New Haven Personal Injury Lawyer
An injury can completely throw your life into upheaval. One moment, you’re on your way to an afternoon at Westville Music Bowl or the Yale Golf Course; the next, your car is on its side, and you have no idea what happened. Or perhaps you were bonding with your dog at East Shore Dog Park, only to be attacked by an off-leash dog.
No matter how you were injured, if someone else was at fault, you may have a valid claim against them. This could help you get the compensation you need to pay for medical bills, time away from work, necessary repairs, and more.
Wondering if a personal injury claim is a viable option for you? Call The Dodd Law Firm at 203-272-1883 now to schedule a consultation.
Types of Personal Injury Cases Our Firm Handles
At The Dodd Law Firm, we represent clients in a wide range of personal injury cases. Some of the claims we have taken on over the years include:
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Premises liability, including slip and fall accidents
- Dog bites
To receive compensation for an injury, you’ll need to prove that someone’s negligence or malice caused it. This involves establishing negligence and liability.
The Role of Negligence in a New Haven, CT Personal Injury Claim
Negligence is a key component of most personal injury claims in New Haven, CT. Negligence occurs when someone fails to exercise reasonable care and caution in a certain situation and their actions or omissions result in an injury.
For a personal injury claim to be valid, the defendant must also have a duty of care under the law to the plaintiff (injury victim). A duty of care simply means one person’s obligation to another. For example:
- Drivers have an obligation to pay attention to the road, take evasive action when a crash is imminent, and avoid driving when fatigued or impaired.
- Dog owners have an obligation to keep their dogs leashed when in public and to avoid taking an untrained or dangerous dog to off-leash areas.
- Property owners are obligated to protect visitors from potential dangers in their homes or places of business.
When someone does not meet this standard and someone is injured as a result, they may be held liable for those injuries.
Proving Your Damages
Another aspect of a personal injury claim is your damages. You must have measurable damages in order to recover compensation from a liable party. This is something that is commonly misunderstood about personal injury cases.
Imagine, for example, a store that has a large liquid spill. It sits for a while and no associates clean it or put up a “wet floor” sign. A customer steps in it and nearly slips, but doesn’t. They yell at the manager, telling them that the spill should have been taken care of and that the store owner is lucky if the customer doesn’t sue them.
While the manager should have taken precautions to clean up the spill, the store isn’t in real danger of a lawsuit. Although the customer could have slipped and been injured, they did not. They have no damages and nothing to recover from the store owner.
How can you prove your damages? First, you’ll want to get checked out by a doctor as soon as possible after the accident. Documentation of your injuries is a critical component of your claim. From there, you will want to keep track of every single way the injury either costs you money or affects your life. For example:
- You are unable to pick up your child from school because of your injury.
- You have to set up a meal delivery service because your injury leaves you unable to cook.
- You are forced to take unpaid time off of work or run through all of your paid time off.
- You pay tolls and parking fees to attend your doctor’s appointments.
The more evidence you have to back up your injuries and their impact on your life, the stronger your claim will be.
How an Attorney Can Help You Get Fair Compensation
Hiring a personal injury attorney is one of the best ways to strengthen your claim and hold the negligent party accountable for their actions. First, it’s important to know how insurance companies work when an accident happens. Their only goals are to protect their company from the costs and lost time associated with a lawsuit and limit the financial damage of an accident.
They have a lot of techniques they use to limit the fallout of an accident caused by one of their clients. They may reach out to you immediately, ask you for a recorded statement, and even ask for access to your medical records. Many accident victims will agree to whatever the insurance company asks—they truly believe that they are helping settle their case more quickly and proving their losses to the insurance company.
The insurance company will not use that information to figure out a fair settlement. They will use that information to poke holes in your claim, look for previous injuries they can blame your current injury on, and find ways to blame the accident on you. The longer you cooperate with the other party’s insurance company and do what they ask, the more damage you do to your own claim.
An attorney takes over communication with the insurance company immediately, protecting you from potentially damaging your own case. The team at The Dodd Law Firm will start investigating your claim right away, gathering and analyzing important evidence, and assessing the value of your overall claim.
When we’ve built our case, we’ll go to work negotiating with the insurance company. While most cases end in a settlement, if yours does go to court, we are prepared to fight for you aggressively and demand the compensation you’re owed.
Contact The Dodd Law Firm and Schedule Your Free Consultation
The Dodd Law Firm is here to help whenever you are ready to take the next step in your claim. Set up a consultation now by calling us at 203-272-1883 or sending us a message online.
