Dallas Pro Bono Lawyer

Texas Injury Lawyer Michael Grossman Explains Why You Need a Personal Injury Lawyer and How you can Afford One

Are you looking for a Dallas pro bono lawyer for help with your personal injury case? By definition, only certain cases and persons qualify for legal work that is technically pro bono. Everyone, however, qualifies for the no fee promise at Grossman Law Offices. Our injury attorneys in Dallas will investigate and pursue your claim without you ever having to pay anything out of pocket. We simply keep a percentage of what is recovered from the defendant as attorneys’ fees. Our clients pay no fees unless we win.

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the basics of personal injury law by answering the following questions:

• What is a personal injury?
• Why file a personal injury lawsuit?
• Who is the defendant?
• What are the elements of a personal injury lawsuit?
• How can a personal injury attorney in Dallas help?

This article provides only the most basic information about personal injury cases, but it’s always free to call our personal injury attorneys in Dallas for a personalized consultation. We’ll ask you about the specifics of your accident and give you a picture of your legal situation and what we can do to help.

What is a Personal Injury?

Everyone gets hurt every once in a while. How can you know whether the injury you’ve suffered is a “personal injury?” The Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code answers this question. A personal injury is a physical or physical and emotional injury which results from the acts or omissions of another person or entity. In a personal injury lawsuit, the person who suffers the injury is called the plaintiff. The party that caused the injury is known as the defendant.

Why File a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

It’s critical to understand that in a personal injury case, the plaintiff has the right to seek compensation from the defendant. The law doesn’t say that the plaintiff actually has the right to collect anything. Only once a judge has declared that the defendant in your case is responsible for paying you does the defendant have the obligation to compensate you for your injuries. Since the scales of justice start out automatically tilted in favor of the defendant, it’s usually necessary to fight to protect your rights after you’ve suffered a personal injury.

There are two main reasons to pursue your claim against a defendant. First, a successful claim will allow you to collect damages from the defendant. Though many accident victims feel that no amount of money can truly compensate them for the emotional and physical hardships they’ve faced as a result of their injuries, the truth of the matter is that most accident victims suffer financial hardships resulting from their injuries as well. Medical bills and repair bills can devastate a family’s finances after an injury, especially if the victim was a breadwinner who has been unable to return to work since the accident. Filing a personal injury lawsuit can ultimately help you and your family pay your bills and get back on your feet again.

Second, bringing a personal injury claim against a defendant allows you to punish the defendant for hurting you. Your suffering need not be in vain. If you hold the defendant accountable for his actions, it’s less likely that he’ll make the same mistake and hurt someone else in the future.

Who is the Defendant?

In many personal injury cases, more than one defendant may be responsible for the same injury. If multiple parties contributed to causing your injuries, you may name all of them as defendants in your lawsuit, and collect damages from everyone responsible.

It is critical to the success of your lawsuit that at least one defendant in your case be solvent. A defendant is solvent if he has enough money to pay your damages. Imagine, for example, that a penniless beggar throws a large rock which hits your windshield and causes you to have an accident. Even though you may be able to prove that the beggar was liable for causing your wreck, you won’t be able to recover damages for your injuries from the beggar since the beggar has no ability to pay. This is an unfortunate situation, but one that does come up from time to time.

In many instances, however, a defendant may claim to be insolvent, but actually have the ability to pay damages to a plaintiff. After causing an accident resulting in injuries to another person, many individuals will attempt to hide their assets in order to appear insolvent and discourage the injured party from filing a lawsuit. If the defendant in your case is hiding assets and you are unable to prove it, you probably won’t be able to recover what your case is really worth if you’re even able to recover anything at all. At Grossman Law Offices, our Dallas pro bono lawyers perform an asset check in nearly every personal injury case that we handle. If the defendant in your case is hiding resources, chances are that we’ll be able to find them and to ensure that you’re paid what you deserve.

What are the Elements of a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

Because the scales of justice are tilted in favor of the defendant in a personal injury lawsuit, you’ll need to bring evidence to court in order to tip the scales in your direction. The evidence you’ll need to win must be sufficient to demonstrate each of the four elements of a personal injury claim. Those elements are duty, breach, causation, and damages. Since proving these elements is so critical to winning your case, below we’ll discuss each one in greater detail.

Duty

The requirement of proving duty means that you must demonstrate that the defendant owed you a duty of care to act in a way that would avoid causing you harm. This can mean showing that the defendant owed you a duty to refrain from doing something dangerous, or that the defendant owed you a duty to take some affirmative steps to protect you from harm.

Proving that the defendant owed you some form of duty is usually fairly simple since most people owe each other the duty to act as a reasonable person would act in order to avoid injuring others. This “reasonable person” standard does not apply in all situations, however, and the duty of care applicable in any given case varies greatly depending on the people and circumstances involved in the accident. For example:

• Doctors owe a greater duty of care to patients that they treat than they typically owe to their friends outside of work.
• Homeowners owe a greater duty of care to houseguests than they do to trespassers on their property.
• Employers owe a greater duty of care to employees than they usually owe to temp workers and independent contractors.

These are just a few of many situations in which the level of care owed varies. The greater the duty of care that you were owed by the defendant in your case, the easier it will typically be for you to win. It’s important to understand which duty of care applies to your situation.

Breach

After you’ve demonstrated which duty of care the defendant in your case owed you, you’ll need to prove that the defendant breached that duty. In order to prove breach, you must bring evidence to court to demonstrate exactly what the defendant did or failed to do. The jury will assess your evidence in light of all of the circumstances involved in the accident and will determine whether the defendant acted more carelessly than the law allows.

There are three ways in which individuals can breach the duty of care that they owe to others: negligence, gross negligence, and intentional tort. Negligence is what we commonly think of as a mistake or an accident. A defendant who acts carelessly may be held responsible for his actions in many instances, even if he had absolutely no intention of hurting you. Gross negligence is a more severe form of negligence, and involves conduct that is highly likely to cause injury to others. Driving while under the influence of alcohol is one example of gross negligence, and constitutes a violation of the duty of care that a driver owes to other motorists. Finally, a defendant commits an intentional tort when he intentionally inflicts harm upon another person. If the defendant in your case committed assault, you’ll probably be arguing that he committed an intentional tort.

Causation

In order to hold the defendant in your case liable for causing your injuries, you must show not only that he breached the duty of care he owed you, but also that his actions caused your injuries. Pinning the blame for your injuries definitively on the defendant in your case generally requires a good deal of evidence. Defendants will often try to wiggle out of liability by blaming someone else for your injuries, or even by claiming that you caused your own injuries. If you can’t show that the defendant’s conduct ultimately caused you to get hurt, you will not prevail.

Damages

After you’ve proven that the defendant’s conduct was the cause of your injuries, you’ll be entitled to prove and collect damages. Proving your damages means that you’ll need to calculate how much the defendant owes you and show evidence of your injuries and losses in order to demonstrate that your calculations are accurate. In many personal injury cases, the defendant contests the amount of damages calculated by the plaintiff, and tries to get the jury to accept his calculation of damages instead of yours. You’ll need evidence of your losses to prove why your calculation is the fair amount while the defendant’s is a mere last resort attempt to evade his legal responsibilities.

There are two types of damages in a personal injury lawsuit—special damages and general damages. Special damages compensate a plaintiff for the tangible or economic losses he has suffered as a result of his injuries. Examples of special damages include compensation for medical bills, lost wages, or loss of earning capacity. Sometimes, the amount of special damages is easy to verify. One need only look to a hospital bill to know how much it cost to treat a sprained ankle which has already healed. But in other instances, it can be more challenging to calculate special damages. If medical treatment is ongoing, it takes experience to know what the total medical bills will ultimately amount to. If a victim is unable to return to work, he must account for hypothetical raises, bonuses, and promotions when determining how much to demand for loss of earning capacity. Even though special damages are tangible and economic, calculating them can often be tricky if you don’t have an experienced lawyer.

The second type of damages is general damages. General damages provide compensation for a victim’s non-economic intangible losses, such as pain and suffering. The amount of general damages that a plaintiff recovers varies greatly from case to case, even when victims’ physical injuries are largely similar. It’s often challenging for a non-attorney to put a price tag on intangible losses like pain and suffering. Our personal injury attorneys in Dallas have seen countless cases involving all kinds of circumstances and all kinds of injuries. We know how much a jury will likely award in a given situation and we can calculate how much your case is worth.

If you lack evidence on even one of the four essential elements of your personal injury claim, you’ll lose your case and recover nothing. As a result, it’s critical to conduct a thorough investigation to gather evidence as shortly after your injury as possible and to develop a trial strategy to present this evidence persuasively to a jury.

How can a Personal Injury Attorney in Dallas Help?

For many accident victims, the financial losses involved following a personal injury can mean that finances are tight. Even if you’re faced with medical bills you can’t pay or you’ve been unable to return to work since your injury, you don’t need a Dallas pro bono lawyer to handle your case. You do need a lawyer who will take your financial situation into consideration. At Grossman Law Offices, you pay no fees unless we win. If we do win your case, our pay comes directly from the money that the defendant is ordered to pay you. Our no fee promise system means that your case will benefit from the expertise of an experienced personal injury lawyer, but that you’ll never pay a dime out of pocket for our services.

When our personal injury attorneys in Dallas take a case, we handle every aspect of that case from beginning until end. First, we make sure that our clients receive the medical care that they need, regardless of ability to pay. Second, we get to work investigating our clients’ cases. We gather evidence we’ll need to determine who was at fault for our clients’ injuries and to prove it in court. Then, we handle every step of our clients’ claims, keeping our clients informed of our progress at every step of the way.

After you or a loved one has suffered a personal injury, call our lawyers for help at 1-855-326-0000 (toll free). There’s no need to search the internet for questionable free legal advice. We’ll give you a free initial assessment of your situation and explain what we can do for you at no out of pocket cost.