Falls Church Personal Injury Lawyer
Immediately after a traumatic accident resulting in a serious injury, it is understandable if your first instinct is not to review your legal options and start pursuing a civil lawsuit. You may have a host of different financial and personal losses to deal with, and adding personal injury litigation to your plate right now may seem like an overwhelming prospect.
By working with a qualified attorney, though, you could have a much easier time enforcing your legal rights while also attending to your and your family’s short-term needs. Once retained, your Falls Church personal injury lawyer could work tirelessly to collect evidence of fault for your injuries, efficiently evaluate ensuing damages, and tenaciously demand fair restitution for the harm you did not deserve to suffer.
What Makes for a Strong Personal Injury Claim?
While there are rare exceptions for injuries that occur under unique circumstances, most successful personal injury plaintiffs build their claims around a theory of legal negligence. “Negligence” in the context of civil law has four elements, all of which must be present for an injured party to have valid grounds for a case:
- Another party—the defendant—owed a duty to act reasonably around the party suing them
- The defendant did something careless or reckless that counted as a violation of their legal duty
- As a direct consequence of that violation, some kind of accident occurred resulting in physical injury
- The party filing suit was hurt in that accident and sustained compensable losses as a direct result
There are also several procedural rules that may limit an unrepresented plaintiff’s ability to effectively pursue compensation. First and foremost, Code of Virginia §8.01-243 sets a two-year filing deadline for most personal injury claims, which means accident victims generally have two years at most after learning of their injuries to start the process of filing suit.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, Virginia still adheres to an outdated “pure contributory negligence” system when it comes to reducing available compensation for plaintiffs who are partly to blame for their own injuries. Under this system, any percentage of fault borne by a plaintiff whatsoever locks them out of financial recovery for that particular incident, meaning that fighting allegations of comparative fault with a skilled Falls Church personal injury attorney’s assistance is often essential to achieving a positive case result.
Recoverable Damages in a Successful Case
A comprehensive settlement demand or lawsuit following a severe accident can—and should—account for both economic and non-economic consequences of that accident, as well as both past and future losses that a plaintiff’s injuries will produce. With that in mind, a dedicated personal injury lawyer in Falls Church could help demand restitution for any or all the following damages depending on a plaintiff’s unique circumstances and needs:
- Medical expenses, including those for future rehabilitative treatments
- Lost work income and/or capacity to earn income in the future
- Personal property damage
- Lost enjoyment of life
- Physical pain
- Lost consortium with a spouse
There are no limits on the total value of recoverable damages in personal injury claims, with the exception of a —on recovery for injuries stemming from medical negligence set by VA Code §8.01-581.15.
Talk to a Falls Church Personal Injury Attorney Today
No one deserves to get hurt because another person acted irresponsibly, but that unfortunate reality is all too common in Virginia. Fortunately, help is available from experienced legal representatives who know all the best strategies and tricks to maximize your odds of a favorable claim resolution.
Hiring a Falls Church personal injury lawyer could be the best choice you could make when it comes to protecting your best interests after an accident. Call today for a consultation.
I would suggest going ahead with the July 1, 2021 limit of $2.5M
