Houston Personal Injury Law Firm

If You Need a Personal Injury Law Firm in Houston Texas, Call Grossman Law Offices P.C.

A personal injury lawsuit may be filed if you have been injured in any way because of the negligence of another person or entity. In this personal lawsuit you may seek compensation for financial losses that you have suffered because of your injuries.

Some of the damages that you might recover would include medical bills, lost wages because of necessary hospitalization, loss of future income, as well as compensation for any pain and suffering. The process of seeking and securing this compensation, however, is a lot more difficult than one might at first think and most definitely will require the professional services of a Houston personal injure law firm, such as Grossman Law Offices. Our attorneys have spent over two decades successfully litigating personal injury claims and are ready to assist you now in your own case.

Explaining What Constitutes a Personal Injury

While a personal injury may be not only physical but also mental or emotional, it must have been caused by the negligence of another party or parties. Here in Texas two prevalent causes of personal injuries are on-the-job accidents and car crashes, although there are many other types of causes as well. A person who has been injured because of another person's negligence may file a lawsuit to seek compensation to cover the financial losses that he or she suffered because of that accident. The defendant in these cases does not simply owe the plaintiff anything; rather it is up to the victim to prove all charges in order to receive any type of settlement at all. The victim must prove that the defendant was the proximate cause of the victim's injuries.

While a personal injury may be not only physical but also mental or emotional, it must have been caused by the negligence of another party or parties. Here in Texas two prevalent causes of personal injuries are on-the-job accidents and car crashes, although there are many other types of causes as well. A person who has been injured because of another person's negligence may file a lawsuit to seek compensation to cover the financial losses that he or she suffered because of that accident. The defendant in these cases does not simply owe the plaintiff anything; rather it is up to the victim to prove all charges in order to receive any type of settlement at all. The victim must prove that the defendant was the proximate cause of the victim's injuries.

How Do I Know If I Have a Personal Injury Case

In order to successfully mount a personal injury lawsuit, it must be proved that the defendant's negligence directly caused the accident in which the plaintiff was injured and consequently suffered financial losses, also called damages. In auto accidents, for example, negligent driving is most often the cause of an accident. In this case, the liable driver is said to have breached or violated the legal duty of care regarding public safety that he or she owes to the victim, and consequently may be held liable for those injuries. Legal duty may change from situation to situation and consequently can be challenging to prove. For example, a surgeon is allowed to cut you during a hospital operating room procedure; that same surgeon, however, cannot approach you at a restaurant and cut you with a knife. In this example, the characters were the same and the injury was the same; the circumstances surrounding the incident and the relationships between the two characters however have certainly changed. These are complicated issues to address, and the input from a Houston personal injury law firm is definitely needed to help direct your case to a successful conclusion.

To complicate things even further, the specifics of the accident that caused the injury can make the claim process even more difficult. For example, in a construction site accident one would expect the construction company owner to be liable for providing for their worker's safety. Sometimes, however, the construction company will attempt to portray the worker as but a contract worker in order to escape liability and consequent financial exposure. A good Houston personal injury law firm such as Grossman Law Offices can help you understand what all if your possible legal options may be so that you will receive the best settlement possible.

The Three Key Elements to a Successful Personal Injury Accident Case

There are three key elements that must be present in any lawsuit in order for you to win your case. These elements are liability, damages and solvency, and all three must be present ion order to prevent your case from being thrown out of court.

Liability and Negligence in Your Personal Injury Lawsuit

If a defendant has violated a legal duty owed to a plaintiff and if the plaintiff consequently suffers damages, also referred to as financial losses, then the defendant is liable for the plaintiff's damages. In plain English, liability just means who was at fault in an accident that caused injuries. While most often there is but one defendant there may also be more, each sharing partial liability. Most often, negligence, usually carelessness, is what caused the accident. Usually this means that for even as little as a moment, the defendant was inattentive and in that moment caused your accident. If a motorist is busy texting and consequently hits your car then that motorist is liable for negligence. This is an example of standard negligence.

Gross negligence is a more serious step up from standard negligence, and involves knowledge on the part of the defendant that his or her behavior could cause injury. Drunk driving is an example of gross negligence. Even more extreme is committing an intentional or deliberate tort, in which the defendant actually intends to cause injury to the victim. An example of this could be assault. In any of these scenarios, it is up to you to show that the defendant was liable and that the defendant's negligence caused your injury.

Personal Injury Cases and Assessing Damages

The next element that you must prove is damages. The term damages and the term injuries are different. If you are injured in an accident and receive a broken arm, that is your injury. If that broken arm costs you $1000 in medical bills, then that $1000 is your damages. There are two major types of damages that may be sought: general damages and special damages.

General damages are subjective and consequently difficult to properly calculate. These types of damages may include physical impairment, loss of consortium, emotional pain and suffering and disfigurement. In order to accurately calculate these damages then you will need to retain a reputable Houston personal injury law firm, such as Grossman Law Offices, since general damages vary from case to case. Let's look at a hypothetical example: A firefighter rescues a child from a burning building. Both the firefighter and the child suffer the same types of injuries. The firefighter, however, would be able to retrieve less in damages than would the child, since it would be argued that the firefighter would be more readily able to stand the emotional trauma of the incident since that was a part of his or her job. As you can see, calculating these types of damages can be complicated, but not for the Grossman Law Offices attorneys, who have over two decades of experience proving up such damages.

Special damages are different from general damages and are much more objective to calculate. Consequently, they are usually more straightforward since they are tangible, covering such things as medical bills, lost income because of required hospitalization, loss of future income, property damages, repair bills, and court fees. Unfortunately, not all special damages are equally this simple to calculate and some will require professional assistance from a good Houston personal injury law firm. For example, what is the most accurate way to compute loss of future income for a 30 year old professional who is on the fast track to success until he was partially paralyzed in a car crash? Simply multiplying current annual income by the remaining number of years left in the anticipated workforce is not sufficient. This would not include such critically important financial rewards as raises based upon merit, raises based upon additional educational achievements or degrees, dental or medical plans, retirement programs, not to mention the cost of money or the effects of inflation. Michael Grossman or one of his colleagues at Grossman Law Offices can work to ensure that if you are unable to return to your work because of serious injuries that you will be fairly and fully compensated for this huge loss.

In many cases it is possible to file for both general and special damages. Our attorneys will assist you here by submitting a demand packet to the defendant that itemizes every penny of the damages that you seek. By ensuring that you receive a fair settlement you will be able to return to living your life with no financial stress.

The Solvent Defendant

If a defendant is solvent that means that he or she has the financial resources to be able to pay the amount that you as the plaintiff are seeking in your lawsuit. If the defendant is insolvent there is no point in initiating a claim since than defendant has no money.

The issue of solvency can also come up in cases when an unscrupulous defendant attempts to hide assets in order to appear insolvent and thus escape fiscal responsibility. When this appears to be happening to one of our clients Michael Grossman will immediately conduct a full and complete asset check. If there are assets that are being hidden, we will find them.

Contact Grossman Law Offices

Occasionally we meet someone in our practice who believes that he or she has a decent grasp of basic law principles and can apply this knowledge to their own case. This is most always a very unwise idea; knowing some basics about the law is vastly different from knowing how to actually apply the law in a courtroom situation. Not only does a non-lawyer not have sufficient resources to mount a comprehensive investigation collecting essential evidence for the case, but that individual will not have the necessary experience in following all the mandated procedures required in the courtroom of today. Many a case has been lost simply because the individual attempting self-representation did not know how to respond to and follow procedures. An experienced Houston personal injury law firm, such as Grossman Law Offices, will be able to ensure that this does not happen to your case.

Another key factor in these cases can often be the reputation of the law representing your case. The attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have been successfully litigating personal injury cases for over 20 years. Over this length of time we have won millions and millions of dollars in thousands of cases from major national insurance companies. These insurance companies are very well aware of our stellar track record and today will often seek to settle out of court rather than face our attorneys in front of a jury. This can be most helpful to you, allowing you to receive your check more rapidly and thus return to your regular way of life.

If you or a family member has been injured because of another person's negligence then contact Grossman Law Offices today. We are pleased to offer a complimentary consultation and may be reached 24 hours a day. Our attorneys are standing by and are eager to discuss your case with you.