Plano Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal Injury Attorney Michael Grossman Explains the Types of Personal Injury Cases We Handle in Plano

For 20 years now, Grossman Law Offices has defended thousands of clients in countless kinds of personal injury and wrongful death cases.

While many firms prefer to focus on “general law” we have decided to sharpen our focus on two areas as we seek to give the best legal advice possible in those two areas. This exclusive approach has allowed our Plano lawyers to sharpen their talents reach a level of focus and experience that can’t be equaled by many firms.

That’s why when you choose Grossman Law Offices to work on your personal injury or wrongful death case you are teaming with a group of attorneys who don’t just occasionally brush up on personal injury law, but instead are an equipped, veteran firm that devotes all of its time to litigating cases just like yours.

If you’ve sustained any of the following injuries we could help you: brain injuries, spine injuries, soft tissue damage, any kind of horrific injury, broken bones, concussions, any other kind of bodily injury or have been part of an assault. Our Texas attorneys have years of experience in assisting clients in getting compensation from a variety of things such as dog bites, birth injuries, 18-wheeler accidents, head injuries and construction accidents to car crash cases, compensation from being the victim of battery, slip and fall cases due to icy/wet floors, wrongful death cases and way more. In our two decades of practice, we’ve prevailed in thousands of personal injury cases assisting thousands of clients in getting compensation for financial damage, pain and suffering, medical bills, and other forms of damages.

What is a Personal Injury?

Injuries can happen to anyone but that doesn’t mean everyone has the chance to pursue a credible legal case. So when does an injury qualify as a personal injury in the legal world? When it comes to the justice system, the phrase personal injury is defined as the physical injury and the emotional consequences that result from the actions or inaction of another individual. Despite what many believe you can’t automatically sue someone that causes you to be injured for whatever reason. An injured person, referred to as the plaintiff in the legal world, has the responsibility to show in court that the individual who caused their injuries, known as the defendant, owed the victim a duty to keep them safe. Let’s say for example that a citizen attacks a cop and the cop hurts that attacker while legally defending himself. That attack can’t file a lawsuit against the officer since the cop didn’t owe him a legal duty to keep him free from harm. However, if your neighbor gets high, flips out and assaults you, you will have a strong chance to pursue a lawsuit against them because your neighbor owes you a legal duty to not harm you. In both examples, an assault took place which led to injury but only in the latter example could there be a legal case since in that instance the defendant violated a legal duty that was owed to the plaintiff. In the other example, the cop didn’t owe that kind of duty. A personal injury claim seeks to show the defendant had an obligation to not hurt you, showing their actions led to harm, and proving that the harm caused you to sustain serious injuries or emotional trauma. Since you’re the one who was injured, it’s your responsibility to prove this. More specifically, you have to show all of this within the rigid, formal structures and guidelines established in the court system. Lots of people hurt their personal injury case just because they aren’t familiar with the court system, the way procedures take place, proper ways to file motions and pleadings, how to get credible evidence admitted, etc. There’s a fact pattern to every case, but the specifics, regardless of how positive and strong you may think they are, are pointless if you don’t know proper procedure in getting all the information put on the official record. Don’t be mistaken: It’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove and you can’t prove your case if you lack the knowledge about the procedure necessary to get ALL of the necessary facts in your case put into court. This is a procedure that is easier said than done and is the exact reason why you need to obtain an experienced attorney to help with your Plano personal injury case.

What Purpose Does a Personal Injury Lawsuit Serve?

Personal injury lawsuits have two objectives. First, they let victims recover financially for the losses they’ve endured as a result of the defendant’s actions. While it may sound bad to say that money can fill the void for the emotional and medical stress you’ve dealt with, the fact is that the majority of personal injuries carry with them incredible financial pressures for victims and their loved ones. Medical expenses, repair costs and other kinds of expenses can pile up quickly, especially when the victim was the chief income earned who hasn’t been able to work due to their injuries. Recovering money from a defendant can help a family handle the expenses following an injury. The second objective is that personal injury lawsuits provides victims with the ability to hold those who caused the injuries responsible for their actions. When you punish the defendant for their actions, you decrease the chances that he’ll inflict the same kind of harm on others in the long run.

What is a Solvent Defendant?

Since one of the objectives of a personal injury is to obtain money from the party liable for your actions, it’s usually pointless to pursue a lawsuit if the defendant is unable to pay. Let’s say a homeless beggar throws a large rock from an overpass, and the rock smashes into your windshield, causing a wreck. Even if the homeless man was clearly at fault for your injuries, there’s no reason to file a lawsuit against the man since he financially is unable to compensate you for your injuries. When a defendant can’t pay you the damages in compensation for your injuries, the defendant is referred to as insolvent. An insolvent defendant is an awful circumstance for an injured plaintiff, but it’s a problem that does occur occasionally.

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 people think they’ll wind up in the middle of a lawsuit because they’ve hurt someone, they’ll take steps to cover up their assets and look as if they’re insolvent. Many companies choose to do this way ahead of time. If the defendant in your case has taken this approach, and you can’t uncover the real amount of their resources, chances are you’ll not be able to get what your case is truly worth. At Grossman Law Offices, our Plano personal injury lawyers do an asset check on the defendant in virtually every case we work. If the group responsible for your injuries is hiding resources, chances are that we’ll be able to locate them.

How is a Personal Injury Lawsuit Won?

It’s a common false assumption that the victim of a personal injury will instantly be able to get money from the person or parties that caused their damage. The Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code, however, states that personal injury victims have the option to get compensation for their injuries, but not technically the right to collect anything. Since the defendant doesn’t automatically owe you anything, in order to get compensation for your losses you’ll have to get a successful settlement or a verdict.

Did You Know?

Michael Grossman has been fighting for victims` rights for over 20 years. Call Mike to discuss your case. 1-855-326-0000

Most of us have grown up seeing jury trials in sitcoms and movies, but the truth is that most cases never even reach a courtroom. Instead, lots of them wind up being settled out of court. Settling your case for an honest sum of money is one option in winning your lawsuit. When a settlement happens, the defendant agrees to give the plaintiff a set amount of money for his injuries despite no ruling from the judge to do so. On the other end, the plaintiff agrees not to sue the defendant down the road for additional money. If you take a fair settlement offer, you’ll save yourself time, expense and the uncertainty that comes with a jury trial. However, if you’re tricked into taking an unfair settlement, you’ll never be able to pursue what your case is truly worth. That’s why it’s critical to have a Plano attorney look over any settlement offer in a Plano personal injury case. Offers you get before you’ve obtained a Plano attorney will not usually be fair, but they’ll become binding if you take them. The tables turn when you’ve got an attorney who can rely on their reputation to pressure the defendant in your case into taking a fair settlement offer.

You need to understand that getting a fair settlement isn’t like some business deal. It’s not the same as haggling for the right price of a car, or some other purchase. It’s a serious mistake to believe that since you have some degree of business savvy that somehow you’re able to negotiate a fair settlement by yourself. The only thing a defendant is worried about is the possibility of having to give you more money, especially when you’re dealing with the defendant’s insurance company. If they give you a $10,000 offer it’s because they know there’s a very good chance the jury could eventually rule for them to cough up $50,000, for example. When a non attorney attempts to sue an insurance company or tries to negotiate with an insurance company, they have no leverage at all. Stop and consider this. If you take on the UFC heavyweight champion and you’ve never been in the octagon, you’ll not be taken seriously. However, if you’ve trained in mixed martial arts, developed a winning record, then climbed the ranks, he will take you seriously. Insurance companies and defense attorneys work in the same manner. The Plano injury lawyers at Grossman Law Offices have won cases against virtually every big time US insurance company in the last two decades. Insurers know about our name and would usually prefer to settle cases fairly with our clients than take on our Plano attorneys in the courtroom.

Some Plano personal injury cases don’t settle and these cases usually wind up in trial. To succeed in your case at trial, you’ll need to provide evidence to meet the burden of proof on each of the four requirements of a personal injury claim. Those factors are duty, breach, causation and damages. Below, we’ll deal with each of these elements in bigger detail.

Duty

To win your case, the first step is to show what duty of care the defendant owed you. In different scenarios, all of us owe various duties of care to act in a manner that won’t harm other people. The most well-known duty of care is the duty to behave in a manner that any normal person would act to avoid harming others. Though the “reasonable person standard” is the most well-known applicable duty of care, the standard differs depending on the situation involved and link between the parties. Here are some examples of situations in which the reasonable person standard doesn’t apply:

• You probably have noticed signs put up in stores designed to make sure you’re not hurt. For instance, a story may caution you about a step coming up, that the floor was just mopped or that it isn’t safe to leave expensive items in your parked car. Most of us wouldn’t caution friends or loved ones who came to our homes about these problems, so what prompts business owners to do such a thing? The reason is that owners owe customers who visit their stores a high duty of care - much greater than the duty of care we owe house guests who come to our homes. But what if the store’s visitor happens to be a robber who enters late at night, rather than being a regular customer during normal business hours? Does the owner still owe the visitor the same kind of caution? Most of the time the answer is no. The applicable duty of care differs greatly depending on the visitor’s intentions.
• Doctors and other healthcare professionals are experts who have invested years and countless hours learning how to treat and diagnose patients properly. Because of all their training and experience, we want healthcare professionals to use their unique knowledge when treating and diagnosing those they help. That’s why healthcare workers usually owe a higher duty of care to their patients than they owe to others. For instance, while on the job a physician must use the care of a reasonable doctor and not just the care of a reasonable person.
• How much care does your boss owe you to provide a safe work environment for you to do your job? The answer to this question hinges on what kind of worker you are. If you’re a salaried employee, your employer owes you a high duty of care and has to maintain proper working conditions to ensure your safety. On the other hand, freelancers, contractors and volunteers (under certain scenarios volunteers are given a legal duty) are all responsible for making sure their own work conditions are safe. Employers don’t owe them a duty of care to keep their job site safe.
• How cautious do we have to be to protect passengers who are in our cars? Some states have specific laws that establish differences between paying passengers and nonpaying ones who ride as guests with us. In those places, a driver has to be far more careful to guard the safety of a paying passenger than he does to protect a buddy needing a ride to work.
• Kids usually aren’t held to the same standard of care as adults. Instead, they’re often faced with a much lower standard, all depending on their experience and age. There are exceptions here, however. For instance, kids who take part in adult activities, like driving a car, will face the same standard of care as an adult.

To really comprehend the duty of care applicable to your Plano personal injury case, the best decision would be to talk to a Plano attorney. Texas civil law centers around what’s called joint and several liability. That means numerous defendants can be the proximate cause of a plaintiff’s injuries and the plaintiffs can file lawsuits against all of them. It’s crucial to talk to a lawyer in order to make sure you have properly located all the necessary defendants. For example, if you’re hurt when your car is hit by a drunken driver, Texas law states you can sue both the drunken driver AND the alcohol-serving establishment that served the motorist to point of intoxication.

Breach

Once you’ve shown which duty of care applies to the defendant in your case, you’ll then need to provide evidence in court to show the defendant violated the duty of care he owed you. When applying the reasonable person standard, defendants breach their duty of care when they do something that a normal person wouldn’t do, or decide not to take some precaution that normal people would’ve to keep others safe.

There are three ways where defendants usually violate their duty of care. The first is when a defendant acts negligently. Negligence is what we think of when a mistake or accident happens. If a defendant is careless even for a second, he can be found liable for the consequences that follow. The second case is gross negligence, which is a far more severe kind of negligence. A defendant has violated his duty of care by doing something grossly negligent when his actions have a good chance at leading to someone else’s injuries. For instance, a person who drives drunk is said to be grossly negligent, and violates the duty of care to other drivers. Third, a defendant could intentionally breach his duty of care. It shouldn’t be shocking when someone does something intentionally to hurt someone else that he’ll be held accountable for his actions.

Causation

After you’ve shown that the defendant violated the duty of care he owed you, you’ll have to show that his actions led to your injuries. This can become complicated, especially if numerous parties have played a part in your injury. It’s common for defendants to try and move the blame from themselves and over to third parties, perhaps you, in hopes of ducking responsibility. If you don’t have adequate evidence to show it was the defendant who hurt you, you’ll wind up losing your case.

Damages

Finally, your Plano attorneys will have to prove how much you’re entitled to collect in damages from the defendant. The amount of damages is usually contested in Plano personal injury cases, so it’s critical to be able to both total your damages and have proof of your injuries so you can show your numbers are spot on.

It’s essential to bring evidence on every detail of your personal injury case to trial. If you miss evidence on even one part of these elements, you’ll lose your lawsuit and get nothing for your injuries. A Plano lawyer who focuses on personal injury cases, like those at Grossman Law Offices, can obtain the evidence you need to succeed in your case and provide that evidence in a persuasive manner to a jury.

What Damages are Available to Personal Injury Victims?

There are two forms of damages available in most Texas personal injury cases. Special damages are damages meant to assist the plaintiff with actual economic losses. Lost income, loss of earning capacity and medical expenses may all be compensated by special damages. Even though there are tangible in nature, totaling them can be challenging. For instance, damages for loss of earning capacity are there to help a plaintiff for lost future earnings due to his inability to get back to work due to his injuries. An easy way to total loss of earning capacity would be to take an accident victim’s salary prior to his injuries by the number of years left until retirement. This method, however, is far too simple. The calculation for this part of damages must also factor in potential promotions and raises the victim could have gained if they kept working. The time value of money also has to be considered. The Collin County lawyers at Grossman Law Offices know how to total special damages and take these intricacies into account.

The second kind of damages that a plaintiff can get are general damages. General damages assist a plaintiff with the non-economic losses he sustains because of a personal injury, like pain and suffering and other kinds of emotional pain. Because of the intangible nature of this kind of loss, putting a price on these forms of injuries usually isn’t clear-cut. In fact, the amount of general damages can differ greatly from case to case, even if the injuries are almost alike. To figure out what your general damages are, call a veteran personal injury attorney in Plano.

How Grossman Law Offices can Help

Because we focus on personal injury claims, the Plano lawyers at Grossman Law Offices are especially equipped to deal with all kinds of Plano personal injury cases. We take on all the details of our clients’ claims from start to finish. We know how to spot the defendants who are responsible for your injuries and hold them liable.

If you’d like additional details about how we can assist you, or if you want a free consultation about your particular legal situation, call us toll free at 1-855-326-0000. Because we emphasize strong communication with personal injury victims, we’re here 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get your phone calls and answer whatever questions you may have.