Why Should I Hire A Catastrophic Injury Lawyer?

A catastrophic injury can upend your life. How will you work and provide for your family when you face months of recovery, medical care, and rehabilitation? What if you never get back to how you were before the accident?

Whether it was a car accident, truck accident, slip-and-fall, or other serious accident, Nix Patterson’s catastrophic injury attorneys have the skills and experience to fight for your rights and seek the compensation you deserve.

What Is a Catastrophic Injury?

Many injuries can strike a jarring blow to your life when you’re hurt in an accident. However, some accident injuries can change your life for months, years, or permanently. That’s a catastrophic injury, and while they are relatively rare, the physical damage is always severe. The most common types of catastrophic injuries are:

• Spinal paralysis injuries
• Loss of sight or hearing
• Amputation
• Nerve damage
• Brain damage
• Severe burns
• Broken or crushed bones
• Facial injury causing deformity
• Organ damage
• Mesothelioma, asbestosis, or another job-related injury

Catastrophic injuries happen for many reasons, including motor vehicle accidents, job accidents, product defects, falls, sports accidents, and medical malpractice.

If a catastrophic injury happens to you and someone else caused it, you should be compensated for your losses. Below is more about why you should hire a catastrophic injury lawyer to obtain compensation for you:

Your Attorney Will Attempt to Prove Fault and Negligence

You must prove that the defendant was negligent in obtaining compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. Your attorney will aim to prove the following factors in your catastrophic injury lawsuit:

• The defendant had a duty of care: For example, another driver had a duty to drive the speed limit and obey traffic rules.
• The defendant breached their duty: Using the above example, the driver ran a red light, breaking the rule to stop for other traffic.
• There was an accident from the breach: Running the red light caused a car accident.
• You were severely injured from the accident: The severe injuries you sustained resulted from the car accident. Your attorney will attempt to prove that your injuries are directly related to the crash.

Your Attorney Will Accurately Value Your Claim

Medical bills are a critical part of a catastrophic injury claim. But there is much more you may be entitled to that, unless you’re an attorney, you may be unaware of.

Being catastrophically injured means tremendous pain and suffering, lost earnings, physical therapy, mental and emotional trauma, potential home alterations for your injuries, and more. All of these damages may lead to substantial compensation and must be proven. Your lawyer knows how to pinpoint your injuries’ worth and demand what is suitable from the defendant.

The Defendant Has Attorneys

When a person or company is potentially liable for someone’s catastrophic injury, keep in mind that a team of skilled defense attorneys is likely representing them. In most cases, the defendant’s insurance company’s lawyers will work tirelessly to undermine your claim and question the severity of your injuries. They aim to reduce what they must pay you, regardless of your injuries, pain and suffering, and other losses.

The defense attorneys will use any scrap of evidence to damage your case and reduce or deny your claim. Representing yourself or settling for a low insurance settlement offer when you’re catastrophically injured and facing months or years of recovery can be a grave error.

You Can Focus on Your Medical Recovery

A catastrophic injury is overwhelming to deal with by itself. You must confront the physical damage to your body and the psychological impact of your body possibly never being the same. There will be many financial hardships, too, from medical bills to being out of work for extended periods of time.

When you hire a personal injury attorney for a catastrophic injury case, you don’t have to worry about the case’s legal aspects. Instead, your only concern will be your recovery and your family, as it should be.

Your Lawyer Will Combat Possible Comparative Negligence Claims

It’s almost inevitable that the other party’s insurance company will want to pay as little as possible, regardless of your injuries. They will likely say almost anything to reduce their financial liability, including partly blaming you for the accident.

This is where comparative negligence laws can reduce what you receive. Every state has laws about handling a personal injury claim when more than one person is at fault. If the defense can prove you were partly at fault for the accident, they may not have to pay the same amount of money if their client was 100% to blame. Your attorney knows about comparative fault and how to fight these claims.

Your Lawyer Knows When to Settle and When to Fight

In most catastrophic injury cases, the defendant’s insurance company will make an offer. Knowing whether you should accept is critical. When should you accept the offer? When should you make a counteroffer?

There are possibly tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars hinging on this decision, and you want to make the right one. Your attorney will help you decide if and when you should settle and for how much. They also can use the threat of a personal injury lawsuit to encourage the defendant to offer more money.

Your Attorney Collects Evidence to Support Your Claim

A successful catastrophic injury claim resulting in substantial compensation means having the legal and financial resources to prove the other party was at fault. This means your attorney will obtain evidence and expert witnesses that you would be challenged to do yourself.

A catastrophic injury lawyer from a successful personal injury law firm has the legal resources needed to collect documentation and expert testimony to prove your case. Your lawyer will gather some or all of these resources to obtain a favorable case outcome:

• Physician and other medical expert testimony
• Other expert witness testimony, such as accident reconstruction professionals
• Medical records
• Police reports
• Accident reports
• Defendants’ statements

These resources are vital to your case because you can only receive a favorable settlement or verdict by providing convincing evidence of fault and your resulting losses.

Contact Our Nix Patterson Catastrophic Injury Lawyers

At Nix Patterson, we offer a complimentary case evaluation to understand your catastrophic injury case. For more information, contact the catastrophic injury attorneys at Nix Patterson today.