What types of accidents result in legal action toward fiscal recovery?
All types of accidents, including auto and motorcycle, personal injury, premises liability, medical malpractice, and worker’s on-the-job injuries cause legal action in pursuit of economic, and non-economic damages in Alabama.
Motor vehicle.
Alabama is a “fault,” or tort system state with regard to accidents. In tort states, motor vehicle accident victims must first turn to the liability insurance of the person who caused the accident in order to recover compensation. An accident victim may have questions about how the laws will affect property damage and personal injury claims and what they should do to receive compensation for losses. A legal professional can answer them.
If you are injured by a negligent driver in Alabama, you have the right to pursue compensation whether you were walking, riding, or driving when the accident occurred. Accident victims must prove “fault,” and experienced legal counsel is strongly recommended. Negligent acts that include speeding, distracted driving, or drunk driving may have a criminal component that will have to be addressed first, but may strengthen the proceedings for the civil action. A lawyer’s involvement may speed this process along, and compensation will vary depending on insurance coverages and degrees of fault assigned to each driver. There is a two year time period to file a suit after an accident in Alabama, referred to as the statute of limitations.
Personal injury.
In personal injury cases, negligence will need to be proven if a victim is trying to recover damages from another person, or entity they believe acted, or failed to act, resulting in their injury. The recovery of damages rests on proof that the other individual, or entity was the cause of the injury and owed a duty of care to the victim.
Premises liability.
Premises liability accidents encompass injuries that occurred on another’s premises and may be covered under homeowners’ insurance. If the injury is a result of poor conditions on the property, improper maintenance, or upkeep of the property, including interactions with occupants and animals on the premises, the property owner’s responsibility to provide a duty of care to the injured person will need to be proven along with the reason for them to be on the premises. An invitee is owed a duty of care, but a trespasser may not be owed that same duty.
Medical malpractice.
Medical malpractice occurs when an individual is injured while under the care of a health care provider. Alabama does not have caps on damages in medical malpractice cases and an experienced lawyer can be instrumental toward reasonable court awards and insurance settlements. The initial statute of limitations is two years to file a suit, but there are exceptions and legal counsel can advise regarding individual cases.
Workers’ compensation.
Workplace injuries often result in serious economic hardship for the worker and their family because of the loss of income, unexpected medical bills, interruptions to daily routines and physical pain, and/or resultant disabilities. Worker’s compensation is in place to support injured workers and a skilled attorney may be of assistance in filing a claim with the Alabama Department of Labor. Injuries may be caused by an accident, or event that results in physical injury, a medical condition that develops over time caused by repetitious use of a body part, or a condition associated with the workplace environment itself.
Wrongful death.
A wrongful death legal action is a particular type of lawsuit that is brought by loved ones of someone who dies because of the negligent, reckless, or deliberate act of someone. Damages in these lawsuits can include:
- Medical bills and burial expenses
- Compensation for lost wages
- Compensation for the pain and suffering
- Punitive damages that are intended to punish the person who caused the death.
What can a victim recover from other accident injuries?
Compensatory damages are meant to restore an individual back to the state they were in prior to the accident and include an award of money to compensate for actual economic losses, based on property damage, and/or injury. Total awards can include:
- Economic damages include present and future loss of earnings, medical bills, future medical care, household expenses and
- Non-economic damages include pain and suffering, mental anguish and loss of consortium or companionship.
Punitive damages.
When an individual’s actions are found to be intentional, egregious, and harmful, these types of damages may be awarded to punish the named defendant as a means to deter future similar acts.
Legal action after an accident.
In Alabama, an accident victim can take steps to minimize additional stress by hiring competent legal counsel who can objectively speak on their behalf in a courtroom, or against an insurance company’s legal team yielding a swift and fair monetary settlement. An experienced lawyer has been formally educated to research all state and federal laws pertinent to individual accident claims, and can digest that information in support of a case, while tracking governmental agency and court filing timelines.
Accidents are inevitable and they are going to occur, but when a car accident causes injury or damages to a person and the accident itself occurred as a result of someone else’s negligence/recklessness, then, understandably, it can be rather unfair for the victim. The injury or damages resulting from such an accident could also vary.
It could range from minor bruises to the other end of the spectrum with things such as permanent disability, paralysis, or even death. In order to cater for such victims, the justice system and its many civil courts in all states of the country have provisioned laws and legislation which facilitate the protection of accident victims and their rights.
Civil courts and civil lawsuits are fundamentally intended to serve to determine whether or not an accident victim deserves compensatory awards. However, the point to be noted here is that even though the victim is the victim, it is his or her duty to file and prove the civil lawsuit so that he or she may receive said damages as compensatory awards.
This is where an accident lawyer will come into the equation. The state auto accident laws in Alabama (not unlike in other states) are rather complex and vast. Understandably, many people are going to have a tough time trying to abide by the legalities involved in the filing of an auto accident lawsuit or any other type of accident case, let alone proving the claims within it!
Here arises the need for a professional Alabama accident attorneys who will not only navigate you through the legal process with expertise but will also prove to be a pillar of emotional support when you need it the most.
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