According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 24 million people go to emergency rooms to address accidental injuries each year. With this many people suffering serious injuries in a variety of incidents, chances are that such an injury might happen to you or your family. If you are reading this because you sustained an injury in an accident and are wondering about your legal rights and options, you have come to the right place. Our Fontana personal injury attorney represents the rights of accident victims in many different situations. From traffic crashes to falls to fatal accidents, we are ready to help. Contact our team directly for a no-cost consultation.
Taking on a Wide Range of Injury Claims
Just like no two accidents are the same, neither are injury claims. Each client has unique circumstances and concerns that need to be addressed through the insurance or legal process. There can be many variables, including liable parties, the severity of injuries, the type of legal action, and more.
You want an attorney with experience handling claims similar to yours. Our personal injury attorneys regularly bring the following claims and more.
Auto accidents
Millions of people sustain injuries that require medical care each year in car accidents across the United States, and many of these happen in California. Anyone who drives in the Fontana area knows there are many car accident risks – distracted drivers, drunk drivers, aggressive drivers, and more.
When a driver violates a traffic law or is otherwise negligent, the law holds them responsible for your injuries and losses. You must file the necessary insurance claims against other drivers or possibly companies if the negligent driver was on the clock. These insurance claims can be challenging, and many injured car crash victims benefit from having a personal injury lawyer on board from the very start of the process.
Motorcycle accidents
Riding a motorcycle is a popular activity in and around Van Nuys, but the enjoyment also comes with serious risks of crashing. Motorcyclists tend to have very little protection other than a helmet, which does not even protect against head injuries 100 percent of the time. When a motorcycle gets hit by a car, the impact can result in devastating injuries.
Motorcycle accidents are often the fault of drivers who are not paying attention. When a driver causes a crash, they should be responsible for all your injuries and losses, as well. We help file motorcycle accident claims and seek the full compensation that injured victims deserve.
Truck accidents
Commercial trucks deliver packages to our doorsteps and make sure that our stores have stocked shelves, among many other things. These trucks are a necessity in our society, which means that everyone on the road faces the risk of being involved in a truck accident.
When a large 80,000-pound truck hits a smaller passenger vehicle, the results can be catastrophic. Many people suffer life-changing injuries and impairments in truck crashes, which can include:
- Rollovers
- Override or underride accidents
- Jackknifes
- Runaway trucks and trailers
- Cargo spill accidents
Truck drivers who violate traffic laws or FMCSA regulations should be liable for any harm they cause, as should their employing trucking companies. Trucking companies are ready to deny liability, and you should have the right injury attorney handling this claim process for you.
Uber accidents
Uber helps provide rides for millions of people on a regular basis. While Uber might seem relatively safe – certainly safer than impaired driving – these drivers can be involved in accidents that cause injuries. There are different parties that might be liable for Uber crashes, including the Uber driver, the Uber corporation, or third-party drivers who were negligent.
Uber accident cases often require multiple claims against multiple insurance companies, so the process can be challenging and intimidating. You want the help of an experienced attorney who handles rideshare cases.
Pedestrian accidents
Anytime you are walking, you are a pedestrian. Whether you are walking in a residential neighborhood or urban area, or even in a parking lot, you are at risk of getting hit by a vehicle. Pedestrians have nothing to protect them from an impact, so they regularly sustain life-altering injuries.
Some catastrophic injuries suffered by pedestrians include spinal cord injuries that lead to paralysis, permanent brain damage from traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), and amputations from crush injuries. You need emergency medical care and, once you are stable enough, contact an attorney about your rights.
Bicycle accidents
Bicycle crashes can be serious, as cyclists also have very little protection if they get hit by a car or otherwise fall. There are many ways that bicycle accidents can happen, including:
- Dooring accidents
- Right hook accidents
- Rear-end crashes
- Intersection accidents
- Accidents due to road hazards
Often, negligent drivers are responsible for causing bike accidents, so they should also be responsible for covering all of the expenses and losses of the injured cyclist. Our legal team can assist you in filing the proper insurance claims.
Dog bites
Dogs are often beloved members of our families, but at the end of the day, they are still animals. Dogs bite many people in the Van Nuys area, and many bite victims sustain serious injuries. Puncture wounds, lacerations, soft tissue injuries, and more can result from bites, and there is a high risk of infection. If a dog bite breaks the skin, you should always have it properly cleaned and examined by a medical professional.
California law does not forgive dog owners simply because they did not know the dog might bite someone. Victims do not even have to prove that a dog owner was negligent in a dog bite claim. Instead, the law holds dog owners strictly liable for bite injuries from their dogs. There are defenses that dog owners might raise, however, so you want to have an attorney helping with this process.
Slip and falls
Slipping and falling can result in surprisingly serious injuries. When someone suddenly slips or trips on something, they often do not have the reflexes to catch themselves and break their fall. This can mean hitting your head, back, tailbone, spine, or other body parts on the ground or nearby objects. If you do try to catch yourself, it might result in fractured or sprained wrists or arms.
Many slip and fall victims need medical treatment, and about one million people visit emergency rooms each year for slip and fall injuries. The losses from such injuries can be extensive. If the fall happened on someone else’s premises due to hazards that should have been addressed, the owner or manager should be liable for all of your losses. Negligence in premises liability claims can be challenging to prove, so you need the right injury lawyer helping you with your claim.
Wrongful death
While accidental injuries can be costly, the greatest loss occurs when an accident or incident is fatal. When another party is negligent or acts intentionally wrongfully, and someone dies, that party should be held fully accountable for wrongful death under California law. This type of civil claim seeks financial compensation for surviving spouses, children, and/or parents or other dependents following such a tragic event.
While money can never bring a close loved one back, it can help families move forward with less financial stress and a greater sense of justice. These can be challenging claims, however, and your family has already been through enough. You should not have to communicate with insurance companies or lawyers who are trying to question your loss. Let our compassionate wrongful death attorney help.
How a Fontana Personal Injury Attorney Helps You Seek the Compensation You Deserve
Some injury claims are worth a few thousand dollars, while others are worth millions. No matter how much your losses might be, you still deserve to recover financially if someone else was to blame for your injuries.
While each case is different, the following is a general roadmap of many personal injury claims:
- Having our legal team evaluate whether you might have a valid claim.
- Calculating all your losses, which include past medical bills, costs of future medical care, past and future lost earnings, pain and suffering, and more.
- Investigating the accident and determining all liable parties, which might include individuals, corporations, or even government agencies.
- Filing all the appropriate insurance claims, which might include auto insurance, business insurance, or property insurance policies.
- Handling all communications and negotiations with insurance adjusters. These adjusters try to take advantage of unrepresented claimants and having an attorney can improve your outcome in many cases.
- Filing a personal injury lawsuit in civil court if the insurance company does not offer a fair settlement.
Aggressive Representation with a Personal Touch
At the JLF Firm, we handle personal injury cases in the following areas:
- Fontana car accident lawyer
- Fontana truck accident attorney
- Fontana motorcycle accident lawyer
- Fontana slip and fall attorney
- Fontana dog bite lawyer
- Fontana bicycle accident lawyer
- Fontana Uber and Lyft accident lawyer
- Fontana pedestrian accident lawyer
- Fontana wrongful death lawyer
- Fontana worker’s compensation lawyer
When you have been hurt in an accident, you have one chance to get it right when it comes to obtaining financial compensation. Increase your odds by hiring an award-winning personal injury lawyer for your case.
Proving Negligence in Your Injury Case
Part of proving negligence is that you show that someone else acted unreasonably in events that caused your injuries. This could involve reconstructing the scene of your accident to show exactly what happened, and it is not an easy undertaking, especially when you are dealing with the physical and emotional after-effects of the accident.
You will need help in telling your side of the story. The first place where you may need to give an account of your accident is to the insurance company. At the JLF Firm, we go to bat for our clients when they are faced with the difficult and intimidating claims process. Everything about the insurance process seems skewed against the little guy. However, when you come to the table with an aggressive and passionate attorney, the insurance company will have to take you seriously and will not be able to get away with lowballing you.
Not every personal injury claim will end with a settlement. There are times when your case must go to trial because the other side will simply not agree to pay for the damage that they caused. When that happens, we are gloves-off litigation counsel ready to fight for you in the courtroom.
As your personal injury lawyers, we are your guide to the legal process. We commit to explaining everything to you along the way in detail and in terms that you can understand. We try to put ourselves in our clients’ shoes with our long record of working for accident victims.
Personal Injury FAQ
If you are facing a personal injury claim, there’s a lot to consider, and the answers to some of the most common FAQs can help you proceed with greater confidence and purpose.
What Are the Advantages of Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney?
There are many good reasons for hiring and working closely with an experienced personal injury attorney after being injured by someone else’s negligence, but the most important include:
- The insurance system is not set up to support your best interests, and the insurance rep in charge of your case is well prepared to take advantage of your vulnerability after being injured in an accident that was caused by their client’s negligence.
- Obtaining the compensation to which you are entitled is pivotal to your ability to follow the path toward your fullest recovery, and the best way to accomplish this is with a dedicated personal injury attorney in your corner.
- Typically, personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis, which means they shoulder the financial risk involved. Your attorney won’t get paid the prearranged percentage of your total compensation until you accept a settlement that you negotiate with the insurance company or until the court awards you compensation (if your claim ultimately proceeds to trial). In other words, you can afford an experienced personal injury attorney.
How Can I Help Protect My Personal Injury Claim?
It is difficult for many accident victims to understand that the insurance company that is paid to cover their damages is not on their side. In fact, the insurance company’s primary motivation is accelerating its own profits. As such, taking all of the following steps can help:
- Seeking immediate medical attention after the accident in question and following your doctor’s advice carefully is not only what is best for your health but is also what’s best for your claim. The insurance company is looking for evidence that you are not as injured as you say you are (and therefore require less compensation), and your careful attention to your health and recovery sends a strong message otherwise.
- After being injured in an accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence is a good time to give social media a hard pass. It’s too easy to give the wrong impression on social media, and we have all had a post or two that didn’t hit its intended mark. The insurance company is looking for any way that it can find to discredit your claim. That picture of you enjoying a margarita on the beach, for example, isn’t in keeping with the seriousness of the injuries you’ve suffered.
- Declining to provide the insurance company with a formal statement is your right, and it is one you are well-advised to exercise. The insurance rep on the other end of the line is very experienced at coaxing claimants into making statements that inadvertently hurt their own claims. Your accomplished personal injury attorney will negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf.
What Kind of Evidence Should I Collect at the Scene of the Accident?
Your personal injury claim will be predicated on evidence that comes from the scene of the accident that leaves you injured. This means that – if you are able – collecting all of the following at the accident site can help bolster your claim:
- Pictures and videos that capture the accident’s aftermath from every angle and any extenuating circumstances that may have contributed to the accident, such as bad weather, impediments to a clear view, a poorly maintained roadway, and more (if the accident was a traffic accident)
- Pictures of any evidence that may have been left on the road, such as skid marks (if the accident was a traffic accident)
- Eyewitness statements and contact information
Your own brief recounting of exactly how the accident happened (your memories are likely to become jumbled in the stress and upheaval that follows the accident)
If you are unable to gather the evidence on your own, it is very likely that someone at the scene will step in on your behalf.
Contact a Fontana Personal Injury Attorney Today
There are many components of a successful accident claim, and your focus should be on continuing your medical treatment and reaching maximum physical recovery. In the meantime, our Fontana personal injury attorneys can seek maximum financial recovery for you.
Reach out for a free case evaluation and to discuss how our team at The JLF Firm can assist you and your family.