Dallas Personal Injury Attorney

Dallas Texas Personal Injury Attorney Michael Grossman Explains the Types of Cases we Handle

• What is a Personal Injury?
• What Purpose does an Injury Lawsuit Serve?
• How is a Personal Injury Lawsuit Won?
• What Damages are Available to Victims?

For the past twenty years, Grossman Law Offices has represented thousands of clients in a variety of personal injury and wrongful death cases.

Do you have a legal question?
Enter your phone number below and let's talk.
--

Unlike many firms that practice "general law," we have chosen to adhere to only two facets of law as we strive to provide the best possible legal expertise in those two fields. This path of exclusivity has enabled our attorneys to hone their skills and to achieve a level of focus and experience that few firms can match.

As a result, when you choose Grossman Law Offices to represent you on your personal injury or wrongful death case you are partnering with a group of attorneys who do not merely dabble in personal injury law, rather a highly experienced firm that spends all day every day prosecuting cases just like yours.

If you have suffered from a brain injury, spine injury, soft tissue damage, any type of catastrophic injury, broken bones, concussion, or any other type of bodily injury, or have been the victim of assault, we can help. Our attorneys have decades of experience in helping our clients receive adequate compensation for everything from, dog bites, birth injuries, 18-wheeler accidents, head injuries, and construction accidents to car crash cases, compensation for being the victim of battery, slip and fall cases caused by ice/ wet floors, wrongful death cases, and many more. In our twenty years of practice, we have been successful in thousands of personal injury cases helping literally thousands of clients recover compensation for financial damage, pain and suffering, medical expenses, and other types of damages.

Personal injury law has many subsections and while we have years of experience working all manner of personal injury cases there are several types of Texas personal injury cases that our Dallas personal injury attorneys are extremely well versed in. As such, we accept the following types of cases:

• Personal Injury
• Automobile Accidents
• 18-Wheeler Accidents
• Wrongful Death
• Construction Accidents
• On-The-Job Accidents
• Drunken Driving Accidents
• Other Vehicle Accidents
• Products Liability
• Medical Malpractice
• Drug & Pharmacy Injuries

While most personal injury cases will fall into the above mentioned categories, there are other types of personal injury cases that we help clients with as well. If you have suffered any type of personal injury please contact us today to get the help that you deserve.

What is a Personal Injury?

Anyone can suffer an injury but that does not necessarily mean that everyone will have a valid legal case. When is an injury a personal injury in the legal sense? In the legal world, the term personal injury refers to the physical injury and the emotional consequences that are caused by the actions or inaction of another person. Contrary to popular belief, you cannot, by default, sue everyone that causes you to suffer an injury for any reason. An injury victim, known in legal terms as the plaintiff, has the burden to prove to the court that the person who caused their injury, known in legal terms as the defendant, owed the victim a duty to not harm them. For instance, if a suspect attacks a police officer and the officer hurts the person while legally defending himself, the suspect cannot sue the officer because the officer did not owe him a legal duty to keep him free from harm. However, if your neighbor gets angry and assaults you, you likely would have the grounds to file a lawsuit against them because your neighbor owes you a legal duty to not inflict harm upon you. In both scenarios, an assault occurred which resulted in injury but only the latter scenario could result in a legal case because in the latter example the defendant breached a legal duty that was owed to the plaintiff and in the former example, the police officer owed no such duty. A personal injury claim is all about proving that the defendant had some obligation not to harm you, proving that their actions did result in harm, and proving that the harm caused you to suffer legitimate injuries or emotional distress. You as the injured victim have the burden to prove this. More specifically, you have to prove all of this within the rules and procedures of the court system which is a very formal process. Most people that hurt their own personal injury case do so because they simply lack familiarity with how the court works, how the procedures work, how to file motions and pleadings, how to get pertinent evidence admitted, etc. Every case has a fact pattern but the specifics of your case, no matter how favorable to you they may be, are meaningless if you do not know the proper procedure to get all of that information admitted in the official record. Make no mistake about it, it's not what you know, it's what you can prove, and you can't prove your case if you lack the understanding of the procedure necessary to get ALL of the relevant facts in your case admitted into court. This is a task that is easier said than done and is the precise reason why you need to hire a Dallas personal injury attorney to help with a personal injury case.

What Purpose Does a Personal Injury Lawsuit Serve?

Personal injury lawsuits have two purposes. First, they allow victims to recover financially for the losses they’ve suffered as a result of a defendant’s actions. Though it may sound crass to suggest that money can make up for the emotional and medical hardships you’ve been through, the truth of the matter is that most personal injuries inflict financial damage upon victims and their families. Medical bills, repair bills, and other related expenses can add up, especially if a victim is a breadwinner who has been unable to return to work because of his or her injuries. Recovering money from a defendant can help a family cope with these expenses after an injury. Second, personal injury lawsuits give victims the opportunity to hold the responsible party accountable for their actions. When you punish the defendant for causing your injuries, you diminish the likelihood that he’ll put others in danger by acting in the same way in the future.

What is a Solvent Defendant?

Because one of the purposes of a personal injury lawsuit is to collect money from the party responsible for your injuries, it’s usually not worthwhile to bring a lawsuit if the defendant has no ability to pay. Imagine that a penniless beggar kicks a large rock off an overpass, and the rock hits your windshield causing you to have a collision. Even if the penniless beggar was clearly to blame for the resulting injuries, there would be little purpose to bringing a lawsuit against the beggar since the beggar is financially incapable of compensating you for your injuries. When a defendant is unable to pay you damages in compensation for your injuries, the defendant is called insolvent. A defendant’s insolvency is an unfortunate circumstance for an injured plaintiff, but it is a situation which does occur from time to time.

In many instances, a defendant will claim to be insolvent but actually have sufficient assets to compensate you for your injuries. When some individuals fear that they could be involved in a lawsuit because they’ve caused harm to others, they take steps to hide their assets and appear insolvent. Many companies do this preemptively. If the defendant in your case has done this, and you can’t reveal the true extent of his resources, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to collect what your case is really worth. At Grossman Law Offices, our Dallas personal injury lawyers conduct an asset check of the defendant in nearly every case that we handle. If the party responsible for causing your injuries is hiding resources, chances are that we’ll be able to find them.

How is a Personal Injury Lawsuit Won?

It is a common misconception that the victim of a personal injury is automatically entitled to collect money from the party that caused the damage. According to the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, personal injury victims have the right to seek compensation for their injuries, but not necessarily the right to collect anything. Since the defendant owes you nothing by default, in order to collect compensation for your losses you’ll need to secure a favorable settlement or a verdict.

Do you have a legal question?
Enter your phone number below and let's talk.
--

Though most of us are accustomed to seeing jury trials in sitcoms and movies, the reality is that most cases never see the inside of a courtroom. Instead, many are settled out of court. Settling your case for a fair sum of money is one way to win your lawsuit. In a settlement, the defendant agrees to pay the plaintiff a fixed sum of money for his injuries even though no judge has ordered him to do so. In exchange, the plaintiff agrees not to sue the defendant for more money in the future. If you accept a fair settlement offer, you’ll save the time, expense, and uncertainty always associated with a jury trial. On the other hand, if you’re tricked into accepting an unfair settlement, you will forever be barred from recovering what your case is really worth. For this reason, it’s important always to have an attorney review any settlement offer in a Texas personal injury case. Offers you receive before you’ve hired an attorney will rarely be fair, but they’ll usually be binding if you accept them. The tables turn when you’ve got a Dallas injury attorney who can use his reputation to pressure the defendant in your case into settling for a fair amount.

Getting a fair settlement is not a business transaction. It is not like negotiating the price of a car or other purchase. It is a grave mistake to think that because you possess some modicum of business savvy that you are somehow capable of negotiating a fair settlement on your own. The only thing that a defendant fears is having to potentially pay more money, particularly when you are dealing with the defendant's insurance company. If they offer you $10,000 it is because they accept the realistic possibility that a jury may force them to pay $50,000, for example. When a non-attorney threatens to sue an insurance company or attempts to negotiate with an insurance company, they have no leverage at all. Think about it. If you challenge the World Heavy Weight Champion to a boxing match and you have no reputation for winning, he will not take you seriously. However, if you have a winning track record and have climbed the ranks, he will take you seriously. Insurance companies and defense attorneys work the same way. The personal injury lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have won cases against nearly every major US insurance company in the last twenty years. Insurers recognize our name, and would frequently rather settle cases fairly with our clients than face our attorneys in the courtroom.

Some Texas personal injury cases don’t settle, and these cases are usually taken to trial. To win your case at trial, you’ll need to present evidence to meet your burden of proof on each of the four elements of a personal injury claim. Those elements are duty, breach, causation, and damages. Below, we’ll discuss each of these elements in greater detail.

Duty

To win your case, you’ll first need to demonstrate what duty of care the defendant owed you. In different situations, all of us owe varying duties of care to act in a way that won’t hurt other people. The most commonly owed duty of care is the duty to act as a reasonable person would act to avoid harming others. Though the “reasonable person standard” is the most typically applicable duty of care, the standard changes depending on the situation involved and relationship between the parties. Here are some examples of cases in which the reasonable person standard does not apply:

• You may have seen signs posted in stores designed to protect you from getting hurt. For example, a store may warn you that you are approaching a step, that the floor has been recently mopped, or that it isn’t safe to leave valuables in your parked car. Most of us wouldn’t warn friends who came to visit our homes of these conditions, so why do business owners do it? The answer is that store owners owe customers visiting their stores a very high duty of care—much higher than the duty we owe to house guests who visit our homes. But what if the store’s visitor is a trespassing robber during the night, rather than a paying customer during the day? Does the store owner still owe the visitor such caution? In most instances, the answer is no. The applicable duty of care varies greatly depending on the visitor’s purpose.
• Doctors and other healthcare workers are professionals who have usually dedicated years to learning how to treat and diagnose patients. Because of their extensive training and experience, we expect healthcare professionals to use their specialized knowledge when treating and diagnosing their patients. As a result, healthcare workers usually owe a higher duty of care to their patients than they owe to others. For example, while on the job, a doctor must exercise the care of a reasonable doctor, and not just the care of a reasonable person.
• How much care does your employer owe you to keep the worksite safe to do your job? The answer to this question depends on what kind of worker you are. If you are an employee, your employer owes you a fairly high duty of care, and must maintain safe working conditions for your protection. On the other hand, temp workers, contractors, and volunteers (under certain circumstances volunteers are owed a legal duty) are all responsible for making sure that their own working conditions are safe. Employers don’t owe them the duty of care to keep the work site safe.
• How cautious must we be to protect passengers who are riding in our cars? Some states have laws that differentiate between paying passengers and nonpaying passengers who ride as guests. In those states, a driver must be much more careful to protect the safety of a paying passenger than he must be to protect a friend who needs a lift.
• Children usually aren’t held to the same standard of care as adults. Instead, they’re often held to a lower standard of care, based on their experience and age. There are exceptions to this rule, however.

To understand the duty of care applicable to your Texas personal injury case, it’s best to speak with a Dallas personal injury attorney. Texas civil law relies upon what is known as joint and several liability. In other words, multiple defendants can be the proximate cause of a plaintiff's injuries and the plaintiff may sue all of them. It is vital to speak to a lawyer in order to make sure that you have adequately accounted for all potential defendants. For instance, if you are injured when your car is struck by a drunken driver, under Texas law you can sue both the drunken driver AND the bar that served the driver to the point of intoxication.

Breach

Once you’ve demonstrated which duty of care applies to the defendant in your case, you’ll need to bring evidence to court to prove that the defendant breached the duty of care that he owed you. When the reasonable person standard applies, defendants breach their duty of care when they do something that a reasonable person wouldn’t do, or fail to take some precaution that a reasonable person would have taken to protect others.

There are three ways in which defendants commonly breach their duty of care. First, a defendant breaches his duty of care if he behaves negligently. Negligence is what we think of as a mistake or an accident. If a defendant is impermissible or careless for even a moment, he can be held accountable for the consequences that result. Second, gross negligence is a much more severe form of negligence. A defendant has breached his duty of care by doing something grossly negligent if he has done something which is highly likely to result in injury to others. For example, a person who drives while intoxicated is grossly negligent, and breaches the duty of care he owes to other motorists. Third, a defendant may breach his duty of care intentionally. It should come as no surprise to learn that if a person does something with the intention of injuring another, he can be held responsible for his actions.

Causation

After you’ve proven that the defendant breached the duty of care that he owed you, you’ll need to demonstrate that his actions were the cause of your injuries. This can sometimes be challenging, especially if multiple parties may have played a role in hurting you. It’s common for defendants to try to push the blame off of themselves and onto third parties, or onto you, in order to evade responsibility. If you don’t have sufficient evidence to prove that it was the defendant who injured you, you’ll lose your case.

Damages

Finally, your attorneys will need to prove how much you’re entitled to collect in damages from the defendant. The amount of damages is often contested in Texas personal injury cases, so it’s important to be able to both calculate your damages and have proof of your injuries so you can show that your calculation is accurate.

It’s critical to bring evidence on every element of your personal injury case to trial. If you miss evidence on even one of these elements, you’ll lose your lawsuit and collect nothing for your injuries. A Dallas TX attorney who focuses on personal injury cases, such as the lawyers at Grossman Law Offices, can gather the evidence you’ll need to win your case and present that evidence persuasively to a jury.

What Damages are Available to Personal Injury Victims?

There are two kinds of damages available in most Texas personal injury cases. Special damages are damages that compensate the plaintiff for his tangible economic losses. Lost wages, loss of earning capacity, and medical bills may all be compensable by special damages. Even though these losses are tangible, calculating them is often complex. For example, damages for loss of earning capacity compensate a plaintiff for his lost future earnings as a result of his inability to return to work because of his injuries. An intuitive way to calculate loss of earning capacity would be to multiply an accident victim’s salary before his injuries by the number of years left until he retires. This method is overly simplistic. The calculation of this aspect of damages must also account for potential promotions and raises that the victim would have received if he continued to work. The time value of money must also be accounted for. The lawyers at Grossman Law Offices know how to calculate special damages and how to factor in all of these intricacies.

The second type of damages that a plaintiff may recover is general damages. General damages compensate a plaintiff for the non-economic losses he incurs due to a personal injury, such as pain and suffering and other emotional trauma. Because of the intangible nature of the loss, putting a price tag on these kinds of injuries is rarely straightforward. In fact, the amount of general damages can vary immensely from case to case, even when injuries are largely similar. To determine what your general damages might be, contact an experienced personal injury attorney in Dallas.

How Grossman Law Offices can Help

Because we focus on Texas personal injury claims, the Dallas personal injury attorneys at Grossman Law Offices are particularly well prepared to handle all aspects of Texas injury cases. We handle all aspects of our clients’ claims from beginning until end. We know how to identify the defendants responsible for your injuries and hold them accountable.

Do you have a legal question?
Enter your phone number below and let's talk.
--

If you’d like more information about what we can do for you or if you’d like a free consultation regarding your specific legal situation, call us today at 1-855-326-0000 (toll free). Because we value strong communication with personal injury victims, we’re available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to take your calls and answer your questions.

---

---