The impact of your injuries could affect the rest of your life, so you need to trust your case to a Decatur personal injury attorney with the experience to get the results you deserve and the compassion to help you get what you need to recover and rebuild your life. At Michael M. Day Law Firm, LLC, we have recovered over $65 million for injured clients, and we have hundreds of five-star reviews. We also have a 99% successful case win rate.
But what should matter most to you is that we don’t just see you as a case or a number—we see you. We work to ensure that you get the medical help you need to reach your maximum level of recovery physically, mentally, and emotionally, as well as financially.
Liability is the basis of most personal injury cases, with the person or entity that is liable for an accident being the negligent party. Negligence is a complex legal concept that will be applied to the facts of your case. It consists of four parts: duty, breach, causation, and damages. The injured party must be owed some duty by the party that caused the accident, that duty must have been breached, causing an accident, and damages must have resulted.
For example, drivers must follow the speed limit and drive sober. If a driver is driving drunk and speeding, they have violated their duty to other drivers, and if that breach of duty causes an accident and injuries result, the drunk driver should be liable for the damages their negligence caused. Working with a Georgia personal injury attorney is important because the drunk driver will try to blame the drunk driving victim, reducing their compensation in proportion to their fault, as we’ll discuss below.
When you bring a claim in court against an insurance company or other party involved in your injury, you are the claimant, which is also known as the plaintiff. As the party that brings the suit, you could still be held responsible for some of the damages in the accident or incident, depending upon whether the court determines that you are at all liable. This is a concept known as contributory negligence, defined and explained further below.
Under Georgia Code Sec. 51-12-33, the contributory negligence law if Georgia is outlined. It states when an action is brought against one or more persons, “and the plaintiff is to some degree responsible for the injury or damages claimed, the trier of fact… shall reduce the amount of damages otherwise awarded to the plaintiff in proportion to his or her percentage of fault.”
This means that if the trier of fact, which may be a judge or a jury, finds that you were partially responsible for the accident or incident that led to your damages, you could be assigned a percentage of liability for those damages. The opposing party and their attorney will try and argue this position in court in an attempt at winning the case against you or at least to reduce the amount they are required to pay.
How your case is presented and argued in court will influence the amount of compensation that you recover, if any. This highlights the importance of working with an experienced Georgia personal injury attorney on your claim.
Negligence can happen in a broad variety of circumstances when one party owes another a duty, whether on the road, in a business, or at a residence.
Common examples of negligence our Georgia personal injury attorney has addressed include:
Personal injury cases can arise from any accident or incident that was caused by another party, and identifying how the facts apply to the four elements of negligence will determine the success of a case which is why it is so important to work with a Decatur personal injury attorney.
Medical costs in the short and long term should be covered in your compensation. This includes:
In Georgia, there is an expiration date of two years from the time of your injury. This is known as a “statute of limitations.” This means that if you do not file a claim for your personal injury within two years, you could lose the right forever to pursue any damages linked to that injury. There are limited circumstances in which the statute of limitations differ, but generally, two years apply to injury cases, and they pass quickly. Speaking with a Decatur personal injury attorney will ensure you know the exact time available to you to pursue your claim.
Getting started on your personal injury case as soon as possible after the accident supports the best outcome in your case. Collecting evidence begins as soon as we are retained, and when it comes to accidents, evidence like witness statements, crash-scene debris, tire marks, and other types will fade with time. The sooner you have a Georgia personal injury attorney on your claim or case, the faster and higher your claim will settle or make its way into court.
Many times, insurance companies will offer a settlement right away after an injury, so accident victims feel like they may not need an attorney. The insurance company may even tell you that you don’t need an attorney. And that’s because they don’t want you to know how much your case is really worth. They also hope they can get you to say something that will devalue your claim.
An experienced Decatur personal injury attorney can handle questions from the insurance company on your behalf, avoiding any statements that could be used to shift liability or reduce your potential recovery. An attorney can also start collecting evidence to support your claim right away while that evidence is most readily available. Each day that passes, the accident scene will change a bit more and the recollection of witnesses becomes less reliable. Additionally, it will grow harder to locate witnesses, and there’s a greater likelihood that footage from traffic cameras, security cameras, or dash cams will be recorded over. When you work with a skilled personal injury lawyer, he or she can take steps to preserve valuable evidence to prove that you are entitled to compensation for your injuries.
Whether a settlement is reached out of court or a claim goes to trial depends upon whether both sides are willing to come to a mutually agreeable compromise on the amount of compensation. When you have been injured in an accident or incident that someone or something else is liable for, you are entitled to compensation. That will come in the form of your initial insurance claim or, if the insurance company denies your claim or will not offer a fair settlement through a trial.
The main factors to take into consideration when deciding between settling or going to trial are:
The decision on whether to settle your case or to proceed to trial requires a thorough understanding of the evidence in your case, how state law and case precedent applies, and the outcome of similar cases and negotiations. Learning how to practice the law and then putting together a winning insurance claim or case can be difficult while trying to recover from your injuries. With us the Michael M. Day Law Firm, LLC, on your side, you can step back and focus on recovering from your injuries while we handle the recovery of your complete damages.
Many different types of situations can lead to serious personal injuries with catastrophic effects. For example, a fall at work or in some other situation will generally result in more serious injuries if a substantial height is involved or if the victim lands on their head. Similarly, many serious personal injuries occur in motor vehicle accidents such as those involving:
The impact of these collisions can cause severe trauma to the brain, neck, and spinal cord. They often also result in injuries to internal organs and crush injuries to arms, legs, hands, and feet. When an injury impacts an individual’s ability to function on a long-term basis, it is considered serious or catastrophic. These injuries not only interfere with the ability to work but they also lead to lasting pain that can destroy the quality of life.
When it comes time to hire a lawyer, the American Bar Association notes that you should consider one factor above all: experience. At Michael M. Day Law Firm, LLC, our Decatur personal injury attorney has worked on over 5,000 personal injury cases and generated over $21,000,000 in compensation for our clients. Experience matters, and with a 99% win rate, we know how to help you make the most of your injury claim.
One of the leading causes of personal injuries with recoverable damages for the injured party is auto-related accidents. Our Decatur personal injury attorney has years of experience going against automobile insurance companies to ensure that our clients collect the full compensation they deserve.
The types of automobile accidents that we help injured clients handle include:
Persons injured in a motor vehicle accident are entitled to compensation when another party caused the accident, with the most common causes of at-fault motor vehicle accidents being:
We handle a broad variety of personal injury cases where our client was injured due to the negligence of another party.
Our firm has represented the interests of clients in many personal injury cases, including the following:
Whenever a client is owed a duty, and that duty is violated, causing an accident and damages to result, they could have a case and are encouraged to reach out to a Decatur personal injury attorney.
If you or a loved one has been injured or killed as a result of the following, we will help you collect any compensation to which you are entitled. Our services include representation for:
Personal injury cases can be complex and time-consuming and insurance companies have full-time teams of lawyers and claim analysts working to scrutinize your claim for chances to reduce or deny your benefits altogether. With your own Decatur personal injury attorney, the success of your case will be professionally supported.
