Our personal injury lawyers help accident survivors like you address a myriad of negligence-based accidents. Whether you’re recovering from an accident with a defective product, a car collision, or a slip on someone else’s property, you can work with our Indianapolis personal injury lawyers to address your losses in civil court.
Vaughan & Vaughan can bring decades of experience to your quest for personal injury compensation. You and your loved ones can schedule a free case consultation with our team to learn more about the process of filing a civil claim and negotiating for the support you need to restore your previous quality of life.
Reacting to a Personal Injury Accident
It’s all too easy to find yourself overwhelmed in the days following a personal injury accident. If you need medical attention, severe injuries may limit your ability to take care of yourself or your loved ones. You may not be able to return to work for some time. You may also find yourself without essential property, like your car or personal belongings.
It can feel difficult to act in the face of all of this loss. That, however, is why it’s important for you to reach out to a personal injury attorney as soon as possible. Our team can step in and make sure you’re addressing all of your post-accident responsibilities without putting more stress on your shoulders.
We can keep you on top of the filing deadline for a personal injury claim or the complaint you need to file if you want compensation for your losses. You have two years from the day of your accident, according to Indiana Code §34-11-2-4, to bring your claim forward.
Classifying a Personal Injury Accident
There are dozens of accidents that fall under the personal injury umbrella. An Indianapolis personal injury lawyer can help you recover from a:
- Car accident
- Truck accident
- Pedestrian accident
- Bicycle accident
- Slip and fall
- Case of nursing home abuse
- Damaged product accident
- Accidents on construction sites
If you’re not sure if your case qualifies as a personal injury loss, you can schedule a consultation with our team to discuss your circumstances.
Addressing Personal Injury Settlement Offers
When you get into an accident with another party, that party may try to limit the scope of your response. As such, you may receive a settlement offer from the party allegedly responsible for your personal injury losses. These settlement offers are often made with good intentions, particularly if they come from a single person. However, they can often undervalue your losses.
With that in mind, don’t accept a personal injury settlement without consulting an attorney first. Our team can assess the nature of your losses and calculate an estimate of your case’s value without concerns about an insurance company’s bottom line getting in the way.
As such, the estimate you get from a personal injury attorney may be more likely to represent the maximum compensation you can get from your case. Once we have said estimate in hand, we can negotiate with a liable party to ensure that their settlement offer adequately meets your needs.
Preparing an Indianapolis Personal Injury Claim
If you find that the settlement offer you’ve received won’t cover your expenses, or if you haven’t received a settlement offer at all, you can file a personal injury claim. These claims allow you to demand damages equivalent to the value of your accident. In some cases, the inclusion of your non-economic losses can see your viable damages exceed the value of your initial losses.
When preparing a personal injury claim, you need to address
- Who you want to hold liable for your losses
- What evidence of that party’s negligence you have
- The value of your losses
- What evidence you have elaborating on your financial circumstances after your accident
Naming a Liable Party
Oftentimes you can hold an individual liable for your personal injury losses. This isn’t always the case, though. You need to assess the evidence found at the scene of your accident before you name a particular party as liable for your accident before a judge. Specifically, you should work with an Indianapolis, IN, personal jury lawyer to bring forward:
- Video/photo footage of your accident
- Bystander testimony
- Expert witness statements
- Debris from the scene of your accident
- Your accident report
- Evidence of legal precedent
This information can help you determine if an individual, corporation, or related institution bears the responsibility for your losses.
Demanding Adequate Compensation for Your Losses
No two personal injury accidents result in the same losses. As such, there’s no overarching estimate of what your personal injury compensation might look like. Calculating your individual losses with an attorney helps you establish the unique elements of your accident and determine to what compensation you may be entitled.
In the aftermath of a personal injury accident, you should have the right to request compensation for your:
- Accident-related medical expenses
- Damaged property repair/replacement
- Lost wages
- Reduced opportunities for work
- Mental anguish/emotional distress
- Loss of consortium/companionship, if relevant
- Wrongful death and funeral expenses, if relevant
Our team can help you bring forward the bills and reports that may help prove your right to these damages. We can then make sure that the defendant’s insurance provider doesn’t attempt to undersell the value of your accident in either negotiations or a courtroom setting.
Hold the Right People Responsible for Your Personal Injuries
It’s easy to feel like the world’s turned against you in the wake of a personal injury accident. It’s no easy feat to contend with your new flood of expenses on top of physical injuries, time away from work, and frustration with an at-fault party. Fortunately, our personal injury attorneys in Indianapolis can give you the means to seek out justice and the financial support you need.
You can schedule a consultation with Vaughan & Vaughan within days of your personal injury accident. Our team can go over your losses in a free case consultation, after which we can determine how best to start you down the path toward fair compensation. Contact our office or reach out to our team online today to kickstart your case.
