Personal Injury Lawyers in Delaware

Understanding Your Legal Options After Being Injured in an Accident

Every day, when we leave our homes, get in our cars, or work our jobs, we put our trust in those around us to be diligent in their actions to keep everyone around them safe. And when even one person is negligent or lazy in their actions, it can have serious repercussions for those around them. Suffering injuries and economic losses in an accident is bad enough, but if the accident was caused by someone else’s negligence or poor decision making, you may be wondering what legal options you have. Talking to an attorney about your situation can help you understand whether you might have a personal injury case and how to go about recovering compensation from the responsible party.

When you’re considering legal action, you need the experience and knowledge of an attorney to make the best choice. At Schwartz & Schwartz, Attorneys at Law, P.A., we educate victims throughout Delaware on their legal options and represent them against businesses, insurance companies, and other parties. Contact our office today to find out how we can help you get the compensation you deserve.

What Does Personal Injury Law Include?

Personal injury law focuses on helping victims who were injured in accidents caused by another’s negligence get compensation for their financial losses and pain and suffering. Personal injury cases are dealt with in the civil court system, which means one party sues another for damages. In a personal injury lawsuit, the person who was injured — or the appropriate family member if the victim was killed — is the plaintiff, and the person who was allegedly responsible for the injury or death is the defendant. Personal injury cases involving fatalities are known as wrongful death cases.

Personal injury is a broad category of the law, and it encompasses many different types of accidents and circumstances. As long as someone was injured and those injuries could have been prevented by the appropriate and reasonable actions of another party, it likely qualifies as a personal injury claim. Common examples of these types of cases include:

• Motorcycle accidents: Motorcyclists are at an increased risk of accident and injury due to the small size of the motorcycle and the lack of protection from impact. Other drivers may have difficulty seeing motorcycles, which can increase the chances of an accident.
• Workers’ compensation cases: Accidents and injuries at work are generally covered under workers’ compensation, but if your employer or the insurance company tries to deny responsibility, you may need the help of a personal injury lawyer.
• Motor vehicle accidents: Car accidents happen every day in Delaware, and many of these lead to serious injuries. If you’ve accumulated medical bills or lost income from missing work, you could file a personal injury claim.
• Slip and fall accidents: Property owners and managers have the responsibility to ensure that their premises are well-kept and safe. If someone slips, falls, and hurts themselves, the property owner can be liable.
• Medical malpractice: We usually look to doctors and other medical professionals to help us feel better, but sometimes, they make mistakes that can cost patients dearly. Examples of medical malpractice include failure to properly diagnose, surgical errors, and medication prescription or administration errors.
• Pedestrian accidents: If drivers aren’t paying attention or are driving too fast, they may fail to notice a pedestrian walking or be unable to stop in time. Pedestrians who are injured because a driver failed to follow traffic laws can seek compensation.
• Product liability cases: Companies and manufacturers are responsible for ensuring that their products are safe when used according to directions. Defects of design, failures to warn, and defects of manufacturing are three types of product liability cases.
• Truck accidents: Tractor-trailers or trucks are necessary to transport goods across the country, but they can cause serious injuries and fatalities when there is an accident. Victims often need ongoing medical treatment, which can mean very expensive medical bills.
• Dog bites: Dog owners in Delaware are responsible for ensuring that their pets don’t present a risk to others. If you were bitten by a dog that wasn’t properly restrained or that the owner knew had a history of biting, you could have grounds for a personal injury case.
• Nursing home neglect: When you place your loved one in the care of a nursing home, you’re trusting that they will be safe and have all of their needs met, but this isn’t always the reality. Nursing home neglect cases often involve instances of dehydration and malnutrition, bed sores, and poor hygiene.

If you need help with any of the above cases or aren’t sure if your situation falls under personal injury, call Schwartz & Schwartz, Attorneys at Law, P.A., to talk to a personal injury lawyer today.

Who Is Eligible to File a Personal Injury Claim in Delaware?

In most cases, it is the victim’s responsibility to file the lawsuit, and they are named as the plaintiff. However, there are some situations where another person may need to file. For example, if the victim is a minor child or has a mental or developmental disability, a parent or other guardian may need to file as their representative.

If the victim was killed in the accident or succumbed to their injuries afterward, a family member will need to file a wrongful death lawsuit to recover any compensation. In Delaware, the deceased’s current spouse, any biological children, surviving parents, and biological siblings are able to file a wrongful death case. If the person dies without any of these surviving family members, any other person who was related to the victim by marriage or by blood may be able to file a claim.

It’s also important to keep in mind that there is a time limit for how long you have to file your personal injury case. Each state has a statute of limitations, which outlines a specific time period the victim — or their family member — has to file a claim. For most personal injury cases, including wrongful death cases, the statute of limitations in Delaware is two years. There are exceptions for medical malpractice cases in which the victim isn’t immediately aware that an injury has occurred and for claims against municipalities. In the first, the victim has three years from the date of the injury, and in the second, the plaintiff must provide notice of the lawsuit to the municipality within one year.

Understanding who has the right to pursue a personal injury claim and what timeframe applies can be confusing. Talk to a personal injury attorney to get advice related to your specific case.

What Elements Do You Need to Prove to Win a Personal Injury Case?

It may seem like winning a personal injury case is as easy as providing the courts with a copy of your medical bills related to the accident, but this is far from accurate. There are specific parts of your case that must be presented and proven in a court of law before a jury. These are:

• The defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care. In order to bring a personal injury suit, you need to be able to show that there was some duty of care between the two parties. For example, when someone is driving a car, they have a duty of care to all of the other drivers on the road to follow the traffic laws and exercise due caution.
• The defendant breached that duty. Sometimes, accidents are just accidents. To be able to pursue a personal injury claim, you must show that the defendant acted either intentionally or through negligence in a manner that breached the duty of care. An example would be if a driver was texting on their phone instead of paying attention to the road in front of them.
• If the defendant had taken reasonable other action, the plaintiff would have avoided injury. This reinforces the breach of duty of care by showing that if the defendant had acted in a reasonable, attentive manner, the accident — and, therefore, the injury — could have been avoided.
• The plaintiff’s injuries were directly caused by the breach of duty. You are responsible for proving that the plaintiff’s injuries were caused only by the defendant’s actions. For example, if someone had a broken leg and then was in an accident, they couldn’t sue the driver for those injuries.
• The plaintiff sustained damages as a result of the injury. In order to be awarded compensation as part of your claim, you have to show that you had some type of damages. These can be either economic or noneconomic. Economic losses are those that can be calculated, such as medical expenses or lost income. Noneconomic losses are also called pain and suffering and are the intangible damages you’ve suffered, such as emotional anguish.

All of these elements of the case must be proven by a preponderance of the evidence, which is the burden of proof for a civil case. To win, you must convince the jury that it is more likely than not that the defendant was responsible for all of these things and acted negligently.

How Is Compensation Calculated in a Personal Injury Case?

As stated above, compensation in personal injury suits can include financial losses and other damages, which are included in pain and suffering. How much you could be awarded through a lawsuit depends on the circumstances of the case. Your attorney can help you get a better understanding of what your case is worth when you meet for your case evaluation, but it’s important to remember that every situation is different, and it can be hard to predict how the jury will value your case.

When you’re determining how much to sue for, you will generally start by adding up your financial losses. This includes the immediate medical treatment, such as the ambulance ride to the hospital and imaging, as well as any subsequent medical care. If you sustained serious injuries, you may require surgery or recovery time in the hospital, which can add up to tens of thousands of dollars very quickly. You will also want to include any ongoing expenses you may incur because of your injuries, such as physical therapy appointments or necessary medical equipment, like a wheelchair. If you’ve missed time off of work without pay, this can also be included.

It’s also important to look toward the future. For example, if you were injured in a car accident and have nerve pain and loss of use of your right arm, this could have a serious impact on your earning potential if you’re a mechanic. It’s not uncommon for accident victims with serious injuries to have to scale back on how much they are able to work or change careers entirely. These are things you may be able to get compensation for, and an attorney can help you figure out what monetary value to attach to them.

Delaware law allows victims to include pain and suffering in the amount of damages they are seeking. There is no cap on how much can be awarded — unless you are suing a local government, in which case it’s usually capped at $300,000 — but this is generally reserved for victims who have sustained severe or life-altering injuries. Your attorney can help you determine an appropriate amount to ask for. Many choose to make the calculation easier by just multiplying the amount of economic damages by a number between 1 and 5, depending on the severity of the injuries.

How Does Comparative Negligence Law Affect Compensation Calculations?

It’s important to note that even if you win your case, you may not be awarded the full amount of damages. Delaware operates under a comparative negligence rule. This means that while someone who is partially responsible for an accident can still sue the other party, the damages will be reduced. You can file a personal injury claim against the other party as long as you were less than 50 percent responsible for the accident.

Consider this example. You were injured in a car accident after a vehicle cut in front of you at an intersection to make a left-hand turn when you were driving toward them. However, you were also driving above the posted speed limit. Technically, you are both partially at fault because they didn’t have the right of way to make the turn and you might have had time to stop and avoid the accident if you hadn’t been speeding. It’s determined that the other driver was 80 percent at fault, and you were 20 percent at fault.

You file suit against the other driver and are requesting $50,000 in damages. You win your case, but because you were 20 percent at fault, the damages are reduced by that 20 percent, so the amount of your actual award is $40,000.

The best way to determine how much compensation you may be eligible for and whether comparative negligence will be a factor is to discuss your case with an experienced personal injury attorney.

What Are the Benefits of Working With a Personal Injury Attorney?

While there is no law requiring plaintiffs to use a personal injury attorney to represent them, those who do have better outcomes and a greater chance of winning their cases. Some of the benefits of working with an experienced Delaware personal injury lawyer are:

• Legal representation with extensive knowledge of personal injury law. Delaware law is complex, and you need to have a deep understanding of which laws apply and how to effectively argue them in court to win a personal injury case.
• Being able to focus on recovery and healing. When you hire an attorney, you can put your attention and energy where it matters and have the peace of mind that someone else is handling the legal legwork.
• More resources to handle case investigation and strategy. Law firms have entire teams to handle your case and access to resources that are difficult or impossible to come by when you represent yourself.
• Higher chance of winning your case. Plaintiffs who are represented by personal injury attorneys are more likely to win their cases and be awarded higher amounts of compensation compared to those who attempt to go through the process alone.

If you believe you have a personal injury case but you need more information on what your next steps should be, the team at Schwartz & Schwartz, Attorneys at Law, P.A., is ready to help. Call our law firm to schedule a case evaluation and find out what makes us different and why clients trust us with their cases.