El Monte Car Accident & Injury Attorney

Top Rated El Monte Auto Accident & Injury Attorney

If you have been injured in an accident, you are likely wondering whether you need to hire an El Monte personal injury attorney to handle your case. In reality, the question is not whether you should hire an attorney, but which lawyer is the right one for your case.

In any personal injury case, the amount of compensation that you receive could vary widely. First, you would need to show that you are legal entitled to payment for your injuries. This requires you to prove that someone else was negligent. This is not a given in every case. In some cases, the question of who was responsible for the accident is not always settled. Many attorneys promise that they will fight for top dollar for you, but first, they must show that you are legally entitled to a dollar in the first place.

At the JLF Firm, we are open and honest with our clients about their rights, and we fight for every dollar they deserve. We handle a wide range of injury cases, so please never hesitate to contact us to discuss whether we can help you.

Putting the “Personal” in Personal Injury Law

We never forget to focus on the “personal” part of personal injury law. After all, we engage in the practice of personal injury law to help our clients after they have been hurt in an accident. Our approach is client-centric, offering compassion and understanding during a difficult time when you need it the most. However, we certainly know how to fight for you when your situation calls for it.

As attorneys who work directly with injured clients, we understand the difficulties that you face during the personal injury process. We know that you are dealing with financial, physical, and emotional issues as you seek to deal with the aftermath of your accident. After all, there is a reason why you are seeking pain and suffering damages in your legal action.

Establishing Fault in Your Personal Injury Case

Whether you are able to recover for your injuries depends on who is at fault for your injury. The test that an insurance company or a court would use is whether someone else was negligent in the events that caused your injury.

When you are filing a civil lawsuit, you must prove each of the four elements of the negligence test. Your personal injury lawyer would do this by introducing evidence and witnesses who could testify about what happened. They would also use your medical records to document and show the extent of your injuries. As a claimant or a plaintiff seeking compensation, you have the burden of proof to show what happened.

Here is what you must prove in a personal injury case:

Duty of Care – Here, you must show that there was a relationship between you and the defendant that required them to exercise reasonable care. For example, even if you are perfect strangers, being fellow drivers on the road creates that kind of relationship.

Breach of the Duty – For this element, you must prove that someone else acted unreasonably. This is in comparison to the actions that a reasonable person would have taken under the circumstances.

Injury – You must prove that you suffered some sort of damages because of the accident. In most cases, this is a physical injury, but property damage could also suffice.

Causation – This element involves showing that someone else was the proximate cause of your injury. In other words, you would have never been hurt or damaged if it was not for what the defendant did.

As you can see, there are a number of different ways that a personal injury lawyer would help prove your case. They would include the following:

• Recreating the accident to show that the defendant acted unreasonably, and this is almost always a factual question that depends on what happened in your accident. What is reasonable under some circumstances may not be reasonable in others.
• Working with medical experts and reviewing your medical records to establish the injury that you suffered, as the extent of your injury could be challenged in a claim or trial.
• Showing that someone else was the cause of your injury, and this could be an issue if the defendant claims that they were not responsible.

Here are some examples of someone else’s negligence for which you may be able to recover in a personal injury lawsuit:

• Another driver made an illegal turn, cut into your lane, and caused a crash.
• You were attacked and bitten by a dog, and you did nothing whatsoever to provoke the dog.
• A store owner delayed in cleaning up a spill, and you slipped on a slippery floor and fell.
• A driver did not yield to you at a crosswalk as they are legally required and hit you as you were crossing the street.

Questions About Your Personal Injury Cases

Below are the answers to a few frequently asked questions that we often get about personal injury cases. For information about your specific situation, please do not hesitate to contact our office directly.

How Long Will My Personal Injury Case Take?

It is difficult to know how long your case will take once it is filed. You may be able to settle your case relatively quickly because personal injury jury trials are rare. However, this depends in part on how reasonable the insurance company or the responsible party are being in settlement negotiations. If your case needs to go all the way to trial, it could take years to resolve.

Sometimes, you have control over the timetable for your case. However, many cases that have quick resolutions mean that the accident victim leaves money on the table when they settle their case. Your personal injury attorney could help you negotiate a better settlement offer, but that could take time.

How Should I Choose a Personal Injury Lawyer?

You are placing quite a bit of trust in the person that you ultimately select as your attorney. Their legal advice could make a six-figure difference in the amount of money that you could receive, and it may even make the difference in whether you receive money at all. Therefore, you should feel comfortable with your attorney’s experience and judgment most of all.

Beyond that, you should have a comfort level with your attorney personally. Depending on your case, you may be working very closely with the lawyer over a number of years. It should be someone with whom you could develop a good working relationship because that will benefit your case.

Why Do I Need a Personal Injury Lawyer?

Of course, you are always free to file a lawsuit or a claim pro se, but you will not get special treatment because you are on your own. In fact, the insurance company may think that you are a weak mark because you do not have the legal knowledge that a lawyer would provide. Besides, it is very difficult for the average person who does not know what the insurance company is looking for to file a persuasive claim that could maximize their settlement. They may not even know how to present a story that allows the adjusters to conclude that someone else was responsible for the accident.

How Long Do I Have to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

In California, the statute of limitations in a personal injury lawsuit is two years from the time that you were injured or should have known that you were injured. This means that you should move quickly to begin your legal action. Two years may seem like a long time, but claims take time to resolve, and lawsuit complaints take time to investigate and draft. Besides, the quicker you get started on the legal process, the sooner you may be able to settle your case and have the money that you need to pay your living and medical expenses.