PERSONAL INJURY - BEAUMONT, TX

Few things can change your life for the worse more thoroughly than a serious personal injury. The medical care that’s required could result in enormous bills at a time when your wounds prevent you from working and earning an income. Even worse, your future physical well-being could be permanently compromised by a serious injury—which could inflict substantial emotional suffering.

None of these are things that anyone should have to experience, and when you weren’t at fault for causing the accident that harmed you, it can add to the stress and sense of injustice you are probably feeling. Take advantage of the options you have. A Beaumont personal injury lawyer from West & West can help you seek compensation for the hardships you’ve endured.

What Counts as a Beaumont Personal Injury?

In the end, virtually any injury that requires medical care or inflicts some sort of loss or damage could qualify for a personal injury claim in Beaumont. There are some restrictions that involve accidents that occur at work, but for the most part, as long as someone else was at fault, you can seek a financial settlement to compensate you.

These are just a few of the different types of accidents that a personal injury lawyer from West & West will be able to help you with:

• Car Accidents – Easily the largest cause of personal injury claims in Beaumont, traffic accidents involving passenger cars, commercial trucks, pedestrians, bicyclists, buses, and motorcycles often leave victims injured and deserving compensation from the party at fault for the crash.
• Construction Accidents – While these claims are sometimes limited to workers compensation, if your accident was caused by malice, egregious negligence, or a party other than your employer or a coworker, you can seek comprehensive compensation through a personal injury claim.
• Premises Liability – From dog bites to slip-and-falls, when property owners fail to keep their grounds clear of hazards and visitors get hurt, they can be held accountable.
• Medical Malpractice – Whether it was a doctor, a pharmacist, or a hospital, if your healthcare provider betrayed your trust and caused you further injury or illness, you should be compensated accordingly.
• Product Liability – Defective product claims occur when corporations value your health less than their profits. We can help you determine if the liability lies with the manufacturer, distributor, retailer, or even an advertiser.

When any of the above types of accidents have caused you harm, it is imperative that you reach out to a capable Beaumont injury attorney at West & West. We have the experience necessary to win your claim. We will only have two years from the date the accident occurred to file your suit before we are barred from obtaining the compensation you deserve, so move quickly!

Gathering Evidence to Support Your Beaumont Personal Injury Lawsuit

The way we go about gathering the appropriate evidence to support your personal injury case will be based on the type of accident you were involved in.

For example, if you were injured in an auto accident, we can examine each involved vehicle to see if a malfunctioning part caused the collision. In the case of a medical malpractice suit, we would want to interview everyone involved in your treatment and care, as well as examine your medical records and charts so we can determine exactly where the mistake occurred.

Other kinds of evidence that will be crucial to the success of your Beaumont injury claim could include videos, witness statements, supporting documents, photographs, and expert testimony (i.e., a statement from an expert who is able to examine the damage and injuries and draw valid conclusions as to how the accident occurred).

Obtaining high-quality evidence can only help your case. While you’re recovering from your injuries, an injury attorney servicing Beaumont will work for you to build a robust case meant to recover the compensation you deserve.

Types of Personal Injuries and Your Compensation

Once the at-fault party has been identified by your Beaumont personal injury attorney, the next step is to determine how much your claim is worth. This starts with considering the type of injury you sustained, as this will determine what medical treatments will be necessary and how your quality of life will be damaged. For example, a coma will result in substantially more significant damages than a bone fracture will. Other commonly seen injuries that our clients have reported include the following:

• Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) and spinal injuries are among the most serious, as these wounds can be permanent, require intensive and ongoing medical care, and dramatically affect your quality of life. You could need to relearn how to express your emotions, speak, eat, drink, walk, write, and complete many other common tasks, depending on the extent of the injury and which portion of the brain or spinal cord was affected.
• Severe burn injuries aren’t far behind, as they can result in permanent disfigurement, are excruciatingly painful, and might even reduce your mobility.
• Broken bones can irrevocably change your quality of life. While most breaks and fractures will heal in time, truly bad breaks might require pins and screws, and crushed bones might never fully recover.
• Mental health ailments like clinical depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anxiety can manifest symptoms in a number of ways, such as insomnia or flashbacks.
• Organ failure can require extensive medical care and potentially an organ transplant. This could leave you in the hospital for an extended period of time.
• Amputations are among the most debilitating injuries a person can suffer. The loss of a limb can render you unable to participate in activities you once found joy in, and you’ll need to learn how to do everyday tasks without the missing limb. It’s important to note that amputation victims have also frequently reported chronic pain in the area surrounding the amputation site.

It only makes sense that the more critical an injury is, the greater the impact will be on your life; and the greater the impact, the more you can expect to recover in compensation from the liable party. In addition, injuries that will affect your life for years to come, or even permanently, should be given an elevated consideration when quantifying your losses.

What Goes into a Fair Personal Injury Settlement?

Your demand for personal injury compensation will need to factor in every financial expense and every negative quality-of-life impact incurred by your injuries. While the financial losses might seem obvious, a full settlement will also account for all of your future losses—not just your current ones.

Some expenses also aren’t as obvious as others. For example, many injury victims don’t realize that they can be compensated for the travel expenses necessitated by their medical care. Listed below are just a few of the potential items that might need to be included in your settlement:

• Current and future costs of medical care, treatments, and surgeries
• Lost wages, income, and earning potential
• Medication and mobility equipment
• Caretaker wages
• Emotional and physical therapy

The damage done to your lifestyle will also need to be included. While these losses are non-economic, your Beaumont personal injury lawyer will be able to help you come to a fair assessment of their value. These include pain and suffering, loss of consortium, emotional distress, the effects of a disfiguring injury, and lost enjoyment of life.

Should the Beaumont court determine that the actions of the defendant in your case were egregiously negligent or intended to cause harm, the judge could decide that your injuries warrant an award of exemplary, also known as punitive, damages. Although punitive damages will increase the value of your claim, they are designed primarily to deter future wrongdoing and punish the negligent party.

Negotiating a Personal Injury Claim with Insurance Companies

While not always the case, your final payout will probably come from the at-fault party’s insurance company. Even when an insurer isn’t involved, an opposing attorney most likely will be. Either way, these professionals are likely not going to have your best interests in mind when making you a settlement offer.

In fact, it’s nearly a certainty that they’ll try to resolve your Beaumont injury claim as cheaply as possible. They might even try to get you to make a statement in the hopes that you’ll say something that will allow them to pin blame for the accident on you.

It’s important to be aware of these unscrupulous tactics, because the larger the percentage of fault they can put on you, the less likely they’ll have to pay you. That’s thanks to proportionate responsibility laws in Texas. This means that to be able to be entitled to recover, you must be less at fault than the at-fault party. We may avoid going to court by coming to a reasonable settlement agreement with the insurance company. If we are unable to do so, however, we are willing and prepared to bring the case to court.

This is why it’s best to let a Beaumont personal injury lawyer from our firm handle the negotiations on your behalf. Not only will we get you a larger settlement than their initial offer, it will likely be larger even after our attorney contingency fee is deducted.

Contact a Beaumont Injury Lawyer

No matter what type of accident you’ve been involved in, if it was caused by the negligent actions of someone else, you have the right to obtain full compensation from the at-fault party. Don’t get stuck with the costs of a critical injury.

Get in touch with the team of highly trained professionals at West & West. We take pride in getting the best results possible for our clients. We know personal injury law, and we won’t allow an insurance company or opposing attorney to take push you around.

To discuss your case in detail with an experienced Beaumont personal injury lawyer, give us a call at 713-222-9378 or reach us through our online contact form at the bottom of this page.

Beaumont Personal Injury FAQ

The aftermath of a catastrophic injury can be a confusing time, which is why we’ve provided answers here to a few of the questions we are asked by our clients on a regular basis. If you would like more specific information as it pertains to your unique situation, please contact our office so that you can speak with a Beaumont personal injury lawyer.

Can I seek personal injury compensation on behalf of my child?

Yes. Just because children are not legally allowed to file lawsuits does not mean that they aren’t afforded the same rights as those of us who do meet the legal age requirements. As long as you are the child’s legal guardian or have parental rights, you can file a Beaumont personal injury claim on his or her behalf.

Can a lawyer help me if my family member died in an accident?

If you are the deceased’s spouse or child, you can file a wrongful death claim seeking damages. If the deceased was unmarried and had no children, you might be able to file if you are a sibling. If there are no siblings, then you can file if you are a grandparent of the deceased. In the event that there are no surviving family members, the designated representative of the estate may proceed with a claim.

How much time do I have to file a personal injury claim seeking financial compensation?

Generally speaking, the statute of limitations for personal injury in Texas is two years from the date of the injury. This means that you must file your personal injury lawsuit into a court of law no later than two years after the event that caused your injury.