Somerset Personal Injury Attorney
Sustaining a serious injury in an accident can have far-reaching consequences for victims and their families, who may struggle with painful injuries and hefty medical bills, all while being unable to work. In these cases, seeking compensation from the at-fault party who caused the accident by filing a personal injury claim is often an injured victim’s best option for recouping those losses. For help navigating Kentucky’s civil law procedures, don’t hesitate to reach out to our Somerset personal injury attorneys by phone or online message.
Proving Fault
In order to recover compensation for accident-related losses, a plaintiff will need to prove that someone else was at fault for his or her injuries. In a car accident case, this would require the injured party to prove that another driver broke a traffic law, or otherwise acted in a careless manner, which caused the accident and subsequent injuries. If, on the other hand, someone was bitten by another person’s dog, he or she wouldn’t need to provide proof of negligence on the owner’s part (i.e. the dog was unleashed). This is because Kentucky is a strict liability dog bite state, which means that dog owners are automatically presumed to be liable for injuries caused by their animals. In these cases, proving that a specific animal caused a certain injury is often enough to establish liability. For help determining what kind of legal standard you will need to meet to pursue a successful personal injury claim, please reach out to our legal team via phone or online message today.
Recovering Damages
Once a person has been able to demonstrate that someone else was responsible for an accident, he or she will still need to establish damages. Essentially, this means that an injured party will need to provide proof of the specific losses that he or she suffered because of an accident. Copies of medical bills and treatment records will usually be necessary at this stage, as will records of any property damage-related costs and lost wages. These are known as economic damages and are relatively simple to establish, as they are easily quantifiable. Proving how much pain and suffering a person endured, on the other hand, is more difficult. These are known as non-economic damages and proving them will require careful calculations on the part of an attorney, as well as an assessment of the severity of the injury.
Comparative Negligence
Fortunately, just because an injured party contributed in some way to his or her accident does not mean that that individual will automatically be barred from recovering compensation. This is because Kentucky adheres to the legal standard of comparative negligence, under which all parties are held liable for their own percentage of fault in causing an accident. Rather than prohibiting an accident victim from recovery, this standard only requires that an injured party’s damages be reduced in an amount that is equal to his or her portion of responsibility for causing the accident.
Personal Injury Attorneys in Somerset, Kentucky
Call us at Cessna & George Law Firm for a free evaluation of your own personal injury case and an explanation of your legal options going forward. A member of our legal team is standing by to start working on your case.
