Danville Personal Injury Lawyer
While minor bumps and bruises are a natural part of life, more severe accidents that stem from someone else acting in a reckless or careless way certainly are not. If you sustained serious injury due to another person’s misconduct, you may find yourself dealing not only with unexpected medical bills and missed personal opportunities over the coming months, but possibly other financial, physical, and personal losses as well that persist for years or even decades.
Fortunately, help is available from a Danville personal injury lawyer if you want the person who harmed you accountable for the damages they caused. By retaining a qualified attorney who has extensive experience with personal injury litigation, you could significantly improve your odds of a positive case resolution, and accordingly of recovering the compensation you deserve.
Establishing Fault for a Personal Injury
In the state of Virginia, liability for personal injuries typically revolves around the concept of legal negligence—specifically, proving that one person’s negligent conduct directly led to another person’s injuries. In legal terms, “negligence” has four components that all must be present for an accident victim to have grounds for litigation:
- The presence of an explicit or implicit duty on the defendant’s part to act safely and reasonably under particular circumstances
- A subsequent violation of that duty in the form of unreasonably reckless or careless actions
- Direct causation of an accident through that breach of duty
- Direct causation of compensable losses through that accident
Of course, this is just a basic summary of the legal framework that most personal injury claims are built around. In practice, proving even that another person or entity actually engaged in irresponsible conduct—let alone that their conduct was the direct and primary cause of an accident resulting in at least one injury requiring professional medical care—can be a complex task that requires significant documentary and testimonial evidence, as well as a compelling presentation of that evidence during settlement negotiations or a hearing in civil court.
Through a successful claim, though, a personal injury victim could demand restitution for every form of harm they can trace directly to their injuries, including economic damages like personal property damage and medical expenses as well as non-economic damages involving subjective “pain and suffering.” A Danville personal injury attorney could explain in detail during a private consultation what losses could be recoverable in a specific situation.
Avoiding Potential Legal Pitfalls
Unfortunately, Virginia civil courts follow an uncommonly harsh “pure contributory negligence” system that, unlike comparable “comparative fault” systems, does not allow any recovery whatsoever by a partially liable plaintiff. Instead, an accident victim who bears any percentage of fault—even one percent—for their own injuries generally has no grounds to recover financially for ensuing losses, even if someone else was still primarily to blame.
Furthermore, Code of Virginia §8.01-243 limits even plaintiffs with valid causes of action to just two years to file suit after accruing that cause—in other words, two years after discovering their injuries, or the date by which a reasonable person would have discovered such injuries. Assistance from a knowledgeable personal injury lawyer in Danville is often essential to ensuring these and other legal roadblocks do not unfairly inhibit civil recovery.
Talk to a Danville Personal Injury Attorney Today
No matter what kind of incident gives rise to a personal injury claim, the process of pursuing compensation through this form of litigation is rarely a simple one. To give yourself a fair chance at recovering fair financial restitution, you will almost certainly need to seek help from a legal professional who has achieved successful results in similar cases before.
A seasoned Danville personal injury lawyer could be the steadfast ally you need to effectively seek your desired case result. Learn more by calling today.
