Charlotte Personal Injury Lawyer

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney

The term “personal injury” can define any situation in which one party harms another party through negligence or illegal misconduct. If you or a family member recently suffered any type of harm because of another party’s actions, a Charlotte personal injury lawyer is the ideal asset to have on your side to ensure accountability and compensation for your damages. The right attorney can help you approach your case with peace of mind.

Protect Your Rights After Personal Injury

It only takes an instant for someone to cause you or a loved one to suffer a personal injury, and afterward, you may not know what you can do to properly recover. You have rights when it comes to situations like this, and you need to act fast to protect them. An experienced attorney is exactly what you need to successfully recover after a personal injury.

Here at Butler, Quinn & Hochman, PLLC, we’ve been serving North Carolina and the southeastern United States for more than 14 years. We have developed a meticulous and thorough approach to maximizing the compensation that our clients receive to ensure they are getting everything they need to fully recover from their injuries. We have developed a reputation for success in our community, and we are eager to share that success with you.

What You Should Know About Personal Injury

Personal injury is typically the result of another person’s reckless or negligent behavior, causing you or a loved one to suffer a serious injury. This can take the form of being a distracted driver that causes a car accident or even failing to clean a spill that causes a serious slip-and-fall. When a person is liable for your injuries in a manner like this, they should also be liable for the cost of your recovery.

Before the plaintiff in any personal injury case can receive any compensation for their damages, they must identify the party or parties responsible for causing those damages and prove how they caused them. Personal injury claims can arise from many situations, including motor vehicle accidents, slip and fall accidents on private property, workplace accidents, and even various types of criminal activity.

No matter how your personal injury occurred, you will need to gather evidence and witness testimony that proves who caused the incident. When a personal injury results from negligence, the victim will need to prove the defendant breached a duty of care they owed to the plaintiff in a manner that directly caused the plaintiff’s claimed damages. When an injury occurs from illegal misconduct, the defendant also faces criminal charges for their actions.

The average person may believe they can handle proving fault for a personal injury on their own, but any personal injury case has the potential to escalate into a complex and contentious legal battle that the plaintiff will not be able to navigate alone. Your Charlotte personal injury lawyer can help gather the evidence needed to prove fault for your injury, and their help will also be invaluable when it comes to assessing the damages you can claim from the defendant.

Contributory Fault in Personal Injury Cases

It is possible for more than one party to share fault for causing a personal injury, in which case each liable party will have a fault percentage assigned to them. For example, one defendant may be found 40% at fault while another is found 60%, and each defendant will assume a respective amount of liability for the damages cited in a claim. However, if a plaintiff is found partially at fault, it negates their ability to claim compensation from any other liable party.

North Carolina is one of few states that continues to uphold a contributory negligence law. Under this law, a plaintiff loses their ability to claim compensation for their damages if they are found at fault for causing their damages. Even if the plaintiff’s shared fault is minimal, they lose the ability to claim compensation from a defendant who is clearly more at fault. It is common for defendants to assert contributory negligence in these cases.

Your Charlotte personal injury lawyer can evaluate whether you bear any shared liability for the damages you suffered. If a defendant wrongfully asserts contributory negligence, you can rely on your attorney to disprove their allegations and preserve your ability to recover compensation for your damages. This is yet another reason it is crucial to contact an attorney as quickly as possible after any personal injury.

Types of Personal Injury Claims We Represent in Charlotte

Personal injury law applies to a wide range of cases. When you need a Charlotte personal injury lawyer to represent you, it is vital to work with an attorney who has experience handling cases like yours. At Butler, Quinn & Hochman, PLLC, our firm has years of professional experience resolving a wide range of personal injury cases, including:

• Motor vehicle accidents. Motor vehicle crashes involving cars, trucks, and motorcycles are a common cause of personal injuries throughout the Charlotte area each year. Proving fault for an accident will be easier with an attorney’s help. They can also guide you through the auto insurance claim filing process before building a comprehensive personal injury claim to maximize your recovery.
• Premises liability claims. A private property owner is liable for any harm a lawful visitor suffers on their property because of a safety hazard they knew or reasonably should have known but failed to address. Once a property owner notices any hazard that could harm a lawful guest or visitor, they must fix the problem, post clearly visible warning signs, or provide explicit verbal warnings to anyone who might encounter it while on the property.
• Dog bite claims. The state enforces strict liability for dog bites, meaning the owner of the dog that bites you is liable for your damages regardless of whether the dog has any known history of past aggression. The plaintiff will need to prove they did not provoke the dog and that they were legally present at the location where the attack occurred for strict liability to apply.
• Work-related injuries. North Carolina law requires almost all employers to have workers’ compensation insurance that may provide some economic relief if you have suffered a serious injury at work. However, there are limits to what workers’ compensation insurance can provide, and you may have grounds for further legal recourse that could enhance your total recovery.
• Catastrophic injuries. A catastrophic injury entails permanent harm. Severe burns, traumatic brain injuries, and spinal cord injuries are a few examples of serious injuries that can have long-term or permanent effects on a victim, including permanent disability. Our firm knows how to help a client maximize the compensation they obtain for any permanently disfiguring or disabling injury.

Whatever type of personal injury you experience, a Charlotte personal injury lawyer can be invaluable for the help they can provide in gathering evidence to assert liability and for proving the extent of the damages you can claim. The main goal of your personal injury claim is to recover the compensation you need to be as whole as possible again after suffering the adverse effects of another party’s negligence or illegal misconduct.

Compensation You Could Claim for Your Personal Injury

North Carolina law allows the plaintiff in a personal injury suit to seek full repayment of all the economic damages they suffered because of a defendant’s actions. These damages are likely to include their medical bills, lost income, and property damage, and it is important for the plaintiff to have an attorney who can accurately assess all these damages to maximize the plaintiff’s recovery.

Many personal injury cases pertain to physical injuries. If a defendant has physically harmed you, they are liable for the full extent of medical treatment you need to fully recover. This means you can claim compensation for immediate healthcare expenses like your hospital bills and ambulance transportation fees, as well as the cost of future rehabilitative care you may require for a serious injury.

The plaintiff also has the right to seek compensation for their lost income. If your injury prevents you from working for an extended period of time, the defendant who injured you is liable for the income you cannot earn during this period. If you have been permanently disabled, it is possible to hold a defendant accountable for the future income you can no longer earn. Your attorney can help you calculate these projected losses based on your age and your current earnings.

When it comes to property damage, the defendant is liable for the repair or replacement of any of your personal property they damaged or destroyed. Depending on the type of personal injury you suffered, you may be able to recover some such losses through an insurance claim; otherwise, these damages can be cited in your personal injury suit.

Beyond your economic damages, you also have the right to seek financial compensation for the pain and suffering you experienced. The state does not enforce a limit on pain and suffering compensation in most personal injury cases, nor is there a specific formula you need to use to calculate pain and suffering. Your Charlotte personal injury lawyer can help determine a suitable amount that reflects the severity of the harm you suffered.

Resolving Your Personal Injury Claim in Charlotte

Once your attorney has helped you prove fault for your personal injury, securing compensation will likely require settlement negotiations with the defendant. Private settlement allows the parties involved in a case to reach a mutually acceptable resolution in a fraction of the time that litigation is likely to require, but this is only possible if both parties are willing to compromise on a resolution.

When settlement is not an option, the case will need to be resolved in litigation before a judge and/or jury. It is imperative to have experienced and skilled legal counsel on your side if you must take a personal injury claim to court. Your attorney can prepare you for each new phase of the case and assist you in reaching the optimal outcome with as much compensation as possible.

When you are in pursuit of compensation that allows you to safely recover from your injuries, you have the right to negotiate for an amount that accurately reflects the total cost of that injury. Insurance companies will try to offer you a quick settlement that is worth far less than the actual value of your injury and may even try to shift the blame of the accident onto you. You can count on us to hold the right party responsible and also maximize your compensation value.

Begin Securing Your Future Today

The team at Butler, Quinn & Hochman, PLLC, has extensive experience with a wide range of personal injury cases in Charlotte, and we approach every case with the goal of helping our clients understand the legal mechanisms their case will entail, approaching their proceedings with confidence, and maximizing their recovery in the most efficient manner possible.

There is only a limited time frame that you can pursue a claim for personal injury, which means the sooner you come to us for help, the better. Contact our office in Charlotte to schedule an initial consultation today. Call us at 704-569-9800 or email us here and take that first step now.