Greeley Personal Injury Lawyers
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CALL (800) 863-5312 TO SPEAK WITH A Greeley, CO, injury Lawyer FOR FREE
When someone injures you either intentionally or negligently, it can take a long time to recover. You may have extensive hospital visits that make you miss work and physical therapy to follow up your healing process. You might also have to pay to fix your property that someone damaged or replace your property that someone destroyed.
Colorado injury lawyers know how to help you recover for injuries you incur from someone else’s negligent or intentional act. If you are wondering how a personal injury attorney in Greeley can benefit you, consider the ways an expert can help you file your suit, from processing the technical paperwork to making the legal arguments your personal injury case might require.
If you or a loved one has been injured due to someone else’s intentional or negligent act, call the Zinda Law Group attorneys at (800) 863-5312 for your free case evaluation.
How can a Colorado injury attorney benefit you?
In order to determine whether you should hire a Greeley, CO, injury attorney, you might start by gaining some insight into the procedural process of your case. Having someone advocate for you who understands and regularly works within the legal field can help your chances of receiving the maximum amount of recovery possible. For starters, a skilled attorney in Greeley, CO, can help you file your claim and negotiate a settlement.
An attorney knows the rules you must follow for the court to accept your claim. For example, you must state a claim for which relief can be granted against the appropriate person. You also must ensure that you have filed within the appropriate amount of time after the accident.
There will be a lawyer in Greeley, CO, who knows how to get you the best settlement possible. The attorney will be able to negotiate with the defendant’s attorney and insurance companies, who will try to get you to say things that hurt the strength of your arguments. The amount of liability that the other party must take for the accident will determine how much compensation you may pursue along with the kinds of compensation to which you could be entitled.
What is Personal Injury law?
Now that you have a grasp of the procedural process of bringing your claim forward, you should know the kinds of arguments you can make that will help determine the strength of your case. Civil personal injury claims, also called tort claims, can be defined under three different categories: negligence, intentional torts, and strict liability. In each category, there are two things you must show—liability and damages—to prove the elements of your case.
What is Liability?
The person who is responsible for the accident takes liability. To prove liability, you must first make sure that you are suing the right person; this is not always as straightforward as it might seem. When possible, you will want to hold a company or employer responsible for your injury rather than an individual; in these cases, the employer and/or employees may have directly and/or proximately caused your injury.
One example in which it can be difficult to determine against whom to file your claim is for injuries at a construction site. Contractors can subcontract out work to various companies to the extent that an employee might not even be aware of who actually hired his or her company.
What are Damages?
Next, you must have an injury for which relief can be granted if you wish to recover for your injuries. This means you must have sustained a real legal injury with an avenue for recovery. The kinds of injuries you receive will determine how much you could receive as compensation and what types of compensation you could receive.
The typical types of compensation that winners of personal injury cases receive are economic damages and noneconomic damages. Economic damages are empirically measurable by some form of receipt or calculation. For example, medical bills and missed wages from time off of work are economic damages.
Noneconomic damages are not as easily measurable but just as important to make the victim of the accident whole. They take into account the pain and suffering you endured as a result of the injury. There is also a possibility that you could receive punitive damages if the court decides that the adverse party’s actions should be punished or deterred.
How Does Being Partially Liable Affect Damages?
Colorado is a pure comparative negligence state, which means that you can still recover even if you were partially at fault for the incident. If a jury determines that you were 30% at fault for a car accident and the other party was 70% at fault, then you could recover for 70% of your damages.
Negligence Torts
The first kind of personal injury cases you should know about is negligence cases. A personal injury lawyer in Greeley will be extremely familiar with the elements of negligence and will be able to evaluate the strength of your case based on the evidence you present. Some common kinds of injuries and accidents involving negligence include car accidents and medical malpractice.
In order to prove your negligence claim, you must show or prove the four following things:
1. The defendant owed you a duty.
2. The defendant breached that duty by failing to provide the adequate standard of care.
3. You suffered an injury as a result of that breach.
4. The defendant’s negligent conduct caused your injury.
1. Duty of Standard of Care
While there is no universal duty for United States citizens to assist one another, a legal duty can be established between parties in several relationships. One such relationship is that of a business owner to patrons. A business owner has a legal duty to protect customers from harm and must take precautions to keep customers safe from foreseeable harm.
2. Breach of the Duty
If the defendant owes a duty to you (similarly to how a business owner owes a legal duty to customers) and fails to meet that duty, then the defendant committed a breach. The standard of the duty that the defendant must meet is that of an ordinary prudent person. That is to say, the defendant must take the steps that an ordinary prudent person would take to prevent the harm.
3. Your Injury from the Breach
As we discussed earlier regarding damages, you must prove that you have suffered a real injury for which you can receive compensation. Your injury could be psychological or physical, stolen property, or other harms that arise from the negligent acts of another.
4. Your Injury’s Connection to the Defendant’s Negligent Conduct
Finally, you must show that the injuries you incurred were either proximately or directly caused by the defendant’s breach of duty.
Intentional Torts
Intentional tort claims are the intentional acts of one person that harm another. Each intentional tort has its own set of specific elements that you must prove for that claim; for example, battery and assault are both intentional torts, but each has its own set of elements for the plaintiff to prove: For battery, you must show that the defendant intended to make harmful or offensive contact with you and that the defendant made harmful or offensive contact with you. For assault, you must show that the defendant put you in reasonable apprehension of imminent harmful or offensive contact, but not that the defendant made contact.
Common Examples
In addition to assault and battery described above, examples of intentional torts include false imprisonment, trespass to land, trespass to chattels, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Strict Liability torts
For strict liability cases, there are circumstances that automatically assign liability for the victim’s injuries to the defendant. Two basic kinds of strict liability occur when the defendant possesses animals with dangerous propensities and when the defendant performs abnormally dangerous activities.
Strict Liability vs. Products Liability
When a company or manufacturer produces an item that injures consumers, it can be held strictly liable. This is called products liability. These cases usually occur when the item is defective.
In order for the company to be held strictly liable for its product, the company must sell the product that the plaintiff uses, and the company must be the commercial seller of the product. Additionally, the plaintiff must suffer an injury from the use of the product, the product must be defective when the company sells it, and the product’s defect must cause the plaintiff’s injury.
Call the Zinda Law group attorneys in Greeley, CO
Anyone who has suffered a personal injury at the hands of another person deserves justice. Having someone advocate for your rights can give you time to heal from the injury and confidence that you are doing everything you can to recover fully. Our lawyers want to hear from you; call the Zinda Law Group attorneys at (800) 863-5312 and schedule your free consultation.
These compassionate attorneys want to see what they can do to help make you whole after your accident. We have a No Win, No Fee Guarantee to assure you that you will not pay us unless we win your case for you.
Meetings with attorneys are available by appointment only.
