Boca Raton Personal Injury Lawyer

When you work with a capable lawyer, you give yourself the best chance for recovering the full value of your claim—not what the other side wants to give you.

After suffering a serious injury because of someone else’s negligence or poor judgment, you have the right to monetary compensation through a personal injury claim. It doesn’t matter if the at-fault party is a person, a business, or even a government entity—if your case is strong enough, you could be entitled to funds to cover your injuries, financial expenses, and other losses.

Building that case is an involved process, however, and it can be difficult to do when you aren’t familiar with the legal process and really need to be focusing on recovering from your injuries, anyway. In an ideal world, you’d be able to count on an insurance company to fairly compensate you for what you’ve been through, but the truth is that insurance companies are in business to make money, which means minimizing how much they pay out on claims.

The Law Offices of Casey D. Shomo have been helping injury victims from all across Florida get the compensation they need to get their life back on track. By working with a Boca Raton personal injury lawyer from our office, you can get the comprehensive settlement you’re rightfully entitled to.

The Law of Negligence in Florida

Why are you entitled to recover your losses after someone else injures you? Negligence law holds that all people who’ve been injured and suffered damages can begin a civil action against the at-fault party in order to recover their losses. Your damages could be monetary or non-monetary (pain and suffering).

When someone has injured you, either because of reckless behavior or carelessness, you deserve to be compensated for how this injury has affected your life. By filing a claim against the at-fault party, you can recover the compensation you’re rightfully owed via an insurance company or in court.

Negotiating with insurance companies can be difficult, depending on the complexity of the case, how much evidence is available to prove negligence and your injuries, and the insurer’s willingness to negotiate. If they don’t want to give you the money you deserve for your accident, your attorney can take them to court.

A Catastrophic Injury Can Happen Anywhere

It’s a fact that an accident that leads to an injury can happen virtually anywhere, although certainly some situations are more dangerous than others. Regardless of the exact nature of your accident, a lawyer from our firm will be able to help you determine who caused your accident and whether you have any partial liability for what happened.

Even if you do turn out to be partially responsible, Florida’s pure comparative negligence laws will allow you to seek a financial settlement as long as someone else was also at fault. However, the percentage of fault you are responsible for will reduce your compensation by that same percentage. So if you are 10 percent at fault and are awarded a $50,000 settlement, you’ll only be able to recover $45,000.

This makes it essential to work with a lawyer who knows how to investigate all types of accidents:

  • Traffic Accidents Car, truck, and motorcycle collisions leave thousands of people injured thanks to reckless drivers, defective part and tire manufacturers, and government agencies that fail to maintain roads up to safe conditions. When you’ve been seriously injured in an auto wreck, you can leave the no-fault system and file a claim.
  • Defective Products – Product liability cases can be used to recover compensation from negligent product manufacturers, careless distributors, irresponsible retailers, and misleading advertisers. Being injured by a dangerous product means you have the right to sue those responsible.
  • Medical Malpractice Any type of licensed healthcare professional who causes an illness or injury through negligence can be held accountable through a medical malpractice suit. You put your faith in your doctors. If they cause you serious injuries and damages, they can be held liable.
  • Nursing Home Abuse No one has a right to abuse or neglect your elderly family member. Filing a nursing home abuse claim can help you recover damages for your loved one’s suffering, and it can prevent mistreatment from happening to others. Hold the at-fault nursing home or assisted living facility accountable.
  • Premises Liability – From dog bites to toxic paint to slip-and-falls, a property hazard that leads to a serious injury makes the owner financially liable. All property owners, including business owners, have a duty to keep you safe while you’re on their property.

Proving Fault in Claim

When you decide to seek compensation from the party or parties who injured you, you can’t just file a claim and hope for the best. You need to have legitimate proof that what you’re claiming is true. No insurance company or judge is going to take you seriously if you don’t have compelling evidence to back up your claim.

For example, let’s say you were walking down the street when you were seriously injured by falling into an unmarked hole, left there by a negligent construction crew. You know you have a case, but how do you prove your claim?

Did anyone see you fall down the hole? Who helped you get out? Can you get their statements about how the hole was left there unmarked? How would you learn that a construction crew was responsible? You would need to do some serious investigating to gather the evidence needed to prove your case.

Below are some of the types of evidence often used to prove claims:

  • Witness statements from bystanders and first responders
  • Police reports and accident reports
  • Expert testimony
  • Reports from hired investigators
  • Photographic and video evidence
  • Historical records
  • Medical history
  • Medical evidence of your injuries
  • Records of how this accident has impacted your life

Financial Compensation for a Serious Injury

After your lawyer has built a compelling case that includes all of the available evidence, we’ll need to determine precisely how much your injury claim is worth. This will depend on a number of different factors, but many of them will be tied directly to the medical treatment required by your injuries and how long they’ll affect you for.

For example, a paralyzing spinal injury will greatly hinder your mobility, possibly forcing you to change careers. You’ll need special equipment, such as a wheelchair or scooter, and will probably need to renovate your home and buy a handicap-accessible vehicle. All of this doesn’t even touch on the ongoing medical care and dramatic reduction to your quality of life and happiness.

Brain damage can cause similar problems, with the added potential difficulty of reduced cognitive abilities. This could mean expensive medication and therapy, and it might strain your marriage and relationships as your loved ones begin to treat you differently or have difficulty adjusting to your new circumstances.

Injuries such as broken bones and severe burns don’t tend to have quite as long-lasting an impact, but they can still devastate your finances and create immense pain and suffering. Particularly bad fractures and burns can also lead to permanent disfigurement, which can greatly reduce your quality of life.

Here’s a list of additional example injuries for which you could file a claim:

  • Back, shoulder, and neck injuries
  • Limb loss
  • Puncture wounds
  • Severe cuts and lacerations
  • Infection from your injuries
  • Organ damage

Make Certain All Damages Are Considered

No matter how catastrophic your injuries are, your final settlement amount won’t be complete unless it includes every single financial loss and non-economic damage caused by your accident and your wounds.

A lawyer from our firm will be able to uncover all of these damages, regardless of whether they’re current losses or estimates of your future expenses. We’ll make certain that the settlement you receive won’t leave you paying out of pocket for unforeseen accident-related expenses years down the road.

These are just a few of the items you’ll be able to claim when they apply to your injury case:

  • Current and future medical expenses for medication, surgeries, checkups, and other treatments
  • Lost wages and income, in addition to lost future earning potential
  • Therapy for both emotional trauma and physical injuries
  • Caretaker wages and transportation expenses
  • Pain and suffering
  • Emotional trauma and permanent disfigurement
  • Damage done to your personal relationships and lost sexual function
  • Reduced overall quality of life

How Does Hiring a Boca Raton Injury Attorney Help You?

Now you probably have a better understanding of how the personal injury process works, but how does an attorney help? Your attorney has a lot of work to do in order to get you compensated. Here’s a look at your lawyer’s job:

  • Investigate your accident to determine cause and fault.
  • Gather all evidence and medical documentation needed to prove your claim.
  • File all paperwork.
  • Offer you legal advice throughout the process.
  • Negotiate fair compensation with all involved parties.
  • Take your case to court, if needed.

Boca Raton Personal Injury FAQ

Don’t worry if you feel like you have an endless number of questions after suffering a severe injury. It’s perfectly normal to be uncertain about how to proceed with your claim, so we’ve provided a few answers to some common questions below. If you don’t see your concern addressed, please contact us so you can discuss your case with a lawyer.

How much time do I have to file a personal injury claim?

In Florida, we have a statute of limitations of four years for personal injury. In the majority of cases, you must file your claim within this time period or you risk losing your ability to collect compensation from those responsible.

Can I seek compensation if I was more at fault for the accident than everyone else was?

Yes. Florida is one of the states that observe pure comparative negligence. This means you could be 99 percent at fault and still be eligible for a settlement, although it will be greatly reduced from what you would have received had you not been responsible.

What is a contingency fee?

When an attorney works on contingency, it means that you won’t have to pay anything up front. In fact, you’ll only have to pay your attorney fees if we win your case and you get a monetary settlement. If you don’t win, you don’t have to pay your attorney anything.

Do car accident claims work differently than other injury cases?

Yes, they do. Because of Florida’s no-fault auto insurance laws, you can’t file a personal injury claim to recover damages unless you were seriously injured in the car accident. “Serious injury” is a subjective concept, however, so speaking with an attorney to verify whether your injury qualifies is a good idea.

Will I have to go to court to get the compensation I need?

Most of the time, no. The vast majority of personal injury cases are settled outside of the courtroom. It’s very possible to convince the insurance companies to pay out fair compensation (with a lot of hard negotiating). That said, if the insurance company does refuse to pay you fairly, we’re not afraid to fight for you in court.

Get Help from a Boca Raton Injury Attorney

When you’ve been injured and need financial compensation to cover your medical expenses, or if a family member has experienced a fatal accident, you need the Law Offices of Casey D. Shomo on your side. Our firm has extensive experience with personal injury law, and we can make certain that you recover all of the damages you are entitled to.

To explore your legal options for compensation, arrange a time for a free, no-pressure consultation with a knowledgeable Boca Raton personal injury lawyer. Simply complete the contact form on this page or give us a call at 561-659-6366.