San Antonio Personal Injury Claims

Michael Grossman, San Antonio Personal Injury Attorney, Explains How Personal Injury Claims Work in Texas

If you or someone you love has been hurt due to the negligence of another party, you may wish to file a San Antonio injury claim.

This is a complex and technical process, and is typically best handled by an experienced personal injury attorney. Michael Grossman of Grossman Law Offices is here to give you an overview of how personal injury claims work.

Proximate Cause

In order to file a personal injury lawsuit against a defendant, that defendant must be a proximate cause to your injury. This means that, without the defendant’s negligence action or inaction, you would not have been hurt. For example, consider a theoretical case where a victim is hurt in a tractor trailer accident. A tractor trailer driver entered a turn too quickly and lost his cargo of logs. The victim crashed into the logs and suffered an injury. In this case, the tractor trailer driver would likely be considered a proximate cause to the victim’s injuries. If the driver had not entered the turn too quickly, the logs would not have fallen and the victim would not have been hurt (in all probability).

But there is often more than one proximate cause to an injury. Continuing this example, let us say that the victim hired an experienced personal injury lawyer to handle his case. While investigating the accident, the lawyer determined that the truck driver had never been properly trained by the trucking company on how to handle a large vehicle during a turn. Furthermore, the lawyer discovered that the logs were not properly secured to the trailer in the first place. In this case, the victim would likely be able to sue the trucking company and the company that loaded the trailer as well. But this does not get the truck driver off the hook. In effect, the victim would be filing three claims because there are three different proximate causes to the victim’s injuries. Determining the proximate causes in an accident is necessary if you are to file a lawsuit.

Elements Required of Any Personal Injury Lawsuit

In any personal injury case, you must have three elements:

• A solvent defendant or defendants: those responsible for your injuries must have some asset with which to pay for your damages
• Damages: you must have suffered some injury, whether personal, physical, financial, or emotional due to the accident
• Violation of a duty of care

A duty of care is an implicit agreement to avoid acting in such a way as to harm others. For example, a doctor has a duty of care towards his patients. He must always act in such a way as to put his patient’s safety and well-being above all other concerns. A motorist also has a duty of care. He or she must handle his or her vehicle in such a way as to not put other people in danger.

The Burden of Proof

In a personal injury lawsuit, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff or the victim. The plaintiff must prove all of the previously mentioned elements or the plaintiff does not have a case. But proving these elements is not the same thing as them being true. Proving them is a highly technical endeavor. A plaintiff must properly file a demand packet, respond to lists of admissions, document all the elements of his or her case in the correct manner, prove up damages, and respond to any number of other variables that can present themselves in a case.

Non-attorneys simply do not have the legal experience necessary to handle these sorts of tasks. But the legal professionals at Grossman Law Offices have been helping people injured in accidents for twenty years. We know how to prove that you were hurt due to another person’s negligence. We know how to prove the extent of your damages, and prove that the defendant in your case can and should compensate you. Furthermore, we have experience negotiating with insurance adjusters and defense attorneys. These people are aware of the hundreds of cases we have successfully resolved, and they will often offer our clients a very favorable settlement, just to avoid facing our lawyers in court. We are dedicated to doing everything we can to get you the compensation you need, and letting you get on with your life. So if you have been injured due to the negligence of another person or party, contact the experienced attorneys at Grossman Law Offices. We can help you file your San Antonio injury claim, and secure for you the compensation you deserve.