Jacob Wilson was asleep in his Florida apartment when the unimaginable happened.

A speeding driver ran a traffic light and crashed into the side of his apartment building. Suddenly, Jacob was in excruciating pain as bricks began to fall on his legs. The traumatic accident wasn’t just painful physically, it also shook Jacob emotionally.

Sadly, reckless drivers hurt people a lot more than you might think. If you have injuries someone else caused, it may be time to seek the help of a personal injury lawyer. In this article, we’ll review what a personal injury attorney can do for you to help you win your case.

So take a look! By the time you’re done reading this article, you’ll finally know how the injury claims process works.

Types of Personal Injury Cases

What is a personal injury lawyer? An injury lawyer is someone who can help you if your injuries are the result of another person’s reckless behavior.

Here’s a shortlist of the different types of personal injury cases:

• Nursing home abuse
• Medical malpractice
• Premises liability
• Wrongful death
• Dog bites
• Aviation accidents
• Products liability
• Boating accidents
• Traumatic brain injuries

All of the cases above can result in serious, life-altering injuries for the plaintiff. If you have injuries, and you’re not sure you qualify for a personal injury claim, you can click here to learn more about the process. The main goal of filing a claim is to receive fair compensation for all of the damages you’re dealing with because of the defendant’s poor choices.

Get Compensation for Your Injuries

Injuries are expensive, and the expenses can be crippling if you aren’t able to receive compensation from an injury claim. For instance, did you know that even with good health insurance, 1 night at the hospital can cost you over $1,000?

Not to mention all of the future medical expenses you’ll be facing as you continue to recover. Thankfully, an experienced injury attorney will know exactly how much compensation you should request.

Here’s a shortlist of the types of compensation you may be eligible for:

• Past medical bills
• Future medical bills
• Lost income
• Disability payments
• Physical rehabilitation costs
• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish
• Future earnings potential

There are 2 types of pain and suffering your lawyer can help you go after. First, there’s physical pain and suffering that’s the result of your injuries. In addition to the pain you’re going through now, physical pain and suffering also take into account future difficulties.

Next, there’s mental pain and suffering. For instance, emotional distress, anxiety, and humiliation are all types of mental pain and suffering.

In severe cases, your lawyer may also request compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. An example of this would be if the accident was so traumatic you now find yourself suffering from panic attacks, which are a symptom of PTSD.

Investigate Your Side of the Case

What does a personal injury lawyer do when it comes to launching an investigation? When you file an injury claim, the defendant’s insurance company is going to launch its investigation.

If the defendant doesn’t have insurance, they may hire 1 or more injury lawyers to investigate them. During the investigation, the defendant’s insurance provider will try to exclude their client of any liability. Before you give a formal statement, you’ll want to speak with your injury lawyer so you don’t damage your case in any way.

Your injury lawyer will also investigate the situation surrounding your claim. However, instead of trying to place the blame on you, your lawyer will make it their sole goal to gather facts that support your side of the argument. One of the best parts is that injury lawyers know exactly what types of facts will help your case, and which ones are detrimental.

Settling Your Claim

Moving on, your injury lawyer can help you settle your claim outside of the courtroom. The defendant will likely want to avoid the time and money a court proceeding costs. If the defendant agrees to pay the settlement amount your lawyer puts forward, you’ll be able to quickly resolve your case.

Whenever possible, settling outside of the court is in your best interest. You’ll be able to receive your compensation much faster so you can get back to focusing on recovering. However, not all injury claims are the same, and sometimes more complex claims will require you to go to trial or arbitration.

Help With Arbitration

Arbitration is a lot like a regular trial, however, it’s a lot faster. Here are some of the things your lawyer will do to represent you during arbitration:

• Make opening and closing statements
• Call witnesses to testify
• Present evidence

Both discovery and cross-examination are limited during arbitration since it’s not an actual trial. Using a neutral third party, the goal is to reach a compromise with the defendant by the end of the arbitration process.

Documents Your Lawyer Needs

Last but not least, you can set yourself up for success by gathering documents ahead of time before you have an initial meeting with your attorney.

Here’s a short list of documents that your lawyer will want:

• Medical records
• Police report
• Witness information
• Photographs of the accident scene
• Photographs of injuries

If you’re having trouble gathering any of the evidence on the list above, don’t worry. Simply let your lawyer know what’s preventing you from getting the documents and they’ll be able to help.

Fight for Your Rights With a Personal Injury Lawyer

Now you know a few of the different ways a personal injury lawyer can help you win your case. We hope that after reading this article you’ll see you don’t have to go through the injury claim process by yourself. Instead of fumbling your way through the claims process, you can have a legal expert guiding you every step of the way.

Go ahead and find an attorney you can trust today. For more tips like the ones in this article, check out the rest of this site.