- Accidents That Lead to Personal Injury Claims in Clearwater
- Damages Recovered from Personal Injury Lawsuits
- Common Personal Injuries
- What Kind of Information Should I Give my Clearwater Personal Injury Lawyers?
- What Happens When I Call for a Consultation?
Personal injuries occur every day. Whether it is in a motor vehicle accident or slip and fall, thousands of people are hurt each year in the United States due to preventable accidents. Most of these preventable accidents are due to the reckless, careless, and downright negligent conduct of others.
This means that another person, business, or government entity could be liable for a victim’s medical care, emotional distress, and bills.
If you or a loved one were seriously injured due to another’s unreasonable or dangerous conduct, call our Clearwater personal injury lawyer to get the compensation that you need. Here at Denmon Pearlman, our Clearwater accident lawyers can help those injured in an accident.
Our compassionate team will work with your healthcare providers to get your medical records and prove your damages. While our team of lawyers works with leading experts to collect evidence and establish liability.
Our law firm prepares every case to go to trial, even though most cases settle before trial.
Call today to schedule your initial consultation at no cost to learn how we can recover the compensation you deserve by dialing (813) 554-3232.
Not only do we offer FREE consultations, but if we take your case we will conduct a full investigation into what caused your personal injuries. We also accept cases on a contingency fee basis meaning you only pay our attorneys after a settlement, verdict after trial, or arbitration award. This means there is no financial risk to work with our office.
If you need a lawyer, call our office to get the attorney-client relationship that you deserve.
Accidents That Lead to Personal Injury Claims in Clearwater
Any time you are injured due to another’s conduct, you may have a cause of action (or claim) for personal injuries. This type of claim may allow you to recover compensation to cover your bills while you are out of work due to your injuries.
There are many different types of personal injury cases.
Our Clearwater personal injury lawyers at Denmon Pearlman could handle these types of cases:
Car Accidents
Car accidents and other motor vehicle wrecks are some of the most common sources of personal injuries.
According to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), almost 1.9 million people are injured and over 33,000 people are wrongfully killed each year due to motor vehicle crashes.
In just Florida, the Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) reports that over 167,000 people are injured and almost 3,000 people are wrongfully killed each year in the Sunshine State.
These are shocking statistics that demonstrate just how serious of a threat that car accidents can be for innocent people.
What is worse is that insurance companies do not play fair after a car accident. Many insurance adjusters will take a firm stance against your claim. This is because insurance adjusters are trained at the state and national conferences often taught by defense lawyers.
They learn tricks to get you to admit to facts that did not happen to undermine your case. Insurance companies routinely deny medical bills and other fair compensation to victims who have legitimate claims.
Do not let this happen to you.
Call our Clearwater Car Accident lawyers to schedule an initial consultation if you have been seriously injured. Our Clearwater personal injury lawyers have a proven track record of helping clients recover compensation for emotional distress, medical bills, and other damages.
This includes car accidents caused by some of the following negligent errors:
- Rear-end collisions
- Speeding
- Distracted driving
- Drunk driving or drugged driving
- Reckless driving or aggressive driving (road rage)
- Improper left turn
- Running a red light
- Failure to yield
- Unsafe backing, especially in a parking lot
- Running a stop sign
- Pedestrian accident or hit by a car
- Improper lane change
- Negligent left turns, and
- Many other common causes of a car accident.
If you need a lawyer, Denmon Pearlman is the personal injury accident lawyer near me that you need to protect your rights to compensation under Florida law. Call for a free consultation today.
Truck Accidents
Commercial vehicles like semi-tractor trailers, big rigs, tankers, flatbeds, and other box trucks are dangerous and deadly.
Even at a low speed, these powerful vehicles could cause catastrophic harm. But unlike car accident cases, truck accidents are much more complicated. This is because of the following:
1) Trucks Have Different Equipment Than Other Motor Vehicles
Unlike other vehicles, trucks use air brakes which must be properly hooked up, maintained, and used to avoid accidents.
Trucks also have more extensive steering systems. Big rigs also have different types of wheels and a lot of them which must be routinely inspected. Many of these differences make it harder for a victim.
Trucks also have “black boxes” known as electronic control modules or ECMs. These devices are important pieces of evidence. They need to be quickly collected before an insurance company or defendant can delete or modify the data.
2) Trucks Have Different Regulations
Since trucking is an interstate business, a truck driver will have to comply with many different state laws to make a delivery. Each state has different vehicle and traffic laws. Not only does this make it difficult to comply, but some states are less strict than others in terms of safety. This is why there is a federal agency that has been deputized to set regulations that apply to truck drivers and trucking companies throughout the United States.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is that federal agency. The regulations promulgated a focus on safety. Violations of the FMCSA regulations can result in liability for the truck company and truck driver. It can allow victims to recover compensation for their injuries, emotional distress, medical bills, and of course their pain and suffering.
3) Damages Are Often Catastrophic
While any type of motor vehicle case could result in serious personal injuries, truck accidents are more likely to result in catastrophic damage.
This means a lawyer needs to have a better understanding of the medical in order to explain it at trial. It also means a lawyer will need to present their evidence better and easier for a jury to understand.
Always hire a personal injury with experience handling these types of claims like our office in Clearwater, FL.
Slip and Fall or Trip and Fall
Any type of injury that occurs on the property of another is called a premises liability case. This could be in a store, at a private home, or in a government building. The most common types of premises liability cases are slip and falls or trip and falls. Both could allow a victim injured in an accident to recover compensation. The difference between a slip and fall or a trip and fall is the mechanism of the injury.
Slip and Fall
In a slip and fall accident, a person comes into contact with a slippery condition that causes him or her to slide, shift, or otherwise lose balance and fall to the ground. Common examples of slip and fall accidents include the following:
- Spilled products on a store floor (broken jar)
- Wet pool deck
- Wet stairs that are painted wood but with no friction strips
- Overuse of soap or floor wax in a store
- Leaky A/C units
- Tracked in rainwater or stormwater
- Leaky refrigeration unit at a store
- Wet bathroom floors, and
- Other instances of a slippery substance on the floor could cause a fall.
Trip and Fall
In contrast, a trip and fall case is when a person comes into contact with a condition that causes him or her to stumble, fall into it, or otherwise lose balance and fall. Trip and fall accidents include some of the following examples:
- Broken curbs
- Uneven flooring
- Holes in the ground, especially outside
- Broken stairs
- Debris on the floor in a store
- Uncleaned construction sites
- Wires or tripping hazards near walkways
- Ripped or crumbled up carpets, and
- Many other common cases of dangerous or hazardous conditions on the ground.
Medical Malpractice
We trust our healthcare providers to give us the proper care and treatment that we deserve. Although many healthcare providers do this, unfortunately far too many do not. This is a much bigger problem than most people realize.
According to a study by John Hopkins, preventable medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. This means that medical mistakes are behind only heart disease and cancer.
Not only is this shocking, but it is unacceptable.
Unfortunately, insurance companies give their clients bad legal advice and rarely admit fault to a victim or a victim’s family. In fact, medical malpractice cases are often some of the most hotly contested types of lawsuits. Oftentimes a medical malpractice case goes to trial, even if liability is obvious.
These types of cases also require an extensive amount of evidence to successfully prove a case. This means that victims and their families need to hire an experienced lawyer or law firm to represent them against a healthcare provider like a doctor, hospital, nurse, or other professional.
Proving a Medical Malpractice Case in Florida
Medical malpractice is a type of negligence case. The law for medical malpractice is similar for negligence cases, except it is in a healthcare setting.
But because there are so many different types of healthcare providers and situations where a victim could be harmed, the law is very flexible to cover many different situations.
Specifically under Florida law, section 766.102 (1) provides that “[t]he prevailing professional standard of care for a given health care provider shall be that level of care, skill, and treatment which, in light of all relevant surrounding circumstances, is recognized as acceptable and appropriate by reasonably prudent similar health care providers.”
This means that a surgeon is measured against what a reasonably prudent surgeon would have done in similar circumstances. And a nurse is measured against what a nurse would have done.
Common Examples of Medical Malpractice Cases in Florida
There are many different types of medical malpractice cases that could be caused by the negligence of a healthcare provider. Some of the most common that our Clearwater medical malpractice lawyers could handle for you if we take your case include the following:
- Failure to diagnose
- Birth injuries
- Surgical errors
- Anesthesia mistakes
- Prescription errors and medication mistakes
- Pressure sore or bedsore cases
- Fall risks in a hospital or nursing home case
- Burn injuries
- Wrong patient surgeries or wrong-site surgeries
- Left a foreign object in a patient, and
- Many other types of causes that our lawyer or law firm could help you with if you need a lawyer in Florida.
Birth Injuries
One of the most egregious types of medical errors in Florida is to a newborn baby.
Our lawyers at Denmon Pearlman can help a family after your baby is injured. Whether the case goes to trial or is resolved by a settlement, we provide the utmost professional attorney-client relationship in any type of birth injury case.
We will not stop getting the compensation that your family and defenseless child deserve when a healthcare provider’s errors result in personal damages, including the following:
- Kernicterus
- Cerebral palsy or CP
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE)
- Brachial plexus nerve injuries
- Burn injuries
- Erb’s palsy
- Forceps or vacuum extraction injuries
- Delay in a c-section, and
- Any other type of serious injury to your loved one that our personal injury accident lawyer could help get the compensation you deserve.
Damages Recovered from Personal Injury Lawsuits
If you have been injured in an accident, you may be entitled to “damages.” There are many different types of damages that a party may recover in legal action. The type of damages depends on the type of case.
In personal injury lawsuits, damages are typically monetary compensation. Some of the most common types of damages include the following:
- Past Pain and Suffering – from the accident to the date of payment
- Future Pain and Suffering – a sum measured from the date of payment to the estimated date of death
- Lost Wages – from the injury, appointments, disability, or any other cause related to the accident
- Lost Future Earnings – if you are unable to work or earn the same salary due to your injuries or disability, this type of damages is the difference between the old salary and the newer, lower salary
- Loss of Consortium – relations with a spouse, but also a normal society with other family members
- Medical Bills – reimbursement for past, present, or future medical care and bills
- Medication Costs – both in the future and present bills for medication
- Punitive Damages – compensation meant to punish and deter conduct of others and the defendant, but only in rare and exceptional cases of gross negligence
- Wrongful Death – compensation for bills related to funeral expenses, burial costs, and emergency medical costs, as well as for lost income support, and
- Other damages that our personal injury lawyers in Clearwater, Florida may obtain for you in a settlement or verdict if your case goes to trial.
Common Personal Injuries
A person injured by another’s negligence could suffer many different types of personal injuries. Some of these injuries may heal in weeks or months. Other types of injuries could take years to heal.
More catastrophic injuries could result in permanent disability and never heal. While the most catastrophic injuries could result in the wrongful death of an innocent person.
Some of the most common types of personal injuries that a victim could sustain include the following:
- Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)
- Spinal cord injuries (SCI)
- Amputations or loss of a limb
- Nerve injuries
- Organ damage
- Significant scarring or disfigurement
- Paraplegia or quadriplegia
- Burn injuries
- Broken bones or fractured bones
- Neck or back injuries, including herniated discs or annular tears
- Wrongful death, and
- Many other types of serious personal injuries that our office could represent you on your claim.
The most important legal advice that anyone injured in an accident could receive is to seek the help of attorneys who could go to trial to prove your damages or settle your case.
This requires obtaining your medical records from your doctor’s office, something we can do for you.
Learn how we can help you during an initial consultation with our attorneys in Clearwater, Florida.
What Kind of Information Should I Give my Clearwater Personal Injury Lawyers?
After a personal injury accident in Florida, helping your lawyer set up and investigate your case and make a big difference in the outcome. This is especially true if your case goes to trial.
Some of the information you should give your lawyer include the following:
- Medical records
- Insurance information
- Journal about your emotional distress or pain and suffering
- Notes or a chronology of your medical treatment
- Phone numbers for your medical office
- Any bills you received for medical treatment or property damage
- Any communications from an insurance company
- Any communications from any other attorney or lawyer for the insurance company or another party in the case
- Your home, cell phone, and office number to easily contact you
- Evidence like photographs or videos you took related to the accident or your injuries, and
- Any other information you believe is relevant if we take your case.
The more information you give our attorneys, the more thoroughly we can investigate your claim. This can help us recover more compensation in a lawsuit.
What Happens When I Call for a Consultation?
When you call Denmon Pearlman, our lawyers and professional staff are trained on how to ask clients the right questions.
Our office has a proven track record of success and accepts cases on a contingency fee basis. This means there is no upfront cost to work with our lawyer or law firm. You will only pay our legal fees when we recover compensation for you. Therefore, if you need a lawyer, we do not take any money from clients upfront.
During your initial consultation, we will ask you to share your narrative of what happened. We may ask who was involved and what information you have about them.
We will want to know about your medical treatment and what office you went to see, who is treating you, and what they have done. We may ask about your bills and how much you have spent out-of-pocket.
Finally, we will ask what questions you have about your claim, injuries, and lawsuit.
Our experienced personal injury lawyers can help give you an overview of the law and what happens next. We pride ourselves in offering a higher level of an attorney-client relationship that is not seen by other lawyers or law firm offices.
Learn How Our Clearwater Personal Injury Lawyers Can Help You
If you or a loved one were seriously injured in a personal injury accident, call Denmon Pearlman for a FREE consultation.
We have fought back against some of the largest insurance companies and defense lawyers in Florida.
Let our experienced team fight for you and your family by proving your claims at trial or in a settlement.
Call (813) 554-3232 to schedule your FREE consultation.
