Carrollton Personal Injury Lawyer

Have You Suffered a Personal Injury in Carrollton? Texas Attorney Michael Grossman Can Help

Grossman Law Offices has helped thousands of people in a multitude of personal injury and wrongful death cases over the past two decades.

While many firms do what is known as “general law” we have elected to focus on two kinds of law as we seek to give the best legal assistance in these two areas. This exclusive approach has allowed our Carrollton personal injury lawyers to sharpen their skills and reach a degree of focus and experience that not many firms can equal.

That’s why when you decide to go with Grossman Law Offices as your legal representation on your personal injury or wrongful death case you are teaming up with a team of attorneys who don’t just occasionally work personal injury law, but rather a highly talented, veteran firm that devotes its entire time to working cases just like yours.

If you live in or around Carrollton and have sustained a brain injury, spine injury, soft tissue damage, any kind of horrific injury, broken bones, concussion, or any other sort of bodily injury, or have been a part of an assault, we can assist you. Our Carrollton attorneys have years of experience in aiding clients and making sure they get compensation for everything like dog bites to birth injuries, big rig accidents, head injuries and construction accidents, along with car crashes, compensation from battery incidents, slip and fall cases from icy or wet floors, wrongful death cases and so much more. In our two decades of practice, we’ve prevailed in tons of personal injury cases helping thousands of people get compensated for financial damage, pain and trauma, medical bills and any other kinds of damages.

What is a Personal Injury?

Anyone can have a personal injury but that doesn’t mean everyone will have a legitimate reason to file a lawsuit. So when does an injury become a personal injury, legally speaking? In the world of law, the term personal injury is used to describe the physical injury and the emotional pain caused by the actions or inaction of another individual. Despite what many may think, you can’t automatically have the chance to sue anyone who hurts you for any reason. An injury victim, also referred to in the legal world as the plaintiff, has the responsibility to prove in court that who caused their injury, also referred to as the defendant, owed the victim a duty to not harm them. For example, if a prostitute hopped up on meth attacks a cop and the cop hurts the hooker while legally defending himself, the hooker can’t sue the cop because the cop didn’t owe her a legal duty to keep her safe from harm. However, if your neighbor flips out and attacks you, you’ll probably have the chance to file a lawsuit against them because your neighbor owes you a legal duty to not cause them harm. In both illustrations, an assault happened which led to an injury but only the second scenario could have led to a legal case because in that example the defendant violated a legal duty to not cause harm and in the other example the cop owed no duty of that kind. A personal injury claim exists to prove that the defendant owed you somehow to not harm you, show their choices led to your harm, and also showing properly that the harm left you with credible injuries and emotional pain. As the injured victim, it’s up to you to show this. To make it even more challenging, you have to do this within the confines of the judicial system, which can be a very complicated process. Most people that harm their own personal injury case do so because they just aren’t familiar with how the court system works, how procedures happen, how to properly file motions and pleadings, the right way to get credible evidence admitted, etc. Every case has a pattern of facts but the details of your case, regardless of how strong they are, are pointless if you don’t know the right way to get all the facts put onto the official record. Don’t be fooled: It’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove and you won’t be able to prove your case if you lack the inability to understand how to get ALL the big facts in your case submitted into court. This is a challenge that’s easier said than done and is the exact reason why you need to obtain an attorney to assist with your personal injury case.

What Purpose Does a Personal Injury Lawsuit Serve?

Personal injury lawsuits have two objectives: First, they help victims recover financially for the losses they’ve incurred as a result of a defendant’s actions. While it sounds awful to say that money can be the solution for the emotional and physical hardships you’ve sustained, the fact is that most personal injuries carry with it severe financial burdens that are thrown at victims and their families. Medical costs, repair bills, and other types of expenses can pile up, especially when a victim is the chief income earner and hasn’t been able to work because of his or her injuries. Obtaining money from a defendant can allow a family to handle these expenses following an injury. Second is that personal injury lawsuits give victims the chance to hold the liable party accountable for their behavior. When you make sure the defendant is punished for causing your injuries, you decrease the chances that he or she will cause more danger in the same fashion in the future.

What is a Solvent Defendant?

Since one of the goals of a personal injury lawsuit is to get money from the party who caused your injuries, it’s usually pointless to file a lawsuit if the defendant has no way to pay. Let’s say a poor homeless man tosses a rock from an overpass, it hits your windshield and you then have an awful collision. Even if the homeless man was definitely at fault for your injuries, there would be no reason to pursue a lawsuit against the man since he’s financially unable to compensate you for your injuries. When a defendant can’t pay you damages to compensate your injuries, the defendant is referred to as insolvent. A defendant’s insolvency is a tragic issue for a plaintiff to deal with, but it’s an issue that does happen from time to time.

Did You Know?

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A lot of times a defendant will say they’re insolvent but actually have plenty of assets to compensate you for your injuries. When some individuals think they could get wrapped up in a lawsuit because they’ve hurt someone else, they then begin plotting to hide their assets and make it look as if they’re insolvent. Lots of companies will turn to this quickly. If the defendant in your case has opted to do this, and you can’t determine the real amount of his or her resources, you probably aren’t going to be able to get the real amount of what your case is worth. At Grossman Law Offices, our Dallas personal injury lawyers do an asset check on the defendant in virtually every case we take on. If the liable party for your injuries is hiding resources, rest assured that we’ll likely be able to locate them.

How is a Personal Injury Lawsuit Won?

It’s a common assumption that the victim of a personal injury will instantly be able to obtain money from the person or parties who caused the damage. The Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code states that personal injury victims have the ability to get compensated for their injuries, but aren’t entitled to get anything. Since the defendant doesn’t automatically owe you anything, if you want to get compensated for your losses you’ll have to get a positive settlement or verdict.

While most of us are used to seeing jury trials in sitcoms and movies, the truth is that most cases never reach a courtroom. Instead, the majority are dealt with outside of court. Settling your case for an honest, proper amount of money is one manner in how to win your lawsuit. With a settlement, the defendant agrees to pay the plaintiff a fixed sum of money for his injuries despite no judge ordering him to do so. The other part is that the plaintiff agrees not to sue the defendant for additional money down the road. If you choose to take a fair settlement offer, you’ll save time, money and the uncertainty that comes with a jury trial. On the flip side, if you’ve persuaded into taking an unfair settlement, you’ll never get the chance to really see what your case is truly worth. That’s why it’s critical to always have an attorney examine any settlement offer in a Texas personal injury case. Offers you get before you’ve retained an attorney usually won’t be fair, but they’ll become binding if you choose to accept them. The tables will turn when you’ve got a Carrollton personal injury attorney who can rely on their reputation to put pressure on the defendant in your case into choosing to go with a fair settlement amount.

Getting a fair settlement isn’t like some normal business deal. Don’t think this is like getting the price you want for the car you’ve been eyeballing, or some other purchase. It’s a serious mistake to assume that since you’re a savvy businessman that you’ll have the ability to negotiate a fair settlement on your own. The only thing a defendant is worried about more is the chance to pay even additional money, especially when you have to deal with the defendant’s insurance company. If they give you a $10,000 offer it’s because they know there’s a strong chance the jury could demand they pay $50,000, for example. When a non-attorney threatens to file a lawsuit against an insurance company or tries to negotiate with them, they have no credibility at all. It makes sense. If you take on the greatest boxer alive, whether it’s Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao, to a boxing match and have no track record of winning, neither will take you seriously. However, if you’ve been a boxer all your life, have been successful and climbed up the world rankings, both would view you differently. Insurance companies and defense attorneys take the same approach. The Carrollton personal injury lawyers at Grossman Law offices have prevailed in cases against virtually every big time US insurance company in the last two decades. Insurers know who were and usually prefer to settle cases fairly with our clients than take on our attorneys at trial.

Some Texas personal injury cases don’t settle, and these cases usually wind up in trial. To prevail in trial, you’ll need to provide evidence to meet your burden of proof on each of the four parts of your personal injury claim. Those elements are duty, breach, causation and damages. Below we’ll examine each in much greater detail.

Duty

To succeed in your case, the first step is showing what duty of care the defendant owed you. In different scenarios, each of us owe different duties of care in a way that won’t harm others. The most popular duty of care is the duty to act as normal people would to avoid harming other individuals. While the “reasonable person standard” is the most well-known duty of care, the standard varies depending on the situation involved and the link between the parties. Here are some illustrations of cases where the reasonable person standard isn’t applicable:

• You’ve probably noticed signs posted in stores to make sure you don’t get hurt. For example, a store could tell you to look out for an upcoming step, that a floor just got mopped or that shouldn’t leave your valuables in your car when you go inside to shop. Most of us wouldn’t think twice about warning our friends and family about these matters, so why do business owners concern themselves? It’s because store owners owe their customers an enormous duty of care - far greater than what’s owed to loved ones who come to our homes. But what if the store’s visitor is a robber who comes in after hours, rather than just like normal customers during regular business hours? Should the owner still owe the visitor the same degree of caution? Majority of the time, the answer is no. The applicable duty of care changes greatly depending on the visitor’s intentions.
• Doctors and other healthcare experts are professionals who have invested years in discovering how to treat and diagnose people they help. Because of their countless hours of training and experience, we demand healthcare professionals use their specialized knowledge when treating and diagnosing patients. That’s why healthcare workers often owe a greater duty of care to their patients than they owe to others. For example, while on the job, a physician must use the care of a reasonable doctor and not just the care of a reasonable citizen.
• How much care does your boss owe you to keep a worksite safe when you’re doing your job? The answer to this hinges on what kind of work you are doing. If you’re a salaried employee, your employer owes you an enormous duty of care and must maintain the right working conditions for your protection. However, temp workers, contract and freelance workers, and volunteers (under certain situations volunteers are given a legal duty of care) are all liable for making sure that their own workplace conditions are safe. Employers don’t owe them the duty of care to ensure safe workplace conditions.
• How cautious do we need to be in protecting those riding in our cars? Some states have laws addressing differences between paying passengers and nonpaying ones who are guests. In those states, a driver has to be far more careful to ensure the safety of those passengers compared to those friends just needing a ride to work.
• Kids usually don’t face the same degree of care as adults do. Instead, they’re often dealt with a lower standard of care that a lot to do with their experience and age. There are exceptions here, though. Children who take part in adult activities, such as driving a car for example, will face an equal standard of care as adults do.

To comprehend the duty of care that concerns your specific Texas personal injury case, you need to talk to a lawyer. Texas civil law hinges heavily on what’s known as joint and several liability. That means numerous defendants can be deemed the proximate cause of a plaintiff’s injuries and the plaintiff has the ability to sue them all. It’s crucial to talk to a lawyer so that you can make sure you’ve searched for all the proper defendants. For example, if you are hurt when your car is T-boned by a drunk driver, Texas law says you can sue both the drunken driver AND the establishment that served the driver in excess.

Breach

Once you’ve shown which duty of care applies to the defendant in your case, you’ll need to provide evidence in court to show the defendant violated the duty of care he owed you. When using the reasonable person standard, defendants breach their duty of care when they act in a way that a reasonable person wouldn’t, or fail to take some cautionary measures that a normal person would’ve done to protect others.

There are three ways in which defendants usually breach their duty of care. The first one is through negligent behavior by the defendant. Negligence is often thought of as a mistake or accident. If a defendant behaves carelessly even for a second, he can be found accountable for the consequences that follow. The second way is through gross negligence, which is a far greater form of negligence. A defendant has violated his duty of care and done something negligent when his/her actions have a high probability in hurting someone else. The best example here is when someone drives drunk. That’s gross negligence and a duty of care has been breached to other motorists. The third way is that a defendant may intentionally breach his duty of care. No one should be shocked to discover that if a person does something with the intent of hurting someone else, he can be ruled liable for his actions.

Causation

After you’ve shown that the defendant breached the duty of care you were owed, you’ll have to then clearly show that his actions resulted in your injuries. This can become difficult, especially if numerous parties have contributed to your injuries. You’ll often see defendants attempting to switch the blame from themselves and over to third parties, or maybe even you, in hopes of ducking responsibility. If you don’t have quality evidence to show it was the defendant who hurt you, you’ll not succeed with your case.

Damages

The last thing is that your attorneys will have to prove how much you deserve to get in damages from the defendant. This sum is usually contested in Texas personal injury cases, so it’s key to be able to total your damages and have proof of your injuries so you can be able to show your totals were dead on.

It’s essential to be able to provide evidence with every facet of your personal injury case. If you don’t have evidence for even the slightest thing, you won’t win your lawsuit and collect zero with your injuries. An attorney who deals primarily with personal injury cases, like the North Texas lawyers at Grossman Law Offices, can compile the evidence you’ll need to win your case and give that evidence to the jury in a persuasive manner.

What Damages are Available to Personal Injury Victims?

There are two forms of damages that can be obtained in the majority of Texas personal injury cases. Special damages are damages that can assist the plaintiff with tangible economic losses. Lost income, loss of earning capacity, and medical expenses may all be taken care of through special damages. Even though these losses are tangible, totaling them can be difficult. For example, damages for loss of earning capacity assist a plaintiff with lost future earnings due to the inability to be able to work because of their injuries. A logical way to total loss of earning capacity would be to multiply an accident victim’s salary prior to their injuries by the years left until retirement. This approach, however, is far too simple. The calculation for this form of damages also needs to consider potential promotions and raises the victim could’ve gained if he kept working. The time value of money also has to be included. The Carrollton lawyers at Grossman Law Offices know how to total special damages and how to include all these minute details.

The second kind of damages that a plaintiff can obtain are general damages. General damages serve to help a plaintiff with non-economic losses he gets due to a personal injury, like pain and suffering and other severe trauma. Because of the kind of loss, figuring out a price tag for these kinds of injuries is never clear-cut. In fact, the total for general damages can change from case to case, even when the injuries seem exactly alike. To figure out what your general damages could be, call a veteran Carrollton personal injury attorney today.

How Grossman Law Offices Can Help

Because we work on Texas personal injury claims, the lawyers at Grossman Law Offices are specifically equipped to work all manner of Texas personal injury cases. We handle all the specifics of our clients’ claims from start to finish. We know how to spot the defendants who caused your injuries and hold them accountable.

If you want more information about how we can assist you or if you want a free consultation about your particular legal issues, call us toll free today at 1-855-326-0000. Since we want to provide strong communication with personal injury victims, we’re here 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get your calls and answer whatever questions you may have.