Articles Posted in Personal Injury

The warm weather is perfect for numerous spring and summertime activities, including boating. While this can be a great way to relax, it’s important to exercise good judgment to keep yourself and others safe. When individuals fail in these duties, they risk causing harm to others. In some cases, a boating accident may constitute a personal injury case.

If you are injured in a boating accident, you could recover damages for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and lost time at work. Determining if you have a viable claim ultimately depends on the accident.

Types of Accidents

When making a case for a personal injury claim, it’s important to be as thorough as possible. You need to be able to prove that your injury was the result of another person’s negligence, which often means there are many lines of evidence that may need to be considered. Among the evidence you’ll need for your personal injury lawsuit are the following items.

Physical Items

Physical evidence needs to be collected as early as possible because it tends to deteriorate over time. For instance, in a slip and fall accident, environmental conditions such as spills or unnatural accumulations of ice will very quickly vanish if not photographed promptly.

If a work accident results in a disability, you are entitled to certain benefits on top of regular workers’ compensation. Disability benefits are designed to cover lost income resulting from reduced earning capacity.

There are four different classifications of disability benefits, including TTD, TPD, PTD, and PPD. These deal with either temporary or permanent disabilities, and the type you qualify for will affect how much you receive in compensation.

Temporary Total Disability – TTD

About fifteen percent of all spinal cord injuries result from falling accidents, and they are especially prevalent in the elderly. Some spinal injuries are fairly minor, while others have long-term lifestyle impacts. Regardless of the severity, though, they can often lead to pain, suffering, and high medical expenses.

For this reason, it’s important to know what to do in the event of a slip and fall accident, especially if you suspect there was some form of negligent action on the part of another.

Types of Spinal Cord Injuries from Slip and Fall Accidents

Out of everyone on the roads, motorcyclists are those who are most at risk for serious injury. A motorcycle offers less protection to its driver than a car or truck, and it may go unnoticed by less attentive motorists. High speed crashes can result in very severe injuries or death, and in many cases, these accidents are not the motorcyclist’s fault.

Because of the severity of these types of accidents, injured motorcyclists will have a more difficult time recovering damages. This makes an attorney absolutely vital to receiving adequate compensation.

Severity of Injuries

An accident can quickly turn your life around, and generally not in good ways. Pain, suffering, medical expenses, and more are all hard to deal with. Fortunately, a bit of preparation can make the process easier to handle.

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the ways you can be prepared for various types of accidents.

Car Accidents

When it comes to personal injury cases, there is often a high level of ambiguity. Accidents don’t occur in a void, so there are frequently additional factors that need to be considered. Another incident could interrupt the chain of events between one person’s negligence and another’s injury, potentially removing their liability.

Superseding cause is when an independent event occurred during an accident that keeps the negligent party (the defendant) safe from liability.

Intervening Cause and Superseding Cause

If you have been injured in an accident, it’s important to seek justice as promptly as possible. Most jurisdictions, including Illinois, have statutes of limitations on personal injury claims that limit the period of time in which you can press charges. Once that time is up, you are no longer able to file a lawsuit.

For personal injury claims, the statute of limitations is two years, though there are other factors that may lengthen or shorten that time.

Purposes Behind the Statute of Limitations

In the event of an automobile accident, there are various ways in which to receive compensation for your injuries. In many cases, this will be through a personal injury lawsuit, but there may be other options as well. For instance, certain insurance policies provide personal injury protection (PIP) to drivers. This will work a little differently from a lawsuit, and the compensation you receive for damages will be somewhat limited, but this can still be a good option in certain cases.

PIP Coverage

Personal injury protection is intended to cover medical expenses and lost wages due to an accident. You make PIP claims against your own insurer, not against the other driver. As such, it may or may not affect your premiums.