San Bernardino Car Accident & Injury Attorney
Top Rated San Bernardino Injury Attorneys
After a personal injury in San Bernardino, you and your family are often suffering through a difficult time. There might be surgeries, visits to physicians’ offices, and what seems like a million pressuring calls from an insurance company with their own financial interests on the line. This is a difficult process and not one that you should attempt to handle on your own.
Once the dust has settled from your accident, one of your first thoughts is getting the money that you need and deserve. However, in personal injury actions, receiving financial compensation is not automatic after an accident. Before anyone even makes you a settlement offer, you need to show that you are legally entitled to the money. You do this by proving that someone else was negligent in your case.
It is highly advised to have an experienced San Bernardino personal injury attorney handling your claim from the very start. Insurance companies tend to take advantage of unrepresented claimants, and this is the last thing you need to deal with when you should be focusing on your treatment and recovery. Contact the JLF Firm for assistance today.
Award-Winning Personal Injury Representation
We offer clients tenacious and compassionate representation in the following types of cases:
- San Bernardino car accident attorney
- San Bernardino truck accident attorney
- San Bernardino motorcycle accident lawyer
- San Bernardino slip and fall attorney
- San Bernardino dog bite lawyer
- San Bernardino bicycle accident lawyer
- San Bernardino Uber and Lyft accident lawyer
- San Bernardino pedestrian accident lawyer
- San Bernardino wrongful death lawyer
- San Bernardino worker’s compensation lawyer
The JLF Firm has award-winning personal injury attorneys with offices throughout Southern California to serve you. Our founder Jeff Faygnor has been fighting for injured victims from the very beginning of his legal career and believes that every injured person deserves aggressive and tough representation. We will investigate the facts and look at your case from all possible angles in helping you seek compensation. You are never outmatched with us on your side.
You Should Have Legal Help to Show that Someone Else Was Responsible
Any determination of fault is fact-based and depends on what happened in your accident. In a personal injury case, there are always two sides to every story. Even if the other side does not dispute what happened in the accident, they are almost certain to have a different opinion about what you are owed. This is why you need an attorney to help you tell your side of the story.
Assuming that you are able to show that someone else was negligent in your accident, you are legally entitled to the following damages:
- Lost wages (both in the past and future)
- Medical bills (both in the past and future)
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Household expenses
- Loss of companionship
It is important to take a closer look at several facets of the damages you’ve incurred to recover the full range of your losses.
Medical Bills
A serious injury can leave you facing serious medical bills that include all of the following:
- Emergency care at and transportation from the scene of the accident
- Surgery and follow-up care
- Hospitalization
- Care from doctors and medical specialists
- Physical therapy
- Prescription medications
- Physical adaptations to one’s home and/or vehicle
- Adaptive physical devices
- Prescription medications
- Home health care
It’s also important to note that many injuries lead to secondary health concerns that will lead to future medical costs. Further, some injuries – such as a serious TBI – can lead to a lifetime of medical needs and expenses. Failing to address your complete medical costs (that factor in future expenses) can negatively affect your ability to reach your most complete recovery and move forward with your life post-accident.
Lost Earnings
If you’ve suffered a serious injury, you’ll very likely also experience an attendant decrease in earnings. Depending upon the kind of injury you’ve suffered and your job, you could be looking at a decrease in your earning potential into the future – or even to an altered career trajectory. Because many of us tie our sense of self to the work we do, this can be an especially difficult consequence of a personal injury.
Physical and Emotional Pain and Suffering
The physical and emotional pain and suffering associated with enduring an injury that was caused by someone else’s negligence can be immense. You are left facing a difficult path toward recovery that involves significant physical and emotional pain, and that can lead to emotional consequences like the following:
- Increased anxiety
- Symptoms of depression
- Withdrawal and self-isolation
- Sleep disturbances
- Difficulty concentrating
- Fear of returning to the activity that left you injured (such as driving)
- Abrupt mood swings
- Emotional lability
In fact, these symptoms can serve to push your family members, loved ones, and other members of your support system away just when you are most in need of their help.
San Bernardino Personal Injury FAQs
While every personal injury claim is unique to the situation at hand, the people involved, and the circumstances involved, the answers to the most frequently asked questions regarding personal injury claims can help you better address your claim and better protect your rights.
Do I Really Need to Hire a Personal Injury Attorney?
No one who has been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence is required to hire a personal injury attorney, but it is something you should carefully consider. The fact is that an experienced personal injury attorney can help in all of the following ways:
- Help you clearly identify your complete range of physical, financial, and emotional damages
- Aggressively advocate for your rights and rightful compensation
- Help you make critical decisions that can advance your claim
Obtaining the compensation to which you are entitled is so closely associated with your ability to reach your fullest recovery that you are well-advised to work closely with a dedicated personal injury attorney.
What Should I Do if I Can’t Afford a Lawyer?
It’s universally understood that legal expenses can add up quickly (regardless of the kind of case involved), and after being injured as a result of someone else’s negligence – while watching your medical bills mount and your income recede – it is only natural to think that you can’t afford to hire a personal injury attorney.
The fact is, however, that most reputable personal injury attorneys work on a contingency fee basis. This means that their payment is contingent upon you accepting a settlement from the insurance company (or being awarded compensation from the court) – at which time he or she will receive a prearranged percentage of your total compensation. In other words, your personal injury attorney assumes the financial risk involved.
How Will I Know if I’ve Found the Right Personal Injury Lawyer for Me?
If you are in the market for a personal injury attorney, there are some important factors to keep in mind, including:
- Look for an attorney whose practice focuses on personal injury cases.
- Look for an attorney who listens to you and understands your concerns.
- Look for an attorney who carefully goes over your case’s merits and challenges with you.
- Look for an attorney with whom you are comfortable working and whom you are able to get a hold of when you need him or her.
Look for an attorney who feels like a good fit and who helps put your mind at greater ease regarding the legal process ahead.
Common Personal Injuries
If someone else’s negligence leaves you injured in an accident, the injuries you sustain can be substantial. Common examples include:
Broken Bones – A broken bone is an immensely painful injury that is slow to heal. When a broken bone is complicated, it can require surgeries, protracted physical therapy, and much more. A broken bone that doesn’t heal properly can lead to issues such as chronic pain and even to a permanent disability.
Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs) – Because TBIs affect the brain, they are especially serious injuries that often lead to exceptionally unpredictable consequences. These can include cognitive, physical, and behavioral impairments that can impact all aspects of your life.
Spinal Cord Injuries – An injury to the spinal cord can result in chronic pain and a severely reduced range of motion that can last a lifetime. Further, if the spinal cord is severed, the victim suffers permanent paralysis, which is a life-altering injury that commonly leads to secondary health conditions and the need for ongoing care.
Burns – Being burned in a fire or another kind of accident involving intense heat or chemicals is as terrifying as it is dangerous. Serious burns can lead to life-threatening infections and to myriad secondary health concerns. Further, a burn that is on or near one’s face can be permanently disfiguring.
Cuts and Abrasions – Cuts and abrasions are often slow to heal, painful, and prone to infection. Like burns, when a serious cut or abrasion is on or near the face, the victim can be permanently disfigured.
Whatever kind of injury you’ve suffered, it’s important to address the matter head on in your personal injury claim.
Personal Injury Attorneys Can Negotiate Settlements
However, the exact amount of the damages that you would receive may be subject to months, or even years, of negotiations. We have our own opinion about how much your case is worth and would fight hard on your behalf. When you hire the JLF Firm, we level the playing field between you and the defendant and their insurance company. We have an established track record of working hard to protect our clients’ legal rights.
Establishing Your Strongest Case
Your experienced personal injury attorney will leave no stone unturned in building your strongest case – in defense of your rights and in pursuit of your rightful compensation. This can include all of the following:
- Compiling all of the evidence collected at the scene, including pictures and videos depicting the accident from every angle
- Speaking with eyewitnesses
- Recreating the accident (in one form or another) to help establish fault
- Documenting your damages and backing them up with medical records and other forms of evidence
- Carefully discussing the accident with you to help ensure that all the key components of your claim are included
Communicating with the Involved Insurance Company
If you’ve been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, your personal injury claim will be processed through his or her insurance provider, and you will be hearing from an insurance representative. There are some important points to keep in mind regarding the insurance company, however, and these include:
- The insurance company is in the business of making money, which means that, although it is paid specifically to cover your damages, it is motivated to settle with you for as little as it possibly can.
- The insurance company will attempt to obtain a formal statement from you about the accident, and the insurance rep who is prepared to take your statement is adept at eliciting responses that help the insurance company’s cause and damage your own. You are not required to provide the insurance company with a formal statement, and it is in the best interest of your claim not to do so.
- The insurance company has many tools at its disposal to help it achieve its goals. These can include making an early settlement offer that does not come close to covering your damages (in the hope you will accept out of desperation), delaying the claims process, making the claims process overly complicated, attempting to shift the blame from the at-fault party to you, minimizing your damages or denying them outright, and much, much more.
Allowing your experienced personal injury attorney to negotiate with the insurance company on your behalf is the best path forward. Your attorney has the experience, legal insight, and commitment to skillfully negotiate with the insurance company for a settlement that works for you.
While on the topic of the insurance company, it’s important to note that there are three very important things you can and should do to help protect your claim:
- Follow your doctor’s instructions carefully (to succinctly demonstrate that you take your injuries as seriously as the insurance company should)
- Stay off of social media (to avoid inadvertently giving the insurance company information it can manipulate and use to tarnish your claim)
- Refer the insurance rep to your personal injury attorney (rather than fielding inquiries yourself)
Contact a San Bernardino Car Accident Lawyer
After your accident, one of the first calls that you should make is to a San Bernardino accident attorney. Call The JLF Firm at (888) 553-3476 or contact us online to start the legal process with a free consultation. We will review your case and give you legal advice about the best way to proceed. The sooner you seek legal help, the quicker you can get assurances that an experienced personal injury lawyer is working hard on your behalf.