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Our Huntington Beach law firm has a proven track record serving many convenient locations in Southern California, including Los Angeles County, Orange County, Huntington Beach, Anaheim, Irvine, Newport Beach, Santa Ana, San Diego County, and Long Beach.
We handle many personal injury cases, including the following:
Contact an experienced personal injury attorney if you have been in a severe accident.
Catastrophic injuries, like traumatic brain injury, can result in life-altering changes to your health like decreased cognitive function, permanent paralysis, physical impairment, and chronic pain.
These sudden and chronic injuries can affect you emotionally, physically, and financially. Huntington Beach personal injury victims might find it challenging to return to work for a long time, especially if they are physically or cognitively impaired. In many personal injury cases, victims cannot return to work or require personalized medical care for the rest of their lives.
Very few victims have a savings account they can fall back on for a permanent period of time, and ongoing medical care is never free. If you have been in a terrible accident that was someone else’s fault, you should not have to suffer financially.
Your personal injury lawyers will fight for you to ensure that you get all the needed medical treatment for your injuries and that your financial compensation covers all relevant medical bills and lost wages.
It is essential to understand a few things about California laws regarding your personal injury claim.
For example, the statute of limitations allows the injured party to file a claim within two years from the date of the injury. If you wait too long, however, you won’t be able to recover any compensation.
For this reason and more, you should understand at least a few basic points of personal injury law as it pertains to your Huntington Beach, CA personal injury claim. Your personal injury law firm, Timothy J. Ryan & Associates, can explain the personal injury laws to you and how they pertain to your case.
The state of California is fault-based, meaning that any injury victim can seek financial compensation from the responsible party’s insurance company.
Your Huntington Beach personal injury lawyer can determine who is responsible for the auto accident before filing. Comparative negligence rules may also apply, which means that even if you are partially responsible for the accident, you may still be entitled to some compensation. Your percentage of fault will reduce the compensation by your percentage of responsibility for the motor vehicle accident.
If you have a personal injury case and want to file a lawsuit, you have two years from the occurrence of the accident to do so. You have a limit of three years to file property damage claims. However, this deadline could change if a government entity is involved.
Contact your Huntington Beach personal injury lawyer as soon as you can to ensure you file before the deadline.
Defective products can cause severe injuries in Huntington Beach, Orange County, and other areas in Southern California. The product manufacturer could be held responsible if they put a damaged and dangerous item on the market.
The legal doctrine for defective items states that any manufacturer, retailer, or distributor is liable for your damages if you can prove that one of the following defects was present and caused severe injuries:
In these kinds of Huntington Beach personal injury cases, strict liability does not necessitate you to prove that the at-fault party was negligent in order to be compensated for your personal injuries.
The statute of limitations is also different: you have a ten-year deadline to file your Huntington Beach personal injury claim.
Filing a wrongful death in Huntington Beach, CA, allows family members the ability to ask for monetary compensation from any responsible parties that caused their loved one’s death.
Personal injury laws can be different when it comes to wrongful death claims. Instead of a two-year statute of limitations from the date of the incident, you have two years from the date of your loved one’s death to file a civil claim. Not just anyone can file a wrongful death claim. Only the decedent’s spouse, domestic partner, parent, child, or estate can file.
There may be a maximum cap in terms of financial compensation that plaintiffs can recover in certain situations. Damage caps protect specific defendants in the community like doctors or hospital facilities so they do not go bankrupt.
They can also reduce the settlement based on your actions or inactions. For example, if you fail to produce car insurance, your total compensation may be capped.
Car accident injury victims are within the limits of Proposition 213 , which means that any driver found not carrying the minimum insurance requirements involved in an auto accident cannot recover non-economic damages. Even if you are not at fault for the accident, you may not be compensated for emotional distress, pain, suffering, or loss of consortium if you do not carry insurance in Huntington Beach. However, you can still recover economic damages that include damage to your motor vehicle or medical bills.
According to the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act, medical malpractice claims also have a damage cap. So, if a healthcare professional has caused an injury to you or someone you love, the maximum amount of compensation you can seek is $250,000 in non-economic damages.
California is a comparative negligence state, meaning that more than one party can share responsibility for a personal injury case. Instead of allocating 100% of the responsibility to only the plaintiff or defendant, the two could split the fault, meaning the plaintiff could receive a limited compensatory award. The other driver could be 99% responsible and still receive a small portion of compensation.
This also means that no cap exists when it comes to sharing fault. If you think you might have been responsible for your accident or injuries, contact our Huntington Beach personal injury law firm right away so we can go over your case.
Comparative negligence might diminish your settlement by the equivalent of your percentage of fault. For example, if you were awarded a $200,000 payment but were 10% responsible, the courts could decide to reduce your compensation by 10% so you would receive $180,000 instead.
This is why it’s to your benefit to have personal injury lawyers by your side to help you minimize your comparative fault so you can receive a fair settlement.
California personal injury victims should file their personal injury claim as soon as possible. The state’s deadline is two years for most personal injury cases. This deadline starts from the date of your accident. If you do not file within the deadline, the courts will not allow you to seek compensation.
However, there are exceptions to this rule. If the accident victim is underage, i.e., your child, you have two years from their 18th birthday to file a personal injury suit, even if that is longer than the standard two years from the date of the accident.
Another example is a personal injury claim that involves a criminal tort. If there was a homicide involved, plaintiffs have two years from the date of the criminal case’s resolution to file a personal injury claim.
Personal injury victims should contact a Huntington Beach attorney as soon as possible to determine the deadline regarding their specific case.
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Our personal injury lawyers can help you if you have been injured at work. There may be instances where accident cases are both personal injury cases and worker’s compensation. For example, if you fall in a grocery store, that falls under personal injury. But if you were making a delivery as part of your job when you fell, it may fall under worker’s comp.
To find out more about worker’s comp, contact an expert Huntington Beach personal injury law firm.
If you have a Huntington Beach personal injury case, it is your responsibility to prove that someone was responsible for your injuries. That is why hiring a professional law firm is so important.
Your personal injury lawyers should have the experience necessary to prove negligence and produce enough evidence to convince a judge or jury if the case goes to trial.
Huntington Beach law offices need to assert that four main elements are present in your case in order to obtain a positive outcome on your behalf:
The responsible party (the defendant) owed a duty of care to you at the time of the accident.
The defendant then recklessly or negligently breached their duty of care.
Your Huntington Beach lawyer must demonstrate evidence that you suffered injuries and property damage because of the defendant’s breached duty of care.
Your personal injury law firm must prove that you suffered losses because of the accident, such as medical bills and lost wages.
Your Huntington Beach lawyer can help you develop a strategy that will lead to a successful outcome.
According to the Insurance Research Council, personal injury lawsuits represented by personal injury attorneys are rewarded three times more compensation than those without legal representation.
When it comes to personal injury matters that result in serious damage like traumatic brain injury or other catastrophic injuries, law offices are experienced in winning the compensation Orange County accident victims are entitled to.
Insurance companies save millions of dollars each year by denying or undervaluing the compensation of injured parties.
Insurance companies do so by using miles of red tape, legal loopholes, and any other justification to deny the benefits that you deserve.
Let the personal injury lawyers at Timothy J. Ryan & Associates handle the insurance company so you can focus on your healing and recovery. Call us right away to speak with one of our accident lawyers for free.
Ideally, no. Insurance claims adjusters are trained to act as your friend in order to use anything you say against you. As friendly as they may be, they are not on your side. It is their job to save their insurance company money by figuring out a way to undervalue or deny your Huntington Beach personal injury lawsuit.
They may even use their friendliness to lure you into admitting responsibility or guilt for the accident. Most empathetic and caring people might inadvertently state how they could have prevented the accident, do not say anything to anyone except your attorney!
Insurance adjusters may also try to get you to settle quickly by enticing you with quick payment. Never accept the first offer, even if you want to avoid a lengthy settlement, as lovely as money upfront right after the accident sounds. It’s never in your best interest to give up your rights when you haven’t even completed your medical treatments and determined the extent of your damages.
Remember, admitting guilt or in any way implying that you could be somewhat responsible for your accident allows the insurance company to neglect its responsibility towards you. Anything said can never be unsaid. Always speak to your Huntington Beach attorney before speaking with the insurance company. Even better, tell the insurance company to just talk with your attorney directly.
The amount that California civil courts reward injured clients is ultimately dependent on the factors of your personal injury case.
Our law firm can help you determine the specifics of your case and whether you have grounds for a claim. We will then fight to win your case and reward you with just compensation for your non-economic and economic damages, including:
You can also receive punitive damages if the conduct of the offender was egregious enough for the court to award them.
Our Orange County lawyers have years of experience with successful results for past injured clients through bespoke strategies, hard work, and professional case negotiations.
The potential value of your Huntington Beach personal injury case depends on the severity of your losses.
At Timothy J. Ryan & Associates, your Huntington Beach injury lawyer won’t cost you out of pocket unless we obtain a financial award on your behalf.
Our law offices operate on a contingency fee basis for personal injury suits in California. Therefore, we only charge our Huntington Beach clients if we have won their case.
Our clients can pay for our services directly out of their compensation award rather than out of their own funds. This percentage amount will be agreed upon when discussing the contract with your attorney. Contingency fees inspire us to represent our clients when they most need an ally without worrying about paying for legal counsel.
If you have been looking up personal injury attorney listings in Huntington Beach, look no further than Timothy J. Ryan & Associates! We can explain the entire legal procedure to you and help you identify who is responsible for your injuries and damaged property so you can get the total compensation you deserve.
With our personal injury attorneys by your side, you can feel confident in the face of mounting medical expenses and physical injuries. From the first time you call our friendly legal team to the final handshake with your attorney, we will take care of you.
Contact our personal injury attorneys today for a free case evaluation at our Huntington Beach law firm.
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