Personal injury law is an expansive area of the law that helps to protect those who have been injured by the negligence of someone else. The damages associated with these claims are often expansive, and being able to recover on your full scope of physical, financial, and emotional damages can be elemental to your ability to regain your health and well-being. If someone else’s negligence leaves you injured in an accident, seek the professional legal counsel of an experienced Burbank personal injury attorney today.
The Duty of Care that Is Owed You
There are instances in which we all owe others a duty of care. For example, when you get behind the wheel of your vehicle, you owe everyone else on the road a duty of care that extends to following the rules of the road and not interfering with the safe passage of others on the road. Additionally, commercial property owners and managers owe their guests, including customers, clients, and other visitors, a duty of care that amounts to maintaining their premises with the same level of care that other reasonable property owners and managers in similar situations do. This duty of care translates to myriad situations.
Common Types of Personal Injury Claims
While there are nearly limitless varieties of personal injury claims – and while no two claims are ever exactly alike – there are several types of these claims that are most common.
Vicious Dog Bites
A dog bite can do serious damage and can be terrifying in the process. Dog bites are prone to dangerous infections and can do irreparable damage at the site of the wound. Dog owners are responsible for protecting innocent people in their midst from their dogs’ dangerous bites, and when they fail to do so, they can be held legally responsible.
Traffic Accidents
Traffic accidents are one of the most common types of personal injury claim, and they come in wide-ranging forms that include:
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Bike accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- E-scooter accidents
- Rideshare accidents, such as Uber and Lyft
When a motorist’s negligence causes someone else to be injured, it’s a matter of personal injury law. Unfortunately, there are far too many dangerous varieties of driver negligence to choose from out there, including:
- Distraction (texting is the heavyweight champion when it comes to dangerous distractions)
- Impairment (drunk drivers know better than to get behind the wheel)
- Exhaustion (drowsy drivers suffer many of the same impairments that drunk drivers do)
- Excess speed (speed is a fundamental element of far too many deadly traffic accidents)
- Aggression (aggressive drivers, because they engage in multiple forms of dangerous driving simultaneously, are some of the most dangerous drivers out there)
Slip and Falls and Other Premises Liability Claims
When commercial property owners and/or managers fail to uphold their duty of care to their guests, dangerous slip and fall accidents – and other kinds of accidents – can be the result. The basic elements of premises liability claims include:
- A property owner or manager owed you a duty of care.
- There was a danger on the premises that the property owner knew about or should have known about.
- The property owner was negligent in his or her duty to take care of the danger in a timely fashion.
- You were injured as a result and suffered actual damages.
Slip and fall accidents are some of the most common accidents and some of the most dangerous.
Wrongful Death Claims
If someone is seriously injured by someone else’s negligence and ultimately succumbs to those injuries, it’s a specific kind of personal injury case that is called wrongful death. A wrongful death claim can compensate its victim’s family for the financial and emotional losses they suffer as a result of their loved one’s life being cut short by someone else’s negligence.
Your Damages
The damages you suffer as a result of the at-fault party’s negligence can be overwhelming, but obtaining just compensation can help.
Medical Bills
If you’ve been seriously injured, you’re likely watching your medical bills pile up, and they can include bills for all of the following:
- Emergency treatment
- Surgery
- Follow-up care from doctors, specialists, and other medical professionals
- Hospitalization
- Prescription medications
- Rehabilitation
- Physical therapy
- Occupational therapy
- Adaptive physical devices
- Adaptations to home and vehicle
- Home health care
Because serious injuries can be slow to heal and can lead to further medical concerns, it’s important to ensure that your personal injury claim addresses your complete range of injuries and attendant medical expenses.
Loss of Earnings
While those medical bills pile up, you are very likely to also experience earnings losses due to hours lost on the job. If you’ve suffered serious injuries, you’re likely to also endure a serious loss in wages that can lead to lost earning potential – and even to an altered career trajectory. Many of us derive great pleasure and an immense amount of meaning from our careers, which makes such losses that much more difficult to overcome.
Emotional Pain and Suffering
While injuries are obviously physically painful, they can also be exceptionally emotionally painful, which can be even more difficult to effectively treat and recover. Some of the most common signs of emotional pain and suffering include:
- Personality shifts
- Severe mood swings
- Bouts of depression
- Emotional outbursts and other forms of emotional lability
- Sleep disturbances
- Flashbacks to the accident
- Increased anxiety
- Panic attacks
- Difficulty eating and attendant weight loss
- Pulling away from others and other forms of self-isolation
One of the painful ironies of these effects is that they tend to push people away when you could use their support the most.
Don’t Delay Consulting with an Experienced Burbank Personal Injury Attorney
If you’ve been injured by someone else’s negligence, you need the focused legal guidance of a dedicated Burbank personal injury attorney, and the ones at Los Angeles City Law are here to help and are highly capable of doing so. Our savvy legal team is on your side, so please don’t put off contacting or calling us at 866-522-4895 for more information today.
