Personal injury claims are often complicated, leaving victims without representation often at a lower chance of recovering compensatory damages in Bensalem.
Although victims should follow the standard two-year filing timeframe for personal injury cases, exceptions do apply in some instances. When filing a personal injury lawsuit, it is important to understand the burden of proof you will face as the plaintiff and meet it using convincing evidence of the defendant’s fault.
Call The Reiff Law Firm’s Bensalem, PA personal injury lawyers at (215) 593-2248 to set up a free evaluation of your case.
Do I Have a Strong Personal Injury Case?
If you were just injured and are now trying to determine your next steps, you will want to know how strong your case is. While our personal injury attorneys need to examine your specific case facts to tell how strong your case really is, there are a few factors you can look at to decide for yourself:
What Did the Defendant Do?
If the defendant hurt you through obviously dangerous or unreasonable actions, your case is stronger.
In personal injury cases, we have to prove the defendant injured the victim by breaching a legal duty. This often means violations of traffic laws, safety rules, or other regulations.
For example, if you slipped and fell on a neighbor’s sidewalk that was not cleared within 24 hours of snowfall, they violated local ordinances. If you were hit by a drunk driver, they violated important traffic laws.
If you have more evidence that they did something wrong, that it was obviously dangerous, and that it violated the law, your case is stronger.
Evidence
More evidence usually makes a case stronger. Many small pieces of evidence can often be stronger than a few large pieces of evidence.
Your testimony will typically be the basis of your case, with everything else adding on and backing up your evidence. If we have photos, videos, and other witness statements that corroborate your claims, your case is stronger.
Additionally, evidence is often better when it is from a neutral party. In a car crash, your friend in the car can provide testimony about what the other driver did, but they are biased; it is much better if you have a witness outside your car or even a police officer who saw the crash.
Some evidence is objective, such as a driver’s blood test results, scientific results regarding defective products, or expert medical testimony about what your doctor did to commit malpractice.
Serious Damages
Cases are not automatically stronger because they involve higher damages, but this does make your case more important.
Juries are made of everyday people who might understand what a big loss or terrible injury is like. They understand that a serious injury needs serious compensation, and they might be more willing to give it to you.
How Long Will My Injury Case Take in Bensalem?
Victims essentially need compensation for their injuries as fast as they can get it. However, the process can take several months.
Statute of Limitations
After an injury, victims have 2 years to file their case. Our attorneys encourage you to call as soon as you can to give us time to collect evidence, research your case, build a strong case, and file it on time.
The earlier you call, the earlier we can file.
Motions
Once the case is filed, there must be time for the court to allow the defendant to reply and for motions to take place. This process often takes a few weeks for simple cases and potentially months for complex cases.
Discovery
Once the case moves on to discovery, depositions can take place and evidence can be exchanged. This can also take months in complex cases.
Trial
Once a trial is scheduled, it can move quite quickly. Choosing a jury and moving on to opening statements can happen in a day, and many trials are finished within a few days, even in somewhat complex cases.
From there, the jury deliberates, makes their decision, hands it to the judge, and the judge orders payment, usually on the same day or by the next day. Defendants get around 30 days after that to get the payment through to you.
Settlement
If the case settles, it will typically end much sooner – often by the end of discovery. However, settlement is not always possible, especially if the defendant or their insurance company refuses to cooperate and pay you what they owe you.
What Medical Care Should I Get After an Accident?
If you were hurt in an accident, go to the hospital or call 911. In car accident cases, you should always call 911 because you need the police to respond and write reports, whereas you can typically go straight to the hospital in other cases.
Ambulances
If an ambulance responded to the accident, they can assess your injuries and advise you of what steps to take next. Do not refuse care, or else that will be documented, and the defense can use it to say your injuries were not that bad.
Hospitals vs. Other Clinics
If you go to the hospital, they will advise you on what needs to be done. You may need emergency surgeries, scans, or overnight stays for serious injuries, especially when head or spinal injuries are involved.
Hospitals are prepared to provide most care, whereas smaller clinics are not and may need to send you to a hospital. Because of this, you should not go to an urgent care clinic or your primary care doctor.
Moreover, doctor’s offices and urgent care clinics might turn away patients and tell them to go to the hospital because of billing. These providers usually cannot bill liability insurance or car insurance for injuries, but hospitals can.
Specialists
If you need to see a specialist, that will be included in your care as well. Especially when you are at the hospital, you might need to see a neurologist for head/spine injuries, an orthopedist for broken bones, and other specialists the hospital can set you up with.
In the aftermath, you might also see specialists like physical therapists, mental health therapists/psychiatrists, and other care providers. They can deal with specialized care, such as exercises to get you back to 100% or mental health therapy to deal with PTSD symptoms after a serious accident.
What Records Should I Collect for My Bensalem Injury Case?
Save any bills, receipts, or financial statements related to your injury case. This means medical bills, car repair statements, childcare costs while you are incapacitated, financial records and pay stubs indicating your pre-injury wages, and other records.
Our attorneys can help you obtain your medical records and other relevant documentation, so speak with us early in your case. We can also advise you on what records to keep of your recovery process, your pain, and the effects of the injury.
If you receive any communications about the accident, also save those e-mails, texts, or phone records. Otherwise, do not talk about the accident on social media, with friends, or with the press. This could create conflicting accounts and records of the accident.
Exceptions to the Statute of Limitations for Personal Injury Claims in Bensalem, PA
In Bensalem, victims typically have two years to pursue compensation through personal injury claims. While you should not anticipate exceptions to the statute of limitations to affect your case, as doing so might cause you to miss the filing deadline, an exception might apply. For example, there is tolling in cases involving minor victims, when defendants attempt to conceal their identities, and when discovery of injuries is delayed.
Tolling for Minor Victims
If a negligent party hurts you or your child as a minor, the statute of limitations will be tolled in Bensalem. Instead of having two years from the day an accident occurred to sue, a minor victim will have two years from the day they reach majority age, or when they turn 20 years old.
Tolling for Delayed Discovery
When accidents occur, injuries are not always immediately apparent. In Bensalem, the statute of limitations can be tolled until a victim becomes aware of their injuries, usually through a medical diagnosis. Tolling for delayed discovery is not applied in every case, so it is important that victims get confirmation from our personal injury lawyers if the clock is paused in their situation. If not, they might have less time than they anticipated to sue, in which case acting quickly would be crucial.
Tolling for Defendant Concealment
If a negligent party leaves the state of Pennsylvania for more than four months after causing you injury and before you file a lawsuit, the statute of limitations will be tolled for that period of time. Furthermore, if the person that harmed you attempted to conceal their identity from you by using a fake name, the statute of limitations to file a personal injury claim would also be tolled in Bensalem.
Eligibility to Sue for Certain Personal Injury Claimants in Bensalem, PA
Some personal injury claims, such as those arising from auto accidents, are limited regarding recovery, depending on the type of insurance a victim has and how severe their injuries are in Bensalem.
In Pennsylvania, the types of auto insurance victims have will dictate when they can sue and what damages they can recover in personal injury claims involving car accidents. This is the case whether you were hurt as a pedestrian, driver, or bicyclist in Bensalem.
If you have full tort insurance or are otherwise covered by a full tort plan, you can sue for both economic and non-economic damages.If you have limited tort coverage, which many people do, you cannot sue for non-economic damages unless you sustain a serious injury.
Such injuries might be spinal cord injuries, disfigurement, loss of limb, or brain injuries. It is important to understand that this rule applies to many types of personal injury cases in Bensalem, including many pedestrian, car, and bicycle accident claims. Motorcycle accident claims are unaffected by this rule.
If you were not hurt in a situation where the type of auto insurance you have would impact things, you would not have to meet a serious injury threshold in order to sue in Bensalem.
The Burden of Proof in Bensalem, PA Personal Injury Claims
In all personal injury cases in Bensalem, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff. It is your job, as the victim, to prove that it is more likely than not that the defendant caused your injuries.
The burden of proof in a personal injury claim is the same, regardless of the claim’s origin. Whether you were hurt in a slip and fall accident or by a defective product, you must meet the burden of proof standard, which is known as a preponderance of the evidence. Although you will not have to prove fault beyond a reasonable doubt, you must still establish that the defendant harmed you.
To do so will require evidence. Through an investigation into your accident, our attorneys will aim to find evidence that shows how the defendant breached the duty of care they owed you and caused the injuries that resulted in you incurring actual damages.
To achieve this, witness statements and your medical records might be used, as well as surveillance footage.
Not all claims for personal injury are cut and dry, and a defendant might attempt to argue that a victim also acted negligently, contributing to their injuries. This is in the defendant’s best interest, as Pennsylvania’s modified comparative fault laws mean a victim’s awarded damages will be reduced if they share liability for their losses.
You can refute such arguments by presenting clear evidence of a defendant’s fault to recover total compensation for your injuries and pain and suffering in Bensalem.
Recover Compensation for Your Injuries in Bensalem, PA
For a free and confidential discussion of your case with our personal injury lawyers, call The Reiff Law Firm today at (215) 593-2248.
