Personal Injury
The Attorney has resolved personal injury cases for nearly 30 years against large insurance companies and self-insured companies. These cases have included but have not been limited to: motor vehicle accident cases (ie: car accident cases, truck accident cases, motorcycle accident cases, bicycle accident cases and pedestrians struck by vehicle cases), falldown cases (also known as slip and fall cases and premises liability), dog bite cases, wrongful death cases and general negligence cases. Some of these cases have resulted in large monetary settlements. Routinely, the Attorney has handled accident cases occurring throughout Massachusetts including but not limited to communities such as Revere, Chelsea, Everett, Malden, East Boston, Winthrop, South Boston, the North End, the Greater Boston area, the North Shore and the South Shore. The Attorney has also handled accident cases occurring anywhere else within the state as well as out of state cases including but not limited to New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Maine, Ohio, Florida, Canada etc.
THE PERSONAL INJURY CLAIM
Just because a person becomes injured does not necessarily mean that he or she has a personal injury claim. The injured party is known as a claimant to an insurance company or a Plaintiff in a court case while the other party causing the injury is known as either an insured or respondent to an insurance company and a Defendant in a court case. There must be a determination that the Defendant was negligent (careless). For instance, consider a situation where the Plaintiff was stopped at a red light and suddenly and unexpectedly, a Defendant strikes the rear of the Plaintiff’s vehicle with such force causing the Plaintiff’s vehicle to be pushed forward and crash into the vehicle in front. Clearly, the Plaintiff may have a personal injury case against the Defendant in this rear end collision.
In any personal injury case, there are two parts of the case: (1) the liability and (2) the damages. The liability is where negligence is found on the other party. As the above example illustrates, liability can be found by the fact that the Defendant rear ended the Plaintiff’s vehicle. Other such situations where liability can be found is where a drunk driver operated a vehicle and caused an accident or where someone was speeding and not using care in driving and caused an accident.
Just because there is liability, does not mean you have damages. If your vehicle is rear-ended but you go home and you feel fine, then you are not injured and therefore, have no damages. But if you go home and you have headaches or your back or neck are painful and you must see a doctor and then go for treatment, then you can make a claim for damages.
Sometimes the Defendant and/or his or her insurance company or lawyer may allege that you were also negligent. Perhaps you were on the cell phone when an accident occurred and they allege that you weren’t paying 100% attention in an accident. This does not necessarily mean that you don’t have a personal injury claim. Rather, a determination needs to be made as to what percentage you were negligent. For instance, if you are found to be 25% negligent, then any money settlement or money judgment would be reduced by 25%. You would still be able to obtain a monetary recovery. However, if you were found to be more than 50% at fault for an accident, you may not receive any monetary recovery.
Personal Injury Practice Areas
- Airplane Accidents
- Alternative Case Resolution
- Amputation
- Animal Bites
- Bicycle Accident
- Bus Accidents
- Car Accidents
- Car accident Involving an Uninsured Driver
- Child Injury
- Cross Walk Accident
- Dangerous Property
- Dog Bites & Animal Attacks
- Emergency Room Errors
- Head Injury
- Helicopter Crashes
- Hit and Run Accidents
- Inadequate Security
- Injuries to Children
- Insurance Law
- Intentional Injury Victim
- Motor Vehicle Accidents
- Motorcycle Accidents
- Pedestrian Accidents
- Personal Injury Litigation
- Premises Liability
- Products Liability
- Rollover Accident
- Scaffold Accidents
- Slip & Fall
- Social Host Liability
- Spinal Cord Injury
- Sports Injury
- Subway Accidents
- SUV Rollovers
- Swimming Pool Injury
- Train Accidents
- Truck Accidents
- Wrongful Death