Frequently Asked Questions

If you or a loved one has been injured in car accident, suffered a workplace injury, or otherwise been injured due to the negligence of another party, you may have questions about your legal rights and personal injury law in general. While speaking with a qualified personal injury attorney is the best way to get answers and legal advice, there are some common personal injury questions that many people ask that we’ve taken the time to answer for you below.

How do I know if I have a personal injury case?

What should I do if I’ve been in a car accident?

What is a statute of limitations?

How does a personal injury attorney get paid?

What does no fault mean?

How much can I get for a workers comp claim?

These are just some common personal injury questions. For more, visit our Personal Injury FAQs section.

After a car accident, workplace injury, or other type of personal injury, you mostly likely will consult with a personal injury attorney, who can discuss the facts and circumstances of your injury and determine whether or not you have standing to file a personal injury lawsuit.

If you file a personal injury lawsuit against a party or parties you allege are responsible for your injuries, you begin the car accident lawsuit process. There will be discussions with the other party’s insurance company, attorney, and others involved in the incident. There will be an exchange of evidence, called discovery, and the two parties will attempt to reach an agreeable resolution to the case, called a settlement.

If you and the other parties are not able to reach a settlement, then your case likely would go to a civil trial, where a judge or jury would hear evidence and render a verdict, including a damages amount to compensate you for your injuries and other damages.

If you have been injured in a car accident or hurt while at work and are considering filing a lawsuit for damages, you may be wondering “how long does a personal injury lawsuit take?” The answer is, it depends.

No two personal injury lawsuits are the same and each has its own set of facts and circumstances. The severity of the accident or injury, the amount of damaged caused, the specific facts of how the accident occurred, and other important factors contribute to the complexity of a personal injury lawsuit. And the more complicated your case is, generally speaking, the longer it can take to wind its way through the process of a lawsuit.

While how long a personal injury lawsuit takes varies widely, most estimates place the timeline at one to two years from the time of the accident or injury to resolution of the case by either settlement between the parties or a court trial.

If you’ve been injured in a car accident, hurt on the job, or suffered another kind of personal injury, you may be facing the scary proposition of medical bills, lost wages from time away from work, and other new realities. Filing a personal injury lawsuit can help you get financial compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and other expenses from the injury, but how do you know if you have a personal injury case?

The best way to know for sure is to consult with an experienced personal injury attorney in your area, who can speak with you, review the facts and circumstances of your accident, and advise you on whether or not you have a case. There is no cookie-cutter or formula for personal injury cases, as each one is different and depends on the specific facts and laws in your state. A qualified personal injury attorney in your area will be able to evaluate your claim and tell you whether or not you have a personal injury case.

Being hurt in a car accident is a scary and potentially expensive event in anyone’s life. If you or a loved one has been injured in an auto accident, there are some important steps you should take to help take care of your physical health and protect your legal rights.

First, be sure to visit a doctor if your physical injuries are serious enough to require medical treatment. Be aware that in many cases, physical injuries such as whiplash, back and neck injuries, and other common car accident injuries are not always noticeable right after a car accident and may not appear for days or weeks after the wreck.

In addition to treating your physical injuries, it’s also important to protect your legal rights after you are injured in a car accident. If you were not at fault for the accident, you may be entitled to financial compensation from a car accident settlement. Consulting with a qualified car accident attorney right away is important to help ensure that you receive the maximum compensation allowed under the law. Waiting too long after your car accident to consult with a car accident lawsuit attorney can allow witnesses to forget what they saw and other important evidence to disappear. Also, statutes of limitation in your state may bar you from filing a car accident injury lawsuit if you wait too long.

If you are the injured party due to the result of a motor vehicle mishap and you receive compensation for your personal injuries, is your spouse entitled to any of your car accident settlement money during a divorce proceeding? The answer is yes, however how much money they are entitled to depends on when the settlement was acquired and what damages were compensated for. Generally speaking, your spouse is entitled to half of your settlement money regardless if they were even in the accident. The reason behind this is that technically any money received as a settlement during the duration of a marriage is considered community property. It’s possible that you may still receive compensation even after the marriage has ended, but if this is the result of a settlement reached during the marriage, your spouse is still entitled to half. If you are no longer married, then the non injured spouse would not be entitled to any of the settlement money. To better understand how compensation is handled during a divorce, you should consult with a personal injury attorney along with an attorney who specializes in family law. Your lawyer will most likely need to see certain court or settlement papers to discover what sort of damages were granted, and how the money was divided into every category.  

This question can have a few different answers. Generally, you do not have to pay taxes on car accident settlements, however, some compensated damages are taxable. The compensation from property damage you receive from a car accident should not be taxed (however, please advise with your tax/financial advisor). There are multiple reasons you may receive compensation from a car accident, and this will help determine whether or not your car accident settlement is taxable or now.

You must keep in mind the things you may be compensated for such as property damage, loss of wages from being unable to work, pain and suffering due to your injuries, medical expenses as well as negligence to the at fault party, because this will differentiate what you will be taxed on.  When it comes to a tax assessment for wages lost during your time of recuperation it can be a little precarious because of the fact that you can be taxed for quite a few years on your income depending on how many years you receive your settlement. Punitive damages are typically taxable, so when discussing what type of damages you are being compensated for, be sure to ask your attorney this falls under that category. As stated above, consult with your tax advisor for a more concrete answer due to every car accident claim having unique factors and different damages.

Use extreme caution speaking with your insurance adjuster before you have talked to an attorney. The only case where you should do so is in a minor accident with less than $1000 in personal and/or property damages and you are positive you do not have serious injuries.

After a car accident, you probably wonder if you should hire an attorney. Generally, unless you or someone else was hurt in the accident, you probably do not need an attorney to assist you with your claim.

A statute of limitations is defined as the maximum amount of time parties involved in a legal dispute have to iniate legal action. When discussing car accident settlements and lawsuits, the statute of limitations means that any legal action (filing a claim for damages or filing a lawsuit in court) arising from an accident or related injury must be filed within a certain period, or you will no longer be able to file a lawsuit and receive compensation.

People who have been in a car accident with injuries should be aware of the statute of limitations for their state. Most states allow for 2-3 years to take legal action after being injured in a car crash, but some only allow for 1 year and others will allow up to 4.

In most cases, while it is a good idea to seek immediate medical treatment and speak to an attorney and your insurance agent within a few days of the accident, you should also wait until you’ve recovered fully from all your injuries before you settle your car accident claim. This is because once you’ve settled and accepted a payout, you have no more recourse to collect, so if any additional injuries pop up or more medical costs are incurred, you’re on your own. This is reaching MMI, or Maximum Medical Improvement.

If you are a passenger in a car and are hurt in a car accident, your legal case is usually easier than for either driver. This is because you do not have to prove liability to be compensated for your injuries.

Being in a car accident is upsetting, stressful and can be devastating in serious cases. If you were the at-fault driver, it can make the situation worse. You will need to deal with the damages to your vehicle and also the damages for the other party.

Most personal injury attorneys charge you a contingency fee. This compensation system allows the injured person to hire an experienced personal injury attorney without having to pay for upfront legal costs.

Many personal injury victims think they cannot afford to hire a personal injury attorney. They are often surprised to discover that the attorney’s payment is structured so you do not pay upfront costs, and so that your interests are aligned with theirs.

The police report is an important document to have after a car accident. This document contains the circumstances and facts of a car accident as the police see it. The police report typically contains descriptions of damages to vehicles, passenger and driver injuries, witness names, and possibly a statement of who may be at fault for the accident.

If you have been in an accident and are in an insurance company negotiation, it is important to remember one thing: It is in the interest of the insurance company to settle the legal dispute quickly and as inexpensively as possible.