Houston PI Lawyer

Houston Attorney Michael Grossman Discusses Seeking Legal Help for a Personal Injury in Texas

After an accident in which you received injuries, there undoubtedly are many questions on your mind:

• How did this accident happen?
• How do I know who was responsible?
• Was one person responsible or could there have been more than one?
• How will I be able to pay for my medical bills?
• What can I do about the money I am losing from being out of work?
• Can someone explain my legal rights?
• Should I hire a Houston PI attorney?

These are all very natural questions to have. In this brief article, Houston PI lawyer Michael Grossman will endeavor to answer these questions as well as discuss the basics of personal injury law in Texas. If you still have additional questions, he and the other attorneys at Grossman Law Offices would welcome your direct inquiry. With over two decades of experience successfully litigating these types of cases, we have the knowledge, experience and reputation to help you seek a fair and full settlement for your accident.

Texas Personal Injury Law Basics

In Texas, the victim (also called the plaintiff) must bring a lawsuit against the liable party (also called the defendant). The victim must pursue the defendant rather than waiting for the defendant to offer compensation. This also is a part of civil law, rather than criminal law. The plaintiff must be able to prove that it was the defendant’s negligent behavior that led to the victim’s injuries and, consequently, their damages. The term damages refers to the monetary value placed on your financial losses that resulted from your injuries. Your damages may include medical bills, repair bills for property damages, emotional pain and suffering, lost wages because of hospitalization and loss of potential future income. If there are no financial losses, then there would be no lawsuit, since the point of the lawsuit is to award the victim a sum commensurate with the amount of losses resulting from the accident.

In addition, the victim must be able to show that the defendant was the proximate cause of the accident that led to their injuries. Proximate cause in this case means that the defendant’s negligence was a contributing factor to an accident. Example: If I am speeding in my car and I crash into you, my reckless driving is the proximate cause of your accident. There may, however, on occasions be more than one proximate cause in an accident. In another example, a driver drinks at a bar, gets into his car and then crashes into another motorist. In this case, the proximate cause would be the bar and the bartender who allowed the person to become drunk and then allowed him to speed away in his car in that inebriated condition. Due to Texas dram shop law, the bar’s negligence would be seen as proximate cause, since without the bar’s complicity the accident would not have occurred.

When multiple defendants share liability in a personal injury case, it is particularly important to have an experienced Houston PI lawyer on your side. Michael Grossman from Grossman Law Offices has been litigating these types of cases for over 20 years and brings to the table a wealth of legal knowledge. He knows how to assess liability in these cases and then how to build strong cases against all parties sharing negligence.

Three Key Elements in a Personal Injury Case

1. There must have existed a legal duty between the defendant and the victim and this legal duty must have been violated.

Legal duties of care vary greatly from situation to situation depending on the relationships between the people involved and upon the circumstances of the situation. Example: If you have agreed to the procedure, a surgeon may make an incision on you during an operation; he would be acting with a correct level of care. If, however, that same surgeon were to approach you at a restaurant and make a similar incision, then he would be violating his duty of care not to harm you. While the injury was the same and the two people involved were the same, the relationships are different as are the circumstances.

2. The victim must have incurred damages.

Damages, as we have previously discussed, refers to the monetary value placed on the financial losses of the victim as a result of the accident. The most simple damages might be medical bills and wages lost from being unable to work because of hospitalization. If there are no damages, then there can be no personal injury claim.

3. The defendant must be solvent.

The defendant must have the financial resources to be able to meet the settlement claim being pursued by the plaintiff. If the defendant were to be insolvent, then there would be no point in initiating a personal injury lawsuit against him.

The Houston PI attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have had over two decades of experience litigating these types of cases; they know how to assess liability, compute and substantiate all possible damages, and investigate and verify a defendant’s solvency.

Some of the Challenges in Personal Injury Cases

In personal injury cases, one factor that most always will complicate the process is the presence of insurance adjusters. Their primary goal is most often to save their company money, not to worry about the rights of an injured victim. In their mission to see your claim denied or at least substantially reduced, these adjusters will use all possible tactics. For example, they have been known to encourage a defendant to hide assists in order to appear insolvent; if such claims of insolvency are left unchecked, a plaintiff may not know that they have legal recourse to seek compensation.

The Houston personal injury attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have seen every trick in the book, however, and are prepared to deal firmly with whatever the adjusters dream up next. We will, for example, thoroughly investigate the defendant and if there is any indication about questionable solvency we will run a complete asset check. We will work tirelessly to protect your rights and to prevent unethical adjusters and defendants from getting away with their devious tricks.

Adjusters and defense attorneys have also been known to attempt to prove that you are not as badly injured as you know that you are; sometimes they will try to show photographs or other so-called evidence to demonstrate this. Grossman Law Offices counters these tactics by compiling a heavily documented “demand packet” for presentation to the defense attorneys. This packet contains a full and accurate list of all the damages that you have incurred because of your financial losses as well as a demand for full settlement. Damages will include itemized medical bills as well as testimonies from medical experts authenticating your true medical condition. The demand packet may also include verification of current lost wages as well as itemized computations of personal property damages. In short, if you have suffered any type of financial loss, we will endeavor to demonstrate and document every penny that you are due. In addition, we will also document similar cases that we have previously handled where our clients had injuries that were similar to yours and where similar amounts of damages were sought. This will further substantiate your demand for compensation.

A final note should be made regarding the challenges sometimes presented in correctly assessing liability in personal injury cases, especially if multiple defendants are involved or if the case is exceptionally technical, as in medical malpractice cases. In these instances, usually the police department or another investigative agency, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, will most likely investigate the scene of the accident. These investigative agencies, however useful they may generally be, rarely have the interests of the victim as a top priority. Accordingly, a wise move in these types of scenarios would be to retain a highly experienced Houston PI lawyer. Michael Grossman from Grossman Law Offices will ensure that all liable parties are identified and that you are able to seek full and fair compensation from all defendants.

What If I Want To Represent Myself?

Self-representation is most always a very bad idea. Unlike what you may have seen on TV or in the movies, representing yourself is an unlikely way to win your case. Nevertheless, there are always some individuals who still want to go it alone. Some believe that they will receive a larger settlement if they eliminate any attorney fees, while others believe that they have a decent grasp of the legal basics surrounding their particular case. Both of these motivations unfortunately lead to little more than a lot of wasted time and energy. While basic legal knowledge is certainly important, nothing can compare with actual court room experience. Assessing liability, proving up damages, following procedural customs in the courtroom, responding in a correct and timely manner to defense attorney demands - all of these actions happen on a regular and daily basis inside Texas courtrooms. Acquiring the knowledge to know what to do in all of these scenarios takes more than book knowledge, it takes years and years of hard-won legal experience on a continuous basis.

Finally, some people somehow believe that an insurance company will be intimidated by their lawsuit into capitulating to their demands. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. The giant insurance companies against whom you would be arguing your case are unlikely to be moved by a lawsuit filed by a little-known law firm, let alone by a non-lawyer attempting self-representation. These insurance companies are always prepared for claims and lawsuits and, with their virtually unlimited funds, are often able to insulate themselves with small armies of well-paid attorneys whose main job is to discredit plaintiffs and to save their employers money.

Contact the Houston PI Law Firm of Grossman Law Offices

Yes, there certainly are many hurdles to clear when seeking restitution after a bad accident in Texas, but with the right legal team on your side, this is not an impossible job by any means. The Houston personal injury attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have been successfully litigating these complex types of personal injury cases for over 20 years. In that period of time we have won millions of dollars from insurers nationwide for hundreds of our clients. The giant insurance companies are only too well aware of our stellar reputation; in fact, more and more often today they will seek to settle out of court rather than face our tenacious attorneys in front of a jury. This can translate into a streamlined process for you, with less time required in the whole legal process. It also can mean a faster settlement for you, which would allow you to get back to a more normal way of life that much faster.

For a completely free consultation, contact Grossman Law Offices today at 1-855-392-0000 (toll-free). We are always available 24 hours a day and would welcome the chance to discuss your case with you and to answer all of your questions.