"If you believe you may have personal injury claim, then please contact us immediately," goes the advertisement of one of the Florida personal injury law firms. But how do you know that you have a valid personal injury claim? What is your personal injury claim is worth? Personal injury claims defined There are many types of personal injury claims - the most common ones are accident-related (such as automobile accidents) but there are a growing number of medical negligence-related cases (such as prescriptions for the wrong medicine).A Florida personal injury attorney is the best person to decide whether a claim holds water or not. Evidence of the damage done and the negligence that caused it can be lost with time or by ignorance of the injured person, so you should contact the lawyer as soon as possible. If you win a personal injury claim, the person or company that caused you injuries will be responsible for all the estimated medical expenses, time lost from work, damaged property, any permanent disfigurement or disability, costs of your emotional distress, and other related costs. Basically, the worth of the claim depends on the extent of the injury, which can be some temporary hospitalization, permanent disability, or, in worst cases, death. The worth of your personal injury claim also depends on the negligence of the person or company that caused the injury and how you might have contributed to your own injury. If you were careless in some ways, too, and your carelessness contributed to your injury, the amount you can recover will be reduced in proportion to your carelessness, under Florida comparative negligence law. Time frames for filing personal injury claims in Florida The injured person or the legally-allowed person (in case of death of the injured person) has four years to file a lawsuit against a person or company under Florida state laws. Many times, Florida personal injury lawyers settle the case with the involved insurance companies. But if this is not the case, remember to file a lawsuit before the four-year statute of limitations runs out. |
