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Duties of a Medical Malpractice Attorney:
Has a loved one or you been hurt either in an accident or through the negligence of someone? At times things can be worked out by personal insurance or through a small claims case. If it is very minor it’s probably a good idea to forget about it and move forward.
But perhaps you really could use someone to take your side. Someone that will really fight for your cause. A professional who will really fight for your side. Then you really need a Apache County personal injury lawyer that will fight for your rights, both in regards to money and individually, so you can roll back to your life prior to when the incident occurred.
Being the victim of a crime, accident, or negligence is not ever a good time. It’s an extremely trying time, and being objective is very hard. However, remaining calm and logical can make the difference between getting the proper payment that you deserve or going home feeling like you didn’t get what you wanted.
An experienced Apache County personal injury professional can act as an advocate between you and the near-impossible situation, making it much easier to deal with the ins and outs of the legal system. If you are like most people, you may not even fully realize the potential consequences of what could happen until conversing with a legal professional. A legal adviser can help you see all of this objectively, determine if a claim exists and if they can help with your case, and help you move ahead with the process of any potential claim.
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What is a Apache County Medical Malpractice Attorney?
To begin with, personal injury lawyers (PILs) fall into the bigger arena of civil lawyers, which are also known as litigation lawyers. Civil lawyers are generally hired to recover money or other financial means from a person or legal entity on behalf of another person or legal entity.
This means that when a person brings a civil action suit against another person, a civil attorney is usually hired to start the lawsuit and another civil lawyer is hired by the person or entity being accused to defend it. In the case of bodily injury, the injured person might hire a personal injury attorney when said claim involves reimbursement or payment of expenses coming from any injury such as medical expenses, mental health problems arising from the injury, and more.
After the legal professional has been hired, they will gather everything for the case that they are legally entitled to. They will speak with all witnesses that can be contacted, get any and all documents in relation to the case, and use all their available resources to verify all of their is accurate.
Then they may first try to negotiate the settlement of the case. If negotiation fails, the lawyer may consider filing a lawsuit in response, depending on the potential for a win. But what kinds of cases does a personal injury lawyer accept?
A PIL generally tackles a wide number of cases that can be separated into two main fields. The first field includes negligence and accident cases such as medical malpractice, legal malpractice, car accidents, child negligence, and wrongful death cases. Wrongful death can be caused by a doctor, nurse, or other medical practitioner. In most of these cases, someone is injured (or worse) due to the uncaring state or incompetence of another.
The second main field of a PIL is the purposely executed wrongful case. A purposeful tort happens when one person purposefully injures another person. This type of act occurs in a violent crime, assault and battery cases, slander, theft, and other such situations. As you can tell the list of reasons for a personal injury case is pretty much endless.
In addition, and completely different from most other fields of the legal universe, PILs usually work on a contingency fee basis. This means that they are not paid unless the person or entity that they are representing has overcome the case. It means that there should be no upfront payment, for consultation or any other service. Their fee is based just upon a percentage of the financial compensation received by their client.
What Are the Implications in an Injury Case?
Of course, sometimes even the final steps of the process aren’t necessarily easy. The injured party could send back a counteroffer if they feel they are not receiving enough compensation. It is when these offers wind up floating back and forth in limbo or an offer is unacceptable that a case may very well end up going to court.
However, it is rare for a personal injury case to get to the trial phase. And this is for many reasons:
First, a settlement lends itself to a situation where the defendant can control risks and avoid unneeded legal costs. If the defending party is 100% aware that they are at fault for the incident that led to the claim, they may not want the case to get in front of a sympathetic jury that could give much larger damages.
Secondly, a settling the case will keep it out of the news and the public eye. This is especially important for high profile people or large high profile companies. A large trial brings public attention. And even a small trial can bring unwanted attention. A settlement agreement allows everyone involved to negotiate terms, including those terms regarding non-disclosure.
Thirdly, a settlement can speed things up. Extended trials can take an eternity, lasting for many months or longer. Not only that, if there are any appeals, the outcome can remain in the system for an additional length of time. The plaintiff probably wants financial award as soon as possible rather than having to wait for additional weeks, months, or even years down the road while the process drags on for what seems like forever. Or they may simply not want to finish the never-ending process of putting on a case, presenting evidence, and doing anything else that is necessary to beat the claim.
And lastly, settlement allows the plaintiff a guaranteed win. A trial is more of a ‘the higher the risk the more the reward’ type of situation, which is not always for the best. The plaintiff may in many cases rather settle for a little less in a guaranteed win. This, versus holding out for maximum dollar amount but also risking either losing the claim completely or having a judge or jury give a much lesser amount.
What are the Personal Injury Lawyer’s Tasks?
First they will take care of locating evidence and finding the responsible party, whether it be an insurance company, individual, or other legal entity.
Once the legal professional has built a case, they draft and send an official letter of demand to the opposing party. This letter includes a detail of what occurred, of injuries suffered, and the amount of financial compensation demanded.
Next, the lawyer may try to negotiate a settlement, and depending on the outcome of the negotiation, decides if they will bring the claim in front of a judge. This is determined by how much the other party agrees to the terms of the settlement. If the other party agrees completely to all terms, then there would be no reason to file a case with the court. If the other party agrees to some of the terms but not others or only partially agrees to terms, it will be up to the plaintiff to decide if they will push for further negotiations, agree to the new terms, or file a claim in court.
Choose the Successful Medical Malpractice Attorney in Apache County
Here at DeLozier Law, we have many decades of experience in successful personal injury law litigation. We have won many cases for our clients and helped them get the settlement they needed and deserved. We offer a free consultation so you can see if we can help you with your claim, too. Give us a call today at 602-989-1759!