Virginia Knee Injury Lawyer
If your knee has been injured, to no fault of your own, it’s important to contact an attorney as soon as possible. Not every knee injury requires the assistance of a Virginia catastrophic injury attorney and it may not be appropriate to retain an attorney. For example, if you’re skiing and you tear your ACL in a fall, you’re likely not going to claim negligence and sue the ski slope because of the inherent risk of skiing. If, however, you’re involved in a car accident that’s not your fault and because of the car accident you suffer a serious knee injury, then in this case, you should contact a Virginia knee injury attorney.
Common Knee Injuries in Virginia
There are a wide variety of common knee injuries. The type of knee injuries depend on the type of impact and the type of incident that leads to the injury. For example, if you are struck by a vehicle as a pedestrian, you may have more serious knee injuries including fractures, torn ligaments, torn tendons, as well as lacerations or abrasions.
If you have been involved in an auto accident in which your knee made contact with a hard surface, you may have a crushed knee injury, which includes injuries to the MCL, meniscus, knee cap and things of that nature. If you have been a victim of a violent assault, your knee may have suffered an injury and possibly been hit with an object. There are a lot of different injuries that may occur and these types of injuries would depend on the type of incident you’re involved.
Calculating Damages
There are multiple types of damages that are appropriate to present in a Virginia knee injury case. The types of injuries that would be appropriate will have to be in the medical bills associated with the diagnosis, treatment and recovery from the knee injury. That would be number one, so the more severe the knee injury, likely the more serious the type of bills and the amount of bills related to the case will be.
There is also value related to the pain and suffering and the recovery and the loss of the ability to do things that a person previously enjoyed.
For example, if you have been injured in a car accident and had to go through knee surgery and that subsequent knee surgery and recovery prevented you from running your the 5Ks you participate in every year, then that would be a value to consider.
If it prevented you from working in the way that you worked before the accident, that would certainly have value. If this injury prevented you from spending time with your family in doing activities on a regular basis that you previously did and you’ve been injured through no fault of your own, it would add value to this type of a case.
Treatment
The type of treatment and the time for recovery is solely dependent on the type(s) of knee injury you have suffered, the personal medical history and what type of treatment is prescribed by your doctor.
Challenges in Virginia Knee Injury Claims
If you injured your knee through no fault of your own and the case is challenged by a defense counsel, there may be certain elements that are brought forward. For example, the other party may challenge that you already had a pre-existing knee condition so that the type of injury you suffered in the incident did not meet the causation requirement for the injuries for which you’re claiming.
They may argue that you had a predisposition to certain types of injuries that you had under-diagnosed or undiagnosed previous injury or that you were over-treated for. For example, if you had a cut to your knee and then you subsequently had a knee replacement, they may make the argument that those injuries did not meet the treatment.