Personal Injury
It is never too early to consult with a personal injury attorney on your own behalf, or on behalf of a loved one. Why? Insurance companies start working to minimize their monetary exposure on claims almost from the moment that the incident occurred. The sooner you find a personal injury lawyer to stand at your side as you work to settle or resolve the personal injury, the better protected are your rights – and those of your loved ones.
Should You Negotiate Directly With the Insurance Company?
Do so at your own risk. Personal injury lawyers with experience in dealing with insurance company adjusters and insurance defense attorneys can be extremely helpful in obtaining justice for your harm.
Never give an interview or sign a document for an insurance company based upon a personal injury claim without getting solid legal advice: no matter now nice the adjuster, they are not on your side. The adjuster’s job is to settle claims for as little as possible, even if that may not be fair to you, because that is in the best interests of the shareholders and those paying premiums to the company overall.
Have questions about a personal injury claim or insurance claim? Feel free to call Bush & Levy 702-868-4411 to schedule a free, initial consultation.
What Can You Do To Help Your Personal Injury Attorney?
It is very important for personal injury victims, their family members and loved ones, and the personal injury attorney, to work together in gathering facts and forming a winning strategy to settle or try the personal injury claim. Done properly, personal injury claims can be settled quickly for a reasonable, fair amount. It’s all in the details. The personal injury attorneys at Bush & Levy suggest the following:
- Write down everything you can remember about how the injury occurred, including the names, addresses and phone numbers of potential witnesses, police officers, insurance company representatives (or company or workers' compensation representatives if it was a work injury)
- Talk to a Nevada personal injury lawyer before making any statements, written or verbal, to insurance company adjusters or representatives
- Let anyone you think may be responsible for the injury know right away that you are intending to file a claim against them
- Take steps to protect any evidence you may need to prove your injury, such as your totaled car, photographs of an accident or injury scene, clothing you were wearing, damaged personal belongings, and so forth
Have questions about a personal injury claim? Feel free to call Bush & Levy 702-868-4411 to schedule a free, initial consultation.
Who Is At Fault?
In Nevada, to win a personal injury case, you must prove the person who caused the injury was "negligent," which means they failed to use reasonable care. You have to provide admissible evidence showing:
- The existence of a duty owed to you by the person who caused your injury
- The other person failed to carry out that duty
- You suffered damages
- The other person's failure caused you to have the injury
In Nevada, if more than one person is shown to be negligent, they are held responsible for a proportional amount of the total damages.
What If You Were Also Somewhat to Blame?
Nevada has a modified comparative negligence law stating that if your own carelessness contributed to your injury, then amount you can recover will be reduced in proportion to your carelessness,. For example, if the evidence shows you were 10% to blame for the accident, then 10% of the monetary award is deducted before you receive any money. If you were more careless than the other person, i.e., it was at least 51% your fault, you do not recover anything.
A personal injury attorney can help you assess any contributions that you may have made to your injuries, as well as determining the evidence needed to prove who was at fault for your harm.
Have questions about a personal injury claim? Feel free to call Bush & Levy 702-868-4411 to schedule a free, initial consultation.
What Is My Claim Worth? How Much Can You Get?
Nevada law has set up certain categories of damages that support awards of money, if the evidence can be provided to prove they apply. Under Nevada law, the person(s) or companies responsible for your injuries must pay for:
- Past, current and future estimated medical expenses
- Time lost from work, including time spent going to medical appointments or therapy
- Any property that was damaged, such as your vehicle
- The cost of hiring someone to do household chores when you could not do them
- Any permanent disfigurement or disability
- Your emotional distress, including anxiety, depression, and any interference with your family relationships
- A change in your future earning ability due to the injury
- Any other costs that were a direct result of your injury
How these items are proven to the court, and how the money amounts are totaled and estimated, all involve legal issues in which a Nevada personal injury attorney can assist. These tallies can be cumbersome: every receipt, invoice, bill, time sheet, estimate, therapist report, etc. must be gathered and organized in order to properly calculate monetary damages in a personal injury case.
Have questions about calculating damages in a personal injury claim? Feel free to call Bush & Levy 702-868-4411 to schedule a free, initial consultation.
How Long Do I Have To File A Claim?
Two (2) years, and the deadline starts to run on the date that you were injured.
In Nevada, you only have these two (2) years to file a lawsuit: if your personal injury lawyer has not been able to come to an agreement with anyone involved -- including the insurance companies – it is best to file a formal lawsuit before the deadline hits.
If you don’t do this, Nevada’s two (2) year statute of limitations will automatically bar your claim.
Have questions about a filing a personal injury lawsuit or calculating if a limitations deadline has passed? Feel free to call Bush & Levy 702-868-4411 to schedule a free, initial consultation.
Free initial consultations are available by phone or in person with a licensed Nevada attorney. Just call 702-868-4411 to schedule your free initial consultation.