legal duty existed between the defendant and the plaintiff; this legal duty must also have been shown to have been violated, or breached.
  Legal duties vary greatly by virtue of the circumstances of the accident and by the types of relationship existing between the two characters. For example, in the operating room a surgeon is allowed to make an incision on his patient. If, however, that same surgeon makes an incision on the same patient but this time at a public restaurant then that is in violation of his duty of care. The injury and the people involved are the same but the circumstances and the relationships have changed. Another way of looking at this would be to see that on Texas roads all drivers share a duty to drive carefully so as not to harm each other. If one driver drives under the influence then he or she has violated that duty of care.

• Damages: Damages must have been suffered by the victim.
  As we stated before, damages must be present in order to win your case. These again may include lost wages, future lost income, medical bills and compensation from pain and suffering. Without the presence of damages there may be no lawsuit.

• Solvency: The defendant must be solvent. The defendant must have the financial resources to be able to pay the compensation that you are seeking in your lawsuit. If the defendant has no financial resources then there is no point in launching a legal claim. Sometimes a defendant will attempt to hide assets in order to appear insolvent and thus escape financial responsibility. If that is attempted we will mount a full scale investigation into the defendant's assets; if there are assets being obscured we will find them.

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  Michael Grossman and his colleagues at Grossman Law Offices can build a strong case on your behalf. Relying on his two plus decades of litigation experience he knows how to asses legal duty and prove up all damages.

Some Typical Challenges in Personal Injury Lawsuits

Insurance adjusters present a major obstacle on your road to winning fair compensation after your accident. These adjusters follow their company mandate where putting profits is the primary goal and objective. It is critically important to always remember that your interests, as an injured victim, and the big insurance company's interests could not be further apart.

Adjusters and defense attorneys for the insurance company will also attempt to show that you are not as injured as claimed in the accident or that you yourself actually contributed to the accident,. If that were to be proved they would be liable for much lower amounts of money. This is yet again another reason why retaining a good Houston personal injury law attorney is so important.

The attorneys at Grossman Law Offices will respond to these shoddy tactics by constructing a comprehensive demand packet that will assiduously detail all of your injuries. We will use our own extensive contacts to substantiate this with the testimony of our medical expert witnesses. This will effectively demonstrate the true extent of your injuries and will refute the defense's attempt at discrediting your claim.

Assessing liability may frequently be a challenge in these types of personal injury cases, particularly if multiple parties were involved or in highly complicated cases such as those involving medical malpractice. While in those types of cases there is usually an investigation conducted by a police department or another agency such as the Occupational Safety and Health Admonition, these are seldom of direct benefit to an injured victim. Our attorneys can help in these types of cases and can ensure that all liable parties have been identified and held accountable.

Should I Represent Myself in a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

In the vast majority of cases self-representation is a sure way to lose your case. Unlike what one may have seen in the movies, there is little glamorous about attempting to represent oneself. Sometimes a person will feel that because he or she has a decent basic grasp of the law that their knowledge will enable them to handle their own case. Knowing the law however, and being able to apply the law, are two very different things. The techniques of applying the law cannot be learned overnight; rather, these techniques are learned through years of advanced schooling followed by years and years of hands on courtroom experience.

Understanding the proper techniques and procedures in a courtroom is another skill that cannot be learned overnight. Knowing how to respond to certain demands made by the defense and having the ability to prove up damages are skills that are absolutely essential to winning a case.

Finally, sometimes a victim will believe that since they were genuinely injured and that the defendant was so obviously at fault that the insurance company will just do the "right thing" and pay for that victim's medical claims and damages. There are also people who simply believe that if they initiate a lawsuit the insurance company will simply capitulate. Nothing could be further from the truth in these two examples. As we said before, the insurance companies are motivated by their desire to make more and more money, rather than any concern over an injured victim. Consequently, they will fight vigorously any claim made by a plaintiff and will try to discredit whatever you attempt to say. They will also on occasion offer a ridiculously low amount as a token settlement, hoping that in return you will sign away your rights to later hire an attorney and sue for a fair amount. Finally, these insurance companies are always prepared for claims and lawsuits and employ small armies of ruthless attorneys and wily adjusters who will fight against anyone, particularly an unknown law firm, let alone a non-attorney attempting self-representation.

Contact Grossman Law Offices

The attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have been successfully litigating personal injury cases for over 20 years. During this period of time we have won millions and millions of dollars in settlements for our Texas clients from major insurers nationally.

The major insurance companies today are well aware of our outstanding track record and often will contact us to settle out of court rather than face our tenacious attorneys in front of a jury. This can be beneficial to you since it may allow you to receive your settlement earlier and thus return more rapidly to your regular way of life.

If you or a family member has been injured because of someone else's negligence contact Grossman Law Offices today. We are pleased to offer a complimentary consultation and are available to you 24 hours a day. Michael Grossman and his team of attorneys look forward to discussing your case with you and to answering all of your specific questions.