Facing an injury in an auto accident or any other kind of accident can leave you with expenses you may not be able to afford. It can also keep you from going back to work, putting the rest of the bills and expenses you normally face out of reach.
Our attorneys work to help injured victims get damages from the responsible parties. These cover your medical costs, your lost wages, and, importantly, your pain and suffering. Do not enter this fight alone; let us represent you and work to get you the compensation you need.
For a free case evaluation, call Schoenfeld Law Firm’s personal injury lawyers right away (504) 688-7760.
How to Know if You Have a Personal Injury Case in New Orleans
If your case meets all of the elements discussed above regarding the defendant injuring you by breaching a legal duty, then you have a case. As long as you were injured and face things like medical bills and pain and suffering from an injury, there are damages we can fight to help you recover.
Who Do You Sue for an Injury?
The facts of your case will dictate who, specifically, is at fault for your accident. In most of these cases, the following parties are the ones to potentially file against:
- Car accidents – the other driver
- Slip and falls – the property owner or renter
- Other property accidents – the property owner or renter
- Medical malpractice cases – the doctor or hospital
- Product injury cases – the product manufacturer or seller.
Can You Sue Businesses for Their Employees’ Accidents?
Companies and businesses are made up of the people who work there; they do not really exist on their own. This means that all injuries are going to be caused by the mistakes or negligence of at least one worker.
When an employee causes your injuries while acting within the scope of their job duties, you are typically allowed to sue their employer. This works for anything from slip and falls in a store caused by a negligent janitor to a commercial truck crash caused by a negligent driver.
What is the Process of Filing a Personal Injury Case in New Orleans?
Cases start with an insurance claim, when available. If they refuse to negotiate and pay a fair value, we file a claim in court.
Court cases start with motions about the pleadings to ensure you meet the basic requirements of a case, then move on to discovery, where evidence is exchanged. If the case cannot settle, we move on to trial, but there can be various motions on evidence and settlement offers in between.
How Long Do You Have to File an Injury Case in New Orleans?
Under Louisiana law, the deadline to file is called a liberative prescription (essentially the same as what other states call a “statute of limitations”). This law gives victims 2 years to file a claim in most cases.
This “prescription period” (also known as a limitations period) starts on the day of the injury.
Is Arbitration or Mediation Required?
Arbitration is an alternative to a lawsuit. This puts the case before an arbitrator instead of a court. Arbitration is typically required only under contracts dealing with goods and services, blocking your ability to take at-fault parties to court. It also needs to be clearly stated in a contract between the parties that arbitration is required.
Mediation is a less formal process where both parties sit down with a mediator to try to resolve the case. Judges sometimes require mediation attempts before scheduling a trial, but decisions at mediation are not binding, and you can always walk away.
Can I Sue Out-of-State Defendants?
Companies and manufacturers might have their headquarters out of state. You could also be hit by an out-of-state driver or otherwise injured by someone who lives outside of Louisiana.
Lawsuits are usually allowed where the injury happened, and businesses often have a sufficient basis in Louisiana to sue them here if you were injured here. In any case, this is a legal question for your lawyer, not something you need to personally worry about.
Should You Talk to Insurance Companies After an Accident?
If you have a lawyer, we can talk to the insurance company for you. In most cases, you should avoid speaking with them as much as possible, and only with your lawyer present. Once you are represented, they should not contact you or speak with you anymore without your lawyer’s permission.
Recorded Statements
Insurance companies like to use recorded statements, potentially including any calls you make to them. If you can avoid having statements on record, it makes it easier to avoid inconsistencies or variations in your story from being used against you later, even if they were completely incidental.
What Not to Say
It is hard to know what not to say, but your lawyers can advise you on how to speak with insurance adjusters. In general, the following:
- Do not lie or exaggerate
- Do not give your opinions or analysis; stick to the facts
- Do not volunteer information beyond what the insurance adjuster asks you
- Do not apologize or admit fault.
What Damages Can You Recover for a Personal Injury Case in New Orleans?
You should never rely on the defendant’s or their insurance company’s analysis of how much your case is worth. They have an incentive to settle for a lower value to save money.
Instead, always have a lawyer review your case for any areas of damages you might have missed.
What is Pain and Suffering?
Pain and suffering damages are paid to cover the intangible harms you faced, like mental and emotional distress. They have no clear price tag or bills to show their value, so we calculate them based on other factors to gauge how much is fair compensation for your suffering.
They are more or less synonymous with “non-economic damages” because they cover the non-monetary harms you faced.
What are Punitive Damages?
Most damages pay you back for your injuries (compensatory damages). Punitive damages are paid on top of compensatory damages, not to reimburse you, but to punish the defendant.
These damages are only allowed in specific situations authorized by law, such as in DUI cases.
Do You File an Insurance Claim or a Lawsuit?
Many injury victims start their case with an insurance claim but end up having to go to court in a lawsuit. Just because you do go to court does not mean you have to go to trial; the vast majority of cases still end up settling before trial.
Insurance Claims
In an insurance claim, we present the basic evidence to the insurance company and demand damages from them for the full value of your medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. However, they may only want to pay a small amount to end the case quickly, and you should reject that initial offer.
Negotiations
From there, we can negotiate for full payment by showing them how strong our evidence is and persuading them to avoid a lawsuit by settling now. If they will not pay, we can take the case before a judge and jury to decide.
Lawsuits
Often, that pressure of a lawsuit does push them toward settling, as it would be more expensive for them to lose in court. A lawsuit also gives us access to discovery, where we can demand evidence and records in the defendant’s possession, potentially exposing even greater negligence, recklessness, or other wrongdoing.
Determining Fault in a Personal Injury Case in New Orleans
Getting compensation means filing a claim against the party who hurt you. That can be a person, a company, or even multiple parties.
Anyone who injured you by breaching a legal duty can be held responsible for what they did. That can include any of these parties, which are common defendants in injury cases:
- Another driver who caused your crash
- The owner of a property with slippery floors or other dangerous conditions
- A trucking company or bus company whose driver hit you
- A manufacturer of a defective product
- A company causing toxic chemical exposure in your area
- A ship or boat operator who caused an accident or had unsafe conditions on board.
No matter who caused your accident, our personal injury lawyers can look for the evidence to hold them responsible and file your claims.
What Constitutes Fault?
To hold someone responsible in a personal injury case, you need to show that they committed negligence by breaching a legal duty they owed you. This can be obvious or a bit complex, depending on the case. You can also be held partially liable for your own fault in some cases.
Negligence Per Se
Negligence is the type of case you file when injured. To prove someone else’s negligence, you have to show that they breached a legal duty they owed you, and that that caused your injuries. You can also sue for intentional injuries, e.g., battery.
This duty is often supplied by explicit safety laws, such as these:
- Drivers have a duty to follow traffic laws
- Employers have OSHA and state safety guidelines to follow
- Trucking and transportation companies follow FMCSA and state transportation regulations
- Property owners have building codes and other local and state safety rules.
If they break rules that are meant to keep you safe, and you get hurt because of it, that is considered negligence per se.
Reasonableness
Alternatively, the relationship between the defendant and the victim – and what reasonable actions would look like in that situation – can supply the duty:
- Doctors must abide by the standard of care when treating patients
- Babysitters and camp counselors watching your children must take reasonable steps to keep them safe
- Property owners must reasonably warn of or clear up dangerous conditions that could injure guests.
Any time “reasonableness” comes into play, it is usually judged from an objective standard, based on what a reasonable person in that situation would do.
Comparative Fault
Lastly, Louisiana’s “comparative fault” rules say you can be held partially liable for your own accident and still get damages. If you also breached a duty, the court assigns a percentage of blame to each party involved. As the victim, you lose out on your percentage of damages, but the defendants still pay you for their fair share.
Who Decides Fault?
When you are dealing with the insurance company directly in settlement negotiations, it is purely up to them whether they will agree to pay you or not. Our lawyers can work to convince them their policyholder was at fault.
If they refuse to pay, we can go to court where the jury decides fault.
In a personal injury court case, the victim – known as the plaintiff – has the burden of proof and production. This means it is up to your side to produce evidence and prove the defendant’s fault. The defendant does not need to prove anything; their goal is just to poke holes in your case.
What Evidence You Need
Evidence of fault can come in many forms, and our lawyers can take full advantage of any records, photos, or other evidence you might already possess. We will generally try to use the following evidence, when available:
- Your testimony
- Testimony from other eyewitnesses
- Expert testimony
- Records and other documentation
- Photos and video
Ultimately, we need evidence in three categories:
- Evidence of what happened, generally
- Evidence showing the defendant’s fault and
- Evidence of the damages you suffered.
How to Collect Evidence
After the accident, if you are well enough to stay at the scene, take pictures, and get contact info for witnesses, that can be a great help.
We can also seek out medical records, camera footage, witness statements, and other reports and evidence that might help prove your case.
Otherwise, there may be evidence we can obtain on our own and through the discovery process. That is a stage of the case where both sides exchange evidence, take depositions, and lay everything they have on the table so there are no surprises.
Call Our New Orleans Personal Injury Attorneys Right Away
Reach out to the personal injury attorneys at Schoenfeld Law Firm today at (504) 688-7760 for a free case evaluation.
