The Benefits of Hiring a Personal Injury Lawyer in Washington

A sudden injury sends you spinning off course, with temporary or permanent effects on all aspects of your life, from your capacity to work to your ability to carry out basic daily routines. When the injury could have been prevented with someone else’s reasonable care, it’s even more distressing. Adding the stress of a challenging legal process into the mix during your recovery can feel intimidating or overwhelming, but fortunately, you have the option of hiring a personal injury attorney.

By choosing a Kent personal injury lawyer from Caffee Accident & Injury Lawyers in Washington, you can focus on your physical recovery, while an experienced legal advocate works tirelessly on your financial recovery.

Why Do I Need an Attorney After Sustaining an Injury Caused by Someone Else?

Washington’s injury and insurance laws operate under a fault-based system of pure comparative negligence, described by RCW Chapter 4.22.

Under this system, an injury victim seeking compensation has the burden of proof in a claim against the party responsible for their injury. This requires compelling evidence, since most personal injury claims are filed against the appropriate insurance company; for instance, auto insurance after a car accident or commercial liability insurance after a slip-and-fall injury in a store.

If your injury happened in a crash, a car accident lawyer can help you understand how insurance coverage may affect your claim.

What Does a Washington Personal Injury Attorney Do for My Case?

After you’ve suffered an injury, your expenses may add up quickly, and at the same time, your injuries may prevent you from returning to work in your former capacity—or at all. These losses become the economic damages in your personal injury claim, while your pain, suffering, and permanent physical changes are your non-economic damages.

A personal injury lawyer on your side does the following:

• Handles all interactions with the insurance company
• Conducts an independent investigation into all aspects of your injury to determine the cause, the negligence responsible for the injury, the liable party, and the appropriate insurance policy for your claim
• Documents evidence of the at-fault party’s liability and defends against insurance company tactics, such as assigning an undue percentage of fault to you, devaluing your claim, or wrongfully denying or delaying your case
• Carefully calculates your economic damages and uses the total as the basis for formulating an amount for your non-economic damages
• Sends their findings to the appropriate insurance company
• Negotiates from a position of fact-based strength with the insurance company, with the objective of obtaining the maximum compensation available to you
• Obtains an ample settlement for your damages, or
• Takes your case to court to argue before a judge and jury

Although court cases take longer to resolve than settlements, juries tend to sympathize with injury victims. While only about 4% of personal injury cases go to trial, an experienced personal injury attorney prepares every case as though for trial to present a strong front to the insurer and to be prepared should the insurance company wrongfully deny or devalue the claim and fail to offer an ample settlement.

What Types of Evidence Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Use to Prove My Case?

Depending on the circumstances and severity of the injury, some injury victims begin preserving evidence at the scene by using a cell phone camera to photograph the cause, anything relevant, and the injury itself. Then, going directly to a hospital from the scene of the injury can help create a medical record showing that the injury occurred after the accident or incident.

Evidence in Washington personal injury claims often includes the following:

• An accident or incident report
• Eyewitness testimony
• Photos and videos of the scene of the accident or incident that caused your injury
• Your medical report and physician’s notes
• Your medical bills and receipts for related expenses
• An employer’s statement of your income loss, recent direct deposit pay slips, and the last few years of tax forms showing your typical earnings
• Medical expert testimony showing the impact of your injury on your ability to work and accomplish daily tasks, as well as the amount of pain you’re expected to experience until you reach maximum medical improvement 
• Testimony from occupational therapists about how the injury impacts your job performance

An experienced personal injury attorney in Kent, WA, presents clear and compelling evidence of the at-fault party’s liability. In some cases, more than one party may have caused or contributed to the injury. Under the pure comparative negligence system, your attorney will pursue all available avenues for obtaining compensation for you.

What Damages Can a Washington Personal Injury Lawyer Help Me Recover?

A personal injury attorney helps their client recover the full value of their claim, often demanding the policy limits of one or more insurance policies to maximize their client’s financial recovery.

Common damages recovered through assertive legal representation include the following:

• Reimbursement of your medical expenses
• Anticipated future medical expenses for further treatment, procedures, or physical therapy
• Out-of-pocket costs, such as for traveling to see specialists, or for adaptive equipment and home assistance
• Lost earnings
• Future income loss or reduced earning ability
• Compensation for pain and suffering
• Compensation for any catastrophic or permanent harm that applies in your case, such as for scarring, disfigurement, loss of limb, organ loss, loss of one of the senses, or diminished quality of life
• Compensation for emotional trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances

If a loved one died due to a fatal injury caused by someone else, their legal representative may file a wrongful death claim on the family’s behalf. A wrongful death lawyer in Kent can assist with this process.

How Can a Kent Personal Injury Attorney Help My Case?

After suffering a serious injury and the trauma of knowing your injury could have been prevented by someone else’s reasonable care, you deserve to spend your time focused on your physical recovery, rather than your financial one. The most important benefit of hiring an attorney is knowing that a legal advocate is tirelessly working on your behalf. 

Contact a personal injury lawyer in Kent from Caffee Accident & Injury Lawyers today to learn more about the advantages of hiring a personal injury attorney for your claim. Call (206) 312-0954 to schedule a free consultation.