Jennings Personal Injury Lawyer

An accident or incident that causes a personal injury can be painful, frustrating, and expensive. You may find yourself unable to work as you recover, as you face significant medical costs and emotional and psychological stress. When your injuries were caused because another party acted negligently, it can be especially upsetting. In this situation, a Jennings personal injury lawyer can help you file a personal injury claim to obtain compensation that can cover your damages.

When another party is at fault for an accident, you should not have to be responsible for the financial costs of your injuries. A personal injury claim could recover medical costs, lost wages, property damage, and noneconomic damages. By working with an attorney, you can take the time you need to recover, and your attorney can work to value your damages, gather evidence, and craft a strong claim for compensation.

Personal Injury Attorneys Committed to Jennings

Strong legal support is essential to the success of your claim and to ensure that you can get the most compensation possible. Your attorney can handle legal deadlines, court filing requirements, and insurance negotiations. It’s important that you feel confident in your legal representation’s ability to handle your claim efficiently and well. You need an attorney who has experience and success in your type of accident and injury. They should also possess detailed knowledge of personal injury law.

The attorneys at the Cox Law Firm have a combined 135 years of legal experience, including experience in individual personal injury claims and in class-action claims. Our firm works together to provide the most effective representation for the injured individuals we serve, collaborating and using our firm’s resources to your benefit. We are proud to serve our community in Southwest Louisiana, so we provide legal representation for our clients from the beginning to the end of their claims.

When you bring us your personal injury claim, we work to take the stress and burden of the legal process so you have less to worry about. Whether you were injured or you lost a loved one due to the careless actions of another person or group, we can help you. Let us review your situation to determine if you have a viable claim, how much compensation you are owed, and how to begin investigating the incident. We want to help you recover and obtain the resources you need to support yourself and your family.

What Is a Personal Injury Claim?

When you suffer a personal injury because another individual or party failed to act with reasonable care, you can hold them liable through a personal injury claim. The level of care you are owed depends on the unique circumstances of your injury and your relation to the party who caused you harm. Negligence is the most common basis for a personal injury claim, as the injury usually would not have happened if the party had exercised reasonable caution.

A personal injury claim can recover financial and emotional damages that resulted from your injury. To recover these damages, you must prove that the other party is at fault for the injury due to their negligence, recklessness, or intentional misconduct.

What Are the Requirements to Prove Negligence?

If negligence is necessary to file your unique type of personal injury claim, there are several elements that must be proven to hold the party liable for their actions. These include:

1. Duty: The other party owed you a duty of care to act with reasonable thought to your safety.
2. Breach: The party failed to uphold their duty of care.
3. Causation: This breach was what caused the accident and/or your injuries.
4. Damages: You suffered a personal injury and other recognized damages.

All these elements must be present and provable for a personal injury claim based on negligence to be successful.

Common Types of Personal Injury Claims in Jefferson Davis Parish

Personal injuries can occur in many scenarios. While many result in minor damages, others can cause life-altering, catastrophic, and fatal injuries. When you suffer a personal injury that was someone else’s fault, you should find an attorney who has experience in personal injury law, connections and understanding of local courts and laws, and experience and success in cases and injuries like yours. Some common causes of personal injuries include:

Car Accidents

Drivers owe other drivers and others on the road a duty to behave reasonably, follow traffic laws, and protect the safety of others. When drivers act carelessly or recklessly, they breach this duty of care, such as by speeding, failing to use a turn signal, or ignoring traffic signals and signs. If these actions cause an accident, that driver can be held liable for the damages to other drivers.

After a car accident, injured parties can file car insurance claims with the at-fault driver’s insurance provider. In some cases, additional damages must be covered by uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. If there are still further damages, an injured party could file a personal injury claim to cover them. An attorney can help with any of these claims by calculating your damages, current and future, and negotiating with the insurance company so you don’t have to.

Car accidents are one of the most common reasons why people suffer from personal injuries. Some of these accidents are minor, but others can cause serious injuries, such as:

• Traumatic brain injuries
• Neck and back injuries
• Broken bones
• Severe lacerations
• Burns

Truck Accidents

Truck accidents are a more complicated form of motor vehicle claim for many reasons. When the truck is a commercial vehicle, the trucking company and its insurance provider will get involved, as the trucking company may be held vicariously liable if their employee was responsible for the accident. These insurance providers have significant resources and likely do not want to pay you the compensation you are owed. This can make it harder to recover your damages.

These accidents are also more complex because of the sheer severity of damages. Commercial vehicles, like semi-trucks, that get into accidents are more likely to cause catastrophic and deadly injuries to those in smaller vehicles. This means that the compensation that injured parties or their surviving loved ones are owed is going to be much higher.

Truck accidents can be caused by:

• Distracted or fatigued drivers
• Malfunctioning vehicle components
• Improper truck trailer loading
• Unrealistic delivery schedules
• A lack of truck maintenance

It’s important to investigate the accident to determine its cause, as that makes it possible to determine the at-fault party.

The truck driver and their employer are not the only parties that may be liable in a truck accident, which adds to the work needed to investigate the accident. The trucking company may be directly liable, rather than vicariously liable, due to actions such as overworking employees, failing to ensure background checks on their drivers, or failing to perform maintenance on trucks. Third-party maintenance crews, the manufacturer of a vehicle component, a third-party shipping company, or other parties could also be liable.

Rideshare Accidents

Ridesharing is a convenient transport option, but it can become complicated if you are injured in an accident while in a rideshare. Like any car accident, it’s important to call emergency responders, determine if immediate medical care is needed, and gather contact information from those involved in the accident and eyewitnesses to the crash. This and other evidence is important to determine the party who is at fault for the accident.

If a non-rideshare driver was at fault, then the case may proceed like a typical car accident claim. When a rideshare driver is at fault, there are several factors that can impact the compensation you receive. It’s important to work with an attorney who understands the complex regulations in these claims and knows how to navigate them to recover the damages you suffered.

Motorcycle Accidents

Due to the lack of physical protection on motorcycles, motorcyclists are much more likely to suffer catastrophic and fatal injuries when in an accident. Any parties may be liable for the accident, but those in passenger cars are unlikely to suffer significant damages. Drivers may be liable due to their failure to see a motorcycle, or they might drive without proper care around a rider.

Even if the motorcyclist is partially at fault, they could still recover damages under Louisiana’s pure comparative negligence laws. The final compensation is reduced proportionally to their fault, but this can still be helpful to their recovery. It’s important to work with an attorney to determine if you can benefit from a personal injury or insurance claim after a motorcycle accident.

Animal Attacks and Bites

The most common form of animal attack or bite claims is dog bite claims. However, other animals can also be responsible for animal attacks, such as cats, birds, or rodents. When the animal is a domesticated pet, their owners may still be liable for the damages they caused.

In Louisiana, there must be elements of negligence present to hold a pet owner liable for damages caused by their pet. This includes the owner knowing that the animal was dangerous or otherwise acting negligently. If you are able to prove this, you can hold the owner liable for compensation. In some cases, even a wild animal attack may result in a personal injury claim if a property owner failed to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of those on their premises.

Animal bites and attacks can result in severe injuries, such as:

• Lacerations
• Puncture wounds
• Infection
• Rabies
• Other diseases
• Fractures

These attacks also often result in significant emotional and psychological harm to victims. It takes a skilled attorney to help prove that an owner is liable for the harm done by their animal.

Workplace Accidents

Employers have a responsibility to create a safe workplace for employees. When you are injured on the job, you are entitled to workers’ compensation to recover the financial losses from medical bills and a portion of your lost wages. In Louisiana, nearly all employers are required to carry workers’ compensation insurance.

In most workplace injury cases, this is your only form of compensation. However, there are unique cases where you can file a personal injury claim instead of or in place of a workers’ compensation claim. If your employer is required to carry workers’ compensation insurance and does not, you can file a personal injury claim against them. If your injury was caused by an intentional action by your employer, you can also file a personal injury claim against them.

If you were involved in an accident on the job that was the fault of a third party who was not an employer or co-worker, you can file a workers’ compensation claim and recover any remaining damages from a personal injury claim against that third party.

A personal injury claim carries the potential for additional recovery. Unlike workers’ compensation claims, personal injury claims could recover the full cost of lost wages, along with noneconomic damages, such as pain and suffering. An attorney can help determine your options for compensation and how to effectively maximize your benefits.

Maritime and Offshore Accidents

Employees on docks, offshore oil rigs, vessels, and natural gas wells are all various types of maritime workers. These workplaces are exceptionally dangerous, and employees are at a much higher risk due to the amount of time they spend at these locations. Day-to-day work can be treacherous and difficult. Additional hazards come from:

• Dangerous machinery
• Heavy materials
• Potential malfunctions
• Chemical exposure
• Fires
• Explosions

Oil and gas rigs are some of the most dangerous types of employment in the country.

Like any employee, maritime workers can have their injuries covered through workers’ compensation. In other situations, an employee may be able to file a personal injury claim. However, depending on the types of employment and circumstances of the injury, maritime employees can receive more significant benefits under the Jones Act. These claims can be very complicated, and it’s important that your attorney understands how to navigate them.

Unfortunately, many maritime employee injuries result in fatalities. Surviving family members can file for a wrongful death claim under workers’ compensation or the Jones Act.

Construction Accidents

Construction work is another dangerous form of employment. Although employees are at the highest risk for accidents on construction sites, third-party contractors, bystanders, and other non-employees can also be injured on sites. If an accident is not covered by workers’ compensation, then fault must be proven, such as from the employer, employee, property owner, supplier, vehicle manufacturer, or other party.

The injuries on construction worksites can include burns, electrocution, crushing injuries, brain injuries, and other severe traumatic injuries. Employees who work in certain locations may also be susceptible to long-term developmental illnesses from breathing in dust and hazardous materials, including asbestos. These long-term illnesses may be covered through workers’ compensation or other forms of compensation.

Wrongful Death

Wrongful death claims can be filed when an individual who would have been able to file a personal injury claim either died during the accident or died later from their injuries. When someone is at fault for these injuries, surviving family members can file a wrongful death claim. This includes the deceased’s spouse, children, or parents, followed by other relatives.

Wrongful death claims cover many types of personal injury, such as truck accidents, severe workplace accidents, animal attacks, and other injuries.

A wrongful death claim will never make up for the significant loss that a family has suffered. It can provide some financial compensation and security, and it can also cover costs, such as:

• Funeral and burial expenses
• Loss of income and services
• Loss of benefits
• Medical costs
• Pain and suffering

This may help your family during this hard time and hold the at-fault party responsible for their actions.

Compensation Available in a Personal Injury Claim

The settlement available for your personal injury claim will rely on the severity of the injuries and damages that you suffered. If you prove that the party is at fault, you are owed the entirety of your damages. This includes:

• Medical bills, current and future, for all treatments, surgeries, medications, mobility devices, and physical therapy
• Lost wages during recovery
• Lost earning capacity if you are unable to work or work your old job
• Property damages
• Noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, emotional distress, disfigurement, and PTSD

An attorney can help you obtain the compensation you deserve. Without an attorney, you are more likely to undervalue the compensation you are owed, and you may not properly account for all future costs, complications, and lost earning capacity. It can be difficult to value noneconomic damages without the help of a professional. An attorney can help you maximize your compensation by accurately and fairly determining the noneconomic damages you are owed.

The Cox Law Firm: Your Personal Injury Firm in Jennings

We understand how terrifying it is to suffer a personal injury and how emotionally and financially straining it is. We want to help you get the compensation you need to recover from your injuries, and we understand how to negotiate with insurance providers. Let us handle your Jefferson Davis Parish claim so that you can heal from your injuries and take the time off that you need. Contact the Cox Law Firm today to see if you have a viable claim.