Frisco Personal Injury Lawyer

Over the Past Two Decades, Grossman Law Offices has Assisted People From Frisco & McKinney in all Manner of Personal Injury Cases

Lots of firms like to do what’s called “general law”, but we’ve chosen to narrow our focus on two key areas as we look to provide the best legal expertise possible in these two fields. This perspective has let our Frisco lawyers fine tune their talents and attain a level of skill and experience that not many firms can match.

That’s why when you elect to work with Grossman Law Offices on your personal injury or wrongful death case, you are joining a group of hard-working attorneys who don’t just deal with personal injury law in their spare time, but instead are a knowledgeable, experienced firm that invests all of its time working cases just like the one you have.

There’s a good chance your case is one we can assist on. In the past, we’ve helped people with injuries ranging from brain injuries to spinal, soft tissue damage, all sorts of horrific injuries, broken bones, concussions, any other form of bodily injuries and injuries sustained during assaults. Our personal injury attorneys have an extensive track record helping clients get compensated in an array of things like dog bites, birth injuries, big rig accidents, head trauma and construction accidents to car wrecks, compensation stemming from battery cases, slip and fall cases from icy/wet floors, wrongful death cases and plenty more. In our 20 years of litigation, we’ve won countless personal injury cases helping a ton of clients get assistance for financial damage, pain and suffering, medical expenses and other kinds of damages.

What is a Personal Injury?

Anyone has the chance to be injured but that doesn’t mean everyone has the ability to pursue an actual legal case. That leads to this: How does an injury become a personal injury, legally-speaking? When we’re dealing with the legal world, the term personal injury is one that deals with the physical injury and the emotional trauma that comes following the actions or inactions of another person. Contrary to popular opinion, you can’t instantly file a lawsuit against someone that causes you to be hurt for whatever purpose. An injured victim - also called a plaintiff in the judicial system - has the burden to prove in court that the person who caused their injuries (the defendant) owed the victim a duty to ensure their safety. Let’s say, for instance, that a meth-riddled teenager attacked a police officer and the cop injured that teen while legally trying to protect himself.

That attacker doesn’t have the ability to pursue a lawsuit against the officer since the cop didn’t owe him a legal duty to keep him free from harm. However, if your next door neighbor goes postal and attacks you, you’ll likely have the option to file a lawsuit against him because your neighbor owes you a legal duty to keep you safe. In both scenarios, an assault happened which caused injury but only in the latter example could there be the option for a legal since in that example the defendant broke a legal duty that was owed to the plaintiff. In the other scenario, the cop didn’t have that form of duty. The purpose of a personal injury claim is to prove the defendant had a responsibility not to harm you, proving their actions resulted in your harm, and showing that the harm led to your injuries or emotional pain. Since you are the victim, it’s up to you to show this.

What makes it tougher is you have to do this within the formal system of rules and guidelines set up by the court system, which can be routine. Plenty of people permanently damage their personal injury case since they aren’t used to the guidelines of the court system, how procedures occur, the right ways to file motions and pleadings, how to get pertinent evidence submitted, etc. A fact pattern exists for every case, but the specifics, despite how credible and strong you think they may be, are meaningless if you don’t know proper procedure in getting all of that submitted to the official record. Let’s be clear: Like the movie said, it’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove and you won’t be able to prove your case if you’re unaware of the procedure needed to get ALL of the key facts in your case submitted into court. This is a step that seems easy but is complicated, and that’s why you need to get a Frisco attorney to guide you along with your North Texas personal injury case.

What’s the Purpose of a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

There are two goals with personal injury lawsuits: the first is to allow victims to recover financially for the losses they’ve sustained due to the defendant’s negligence. It doesn’t sound proper to say money will help with the coping for the emotional and medical problems you’ve had, but the truth is that with most personal injuries come heavy financial burdens for victims and their family members. Medical bills, repair expenses and other types of issues can mount quickly, especially when the victim was the primary income earner who hasn’t been able to return to work because of their injuries. Getting compensation from a defendant can allow a family to begin dealing with these expenses after an injury occurs. The second goal is that personal injury lawsuits give victims the chance to hold those who caused the injuries liable for their choices. When you punish the defendant for what they’ve done, you lessen the chances that he’ll choose to behave the same way again in the future.

What is a Solvent Defendant?

One of the purposes of a personal injury is to get money from the personal responsible for your injuries, but it’s a waste of time to file a lawsuit if the defendant has no means to pay. Let’s say, for example, that a homeless teenager hurls a huge rock from a bridge, the rock crashes into your windshield and you then rear-end the car in front of you. Even if the teenager was completely to blame for your injuries, it’s pointless to pursue a lawsuit against the kid since he doesn’t have the means to help compensate you for your injuries. When a defendant can’t pay you the damages in compensation for your injuries, the defendant is known as insolvent. An insolvent defendant is a pitiful situation for an injured plaintiff to be hit with, but it’s an issue that does come up on occasion.

Many times defendant’s will portray themselves as insolvent when really they have more than enough assets to assist you with your injuries. When some individuals know they could find themselves in the thick of a lawsuit due to injuring someone, they’ll begin to maneuver their assets and try to appear insolvent. Many companies do this way upfront. If the defendant in your case has done this and you can’t discover the real total of their resources, odds are you’ll not be able to get what your case is really worth. At Grossman Law Offices, our Frisco TX personal injury lawyers conduct an asset check on the on the defendant in almost every case we take on. If the group who caused your injuries is hiding resources, count on us to find them.

How is a Personal Injury Lawsuit Won?

Many assume incorrectly that the victim of a personal injury will automatically be able to get assistance from the people that were responsible for their injuries. According to the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, personal injury victims have the ability to pursue compensation for their injuries, but don’t instantly have the ability to receive anything. Since the defendant has the presumption of innocence from the start, if you want to get compensation for your losses you’ll have to win a settlement or verdict.

Did You Know?

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We’ve all grown up watching jury trials on sitcoms and movies, but the reality is that most cases never hit a courtroom. What happens is that most of them end up being settled out of court. Settling your case for a fair sum is one choice to take in obtaining a successful lawsuit. When a settlement occurs, the defendant chooses to give the plaintiff an agreed on amount of money for his injuries, even though a judge didn’t order it. The other part of this is that the plaintiff agrees not to sue the defendant in the future for extra money. If you elect to get a fair settlement offer, you’ll save yourself time, money and the unknown that comes with jury trials. However, if you’ve manipulated into choosing a poor settlement, you’ll not have the ability to get what your case could truly be valued at. That’s why it’s crucial to get a Frisco attorney to examine any settlement offer in a Frisco personal injury case. Offers you get before you’ve retained a Frisco attorney usually are unacceptable, but they’ll wind up being binding if you agree to them. The tables turn when you’ve got a credible attorney whose reputation can pressure the defendant in your case into choosing a fair settlement offer.

You need to realize that getting a fair settlement isn’t the same as a regular business deal. It’s not like negotiating for a fair car price, or some other purchase. It’s a major problem to think that since you’re some kind of savvy businessman that somehow you’ll be able to negotiate a fair settlement on your own. The only concern a defendant has is the chance of having to dish out more money to you, especially when you’re involved with the defendant’s insurance company.

If they give you a $10,000 offer it’s because they’re aware there’s a likelihood the jury could decide to rule for them to provide up to $50,000 for instance. When a non-attorney threatens to sue an insurance company or attempts to negotiate with them, they enter with absolutely no leverage. Think about it. If you get in the ring with the best UFC fighter in the world and you’ve never been involved in mixed martial arts, they won’t take you seriously. But if you’ve trained in mixed martial arts, have won consistently and moved up the rankings, that fighter will devote plenty of time to you. Insurance companies and defense attorneys have the same approach. The Frisco personal injury attorneys at Grossman Law Offices have succeeded in cases against every major US insurance company in the last 20 years, insurers know about us and usually want to settle cases honestly with our clients than face off with our lawyers in a trial.

Some Frisco personal injury cases don’t wind up in settlements and these are the cases that usually head to trial. To prevail in your case, you’ll need to submit evidence to meet the burden of proof on each of the four main parts of a personal injury claim. Those parts are duty, breach, causation and damages. Below we’ll look deeper into each of these parts in more detail.

Duty

To succeed at your case, the first thing to do is to show what duty of care was owed to you by the defendant. In different case, each of us owes specific duties of care to behave in a way that won’t hurt others. The most common duty of care is to act in a way that regular people would so you can protect others. While the “reasonable person standard” is the most common applicable duty of care, the standard changes depending on the issue at hand and the relationship between the individuals. Here are some cases of situations where the reasonable person standard can’t be used:

• There are probably hundreds of times you’ve seen those signs in stores made so you won’t be hurt. For example, a store tells you about an upcoming step, the floor had been mopped or that you shouldn’t leave pricey items in your parked car. Most of us wouldn’t waste time with this when our friends and family members come to our homes, so what makes businesses do this? The reason is that owners have to provide customers who come to their stores with a high duty of care - far more than the duty of care we provide our houseguests. But what happens when it’s a robber who comes to a store at night after business hours? Does the manager still have to give the visitor the same kind of treatment? Most of the time, no. The duty of care differs tremendously and has a lot to do with the visitor’s purpose.
• Doctors and other healthcare experts are professionals who’ve spent countless years and hours being trained on how to properly treat and diagnose patients. Because of their knowledge and background, we expect healthcare professionals to use their specific knowledge when helping and treating patients. That’s why healthcare workers generally owe a far greater duty of care to patients than what’s owed to other people. For example, while working a doctor needs to use the reasonable care of a doctor and not just that of a regular citizen.
• How much care does your employer have to give you to keep a workplace safe for you? The answer is that it depends a lot on your status. If you’re receiving a salary and on staff, your boss has to give you a high duty of care and keep conditions safe at the workplace. However, freelancers, contractors and volunteers (sometimes volunteers have a legal duty available) are all responsible for seeing to it they have a safe workplace. Employers aren’t obligated to give them a duty of care and a safe workplace.
• What manner of caution do we have to take with passengers in our vehicles? Certain states have particular laws that establish specific guidelines for paying passengers and nonpaying ones who are guests in our cars. In those states, a driver has to be considerably more cautious to ensure the safety of a paying passenger than those cases when friend needs a ride to the grocery store.
• Kids usually don’t face the same standard of care that adults do. Instead, they’re often held to a far lower standard, all depending on their experience and age. There are exceptions, though. For example, kids who participate in adult activities, such as driving, will face the same degree of care that adults do.

To fully know about all the duty of care involved in your Frisco personal injury case, the best choice to make is to discuss this with a Frisco Texas attorney. Texas civil law is built around joint and several liability, which says that numerous defendants can be the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries and the plaintiffs have the option to sue all of them. It’s important to communicate with a lawyer and make sure you’ve discovered all of the key defendants. For instance, if you’re hurt when your car is t-boned by a drunk driver, Texas law says you can sue both the drunk driver AND the business that over-served the driver and contributed to their intoxication.

Breach

After you’ve shown which duty of care is linked to the defendant in your case, the next thing is to give evidence in court that shows the defendant disregarded the duty of care you were owed. When using the reasonable person standard, defendants breach their duty of care when they act in a way that reasonable people couldn’t, or choose not to take steps that regular people would to keep others safe.

There are three ways defendants tend to violate their duty of care. One is when defendants are negligent. Negligence is what we refer to when a mistake or accident occurs. If a defendant is just careless for a little bit, he can be ruled responsible for the consequences that follow. The second example is gross negligence, which is a far more serious type of negligence. A defendant has violated their duty of care with gross negligence when their actions have the ability to wind up harming someone. For example, a drunk person who decides to drive is said to be grossly negligent, and disregards the duty of care to others. Third, a defendant could willfully breach his duty of care. Don’t be surprised when someone does something deliberately to harm someone and they face justice for their choices.

Causation

After you’ve been able to prove the defendant violated the duty of care he owed you, you’ll need to show his choices led to your injuries. This can be difficult, especially when lots of people have contributed to your injury. A lot of times defendants try to shift blame for their behavior from themselves over to third parties, and even, you, so they can avoid responsibility. If you don’t have proper evidence to show it was the defendant who caused your injuries, you’ll eventually lose your case.

Damages

Finally, your Frisco attorneys will need to prove how much you deserve to collect in damages. The total is usually argued over in Frisco personal injury cases, so it’s important to be able to compile your damages and have proof of your injuries so you can prove your totals are accurate.

It’s important to provide evidence with every part of your personal injury case. If you don’t give evidence to support even one area of these facts, you’ll be defeated and receive nothing in compensation. A Frisco TX lawyer who works personal injury cases, like those at Grossman Law Offices, can get the evidence needed to win your case and present that evidence in a proper manner to a jury.

What Damages are Available to Personal Injury Victims?

There are two kinds of damages involved in Texas personal injury cases. Special damages are those meant to help plaintiffs with actual economic burdens. Lost wages, loss of earning capacity and medical bills may all be dealt with by special damages. While they’re tangible, compiling them can be difficult. For example, damages for loss of earning capacity are there to assist a plaintiff for lost future earnings because of their inability to return to work because of their injuries. A simple way to figure out loss of earning capacity would be to take an accident victim’s salary before their injuries by the number of years remaining before retirement. This approach, however, is way too simplistic. The total for this kind of damages has to consider potential promotions and raises the victim could have been awarded if they remained at work. The time factor of money also has to be included. The Frisco lawyers at Grossman Law Offices are able to compile special damages and consider these intricacies.

The second form of damages is a plaintiff can obtain are general damages. General damages help a plaintiff with the non-economic losses he endures because of a personal injuries, such as pain and suffering and other forms of emotional pain. Because of the intangible form of this type of loss, putting a price on these kinds of injuries usually isn’t straightforward. In fact, the total of general damages can differ tremendously from case to case, even if the injuries are very similar. To determine what your general damages are, contact a veteran personal injury attorney in Frisco, Texas.

How Grossman Law Offices can Help

Since we focus on personal injury claims, the Frisco injury lawyers at Grossman Law Offices are definitely able to handle all forms of Frisco personal injury cases. We handle all the details of our clients’ claims from the first steps to conclusion. We know how to discover the defendants who are liable for your injuries and hold them accountable.

If you want additional details about how we can help you, or if you want a free consultation about your specific case, call us today at 1-855-326-0000 (toll free). Since we put an emphasis on strong communication with personal injury victims, we’re here round the clock to take your phone calls and provide answers to what questions you have.