Personal Injury Lawin Daphne, Alabama

Suffering an injury due to another party’s negligence can turn your entire world upside down. Mounting medical bills, an extended amount of time missed from work, and untold physical and emotional suffering can take a major toll on personal injury victims and their families. And the uncertainty about when things will return to normal makes the situation even more difficult to deal with.

If you or a loved one got hurt in an accident or event that was caused by someone else, you deserve to be fully compensated. Unfortunately, recovering compensation for your losses is not an easy process. Most of the time, the responsible party is not going to freely admit their wrongdoing and write you a check to cover the damages. Usually, you will end up dealing with an insurance company whose goal is to pay out as little as possible for your injuries.

Going it alone against the insurance company is not recommended, because their interests are not aligned with yours, and they will be far less motivated to give you a fair offer if you do not have representation. In this type of situation, it makes sense to have strong legal counsel in your corner fighting hard to recover the just compensation you deserve.

At Coumanis and York, we have many years of experience successfully representing individuals and entities that have been injured through no fault of their own. Having worked as civil litigators in the state and federal courts of Alabama, our attorneys are well versed in many areas of personal injury law, including:

• Car Accidents
• Truck Collisions
• Motorcycle Wrecks
• Pedestrian and Bicyclist Accidents
• Slip and Fall Accidents
• Medical Malpractice
• Product Liability Claims
• Animal Bites

Our clients include individuals who have been injured, public officials and governmental entities, small businesses and large corporations.

Understanding the stress and anxiety often associated with litigation, the primary goal of Coumanis and York is to seek justice for our clients by winning verdicts or obtaining highly favorable settlements and helping to restore the client’s peace of mind.

What Must I Prove to Win a Personal Injury Claim?

To recover damages from a personal injury claim, you need to establish that the other party was liable (i.e., responsible) for the losses you sustained because of your injury. Establishing liability generally requires that you prove that the other party was negligent in their actions, although in some instances, the legal theory of “strict liability” might apply.

To establish negligence, there are four elements you must prove:

• Duty of Care: The party responsible for your injuries owed a duty to take reasonable steps to avoid causing you harm. For example, licensed drivers assume a duty of care to drive in a safe and responsible manner and avoid dangerous behaviors such as aggressive/reckless driving, distracted driving, and driving while intoxicated.

• Breach of Duty: The responsible party breached their duty of care through an action or omission that a reasonable person would not do under the same circumstances. For example, a motorist breaches their duty by violating traffic laws and sending a text while driving.

• Causation: This breach (of duty) was the proximate cause of the accident or event that resulted in your injury. Using the case in this example, while sending a text, the driver behind you does not notice that you had to slow down (because traffic slowed in front of you) and rear-ends you. The collision would not have happened but for the fact that the other driver was looking down at his phone and sending a text.

• Damages: The accident or event caused by the responsible party resulted in compensable losses. In this case, let’s say the driver behind you (who was sending the text) rear-ended you while traveling 30 mph, causing you to suffer head, neck, and back injuries. Your medical bills and records show the extent of your injuries, which could be both physical and emotional. And in the worst cases, the injury could be permanent and debilitating, resulting in losses that could go on for a lifetime.

Damages Recoverable from Personal Injury Claims

When someone gets injured through no fault of their own, they are entitled to damages not only for direct monetary losses such as medical bills, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, and property damage, but also for noneconomic losses such as pain-and-suffering, emotional distress, and diminished quality of life. Noneconomic damages are more intangible and difficult to quantify, because there is no way to put a dollar figure on your health and quality of life. This is one of the areas where an experienced personal injury lawyer can be very helpful in determining what your claim is worth based on the full extent of the losses you have suffered.

In some more limited cases in which the actions of the party responsible for your injuries were especially egregious, punitive damages may also be available. Punitive damages are not meant to compensate the victim, but rather to “punish” the wrongdoer and help deter them and others from committing similar behaviors in the future.

Alabama Contributory Negligence Laws

Personal injury claims are more difficult to pursue in states like Alabama where they apply the “contributory negligence” legal standard. Under contributory negligence, an injured party can be barred from recovering damages if they are found to be even 1% responsible for the underlying accident or event. This is a very high bar to clear, and you can be sure that the other side will try to use the laws in our state to their advantage. This is one of many reasons that it is strongly advisable to work with an attorney who has a proven ability to overcome the obstacles here in Alabama and recover maximum compensation on behalf of their clients.

Contact a Seasoned Alabama Personal Injury Attorney

If you or someone close to you suffered injury because of someone else’s negligence or reckless actions, contact Coumanis & York for assistance. We will provide a free consultation to thoroughly assess your case and advise you of your legal rights and options, so you can make the most informed decision on how you wish to proceed. And if we end up representing you, you will not pay any attorney fees unless we recover compensation on your behalf.

Call our office today at 251-990-3083 (Daphne) or 251.431-7272 (Mobile) or message us online to speak with a member of our legal team. We look forward to serving you!