Ventura Personal Injury Attorneys

Personal injuries that victims sustain due to someone else’s negligent or intentional actions can cause prolonged pain from physical and emotional suffering. For a lot of people who have suffered severe personal injuries or lost their loved ones, they can also suffer financial hardship due to mounting medical bills and lost income that will eventually wreak havoc on their entire life.

But whether the harm is unintentional or intentional, the negligent party must pay for the damages they inflict on injured victims. If you or a loved one were injured due to another’s actions, you might be entitled to compensation for your losses.

The Law Offices of Bamieh & De Smeth, PLC, can fight for your right to receive the maximum compensation amount allowable under the law to ensure that all your accident-related losses will be covered. Our top Ventura personal injury attorneys have extensive experience handling personal injury claims, such as:

• Motor vehicle accidents, including car accidents, motorcycle accidents, and truck accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Pedestrian accidents
• Catastrophic injuries, including traumatic brain injuries, burn injuries, and spinal cord injuries
• Boating accidents
• Product liability claims
• Slip and fall accidents and other premises liability claims
• Dog bite claims

Our main priority is securing the financial compensation you deserve, so you can get back to living your life without the uncertainty of not knowing how you can cover the losses you incurred because of your injuries. Our Ventura personal injury attorneys will give your personal injury case close attention and be with you at every step of the legal process.

The Value of Your Personal Injury Claim

Personal injury law is complex, and unfortunately, getting what’s fair normally means negotiating a settlement, dealing with insurance providers, and taking the personal injury case to court. It can be difficult to know exactly how much compensation you need and are entitled to without professional legal advice. Broadly speaking, however, insurance claims adjusters and lawyers will consider these factors when calculating the value of a personal injury claim:

• The Amount of Medical Bills – Medical bills can include hospitalization, emergency services, doctor visits, medications, medical equipment, diagnostic tests, medical treatments, surgery, and other medical services needed to treat and manage your injuries.
• The Severity and Nature of The Injuries – Normally, injured victims can expect a higher settlement if they suffered life-altering or catastrophic injuries like brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, disabilities, and severe disfigurement or scarring, among others.
• Future Medical Costs – To determine if you will require future medical treatment and how much, your Ventura personal injury attorney will work with experts in your particular diagnosis to calculate your future costs.
• Any Property Damage – In most cases, property usually includes vehicles and anything valuable inside the property, such as mobile phones and other electronic devices, among others. Claimants usually recover their property’s current market value.
• The Other Party’s Financial Resources – Normally, our personal injury lawyers will negotiate with the liable party’s insurance provider first. For instance, we usually request meetings with the liable party’s auto insurer after a motor vehicle crash or homeowner’s insurance provider if our client slipped and fell on someone’s property. It’s important to note that insurers typically place caps on payouts for personal injury claims, and this can significantly impact the settlement you can receive. Fortunately, our lawyers know how to find all sources of compensation to make sure that you get the amount that will cover your accident-associated losses.

If your claim heads to trial because the insurer is refusing to pay you a fair settlement, the jury will consider these factors (besides the factors mentioned above) when figuring out how much you should receive:

• Your age
• Your overall health, including your mental or emotional health
• Your financial capacity
• How many years you’ll still be able to work
• Whether you provide financial support for anyone

While there’s no specific formula for estimating how much your injuries are worth, our Ventura personal injury attorneys can give you a more precise value of your damages based on the losses you incurred and how they have affected your life.

Damages You Can Recover in a Personal Injury Claim

Once we successfully negotiate a fair settlement or win your case for personal injury, you will be entitled to receive damages, which can include compensatory damages and exemplary damages. Compensatory damages are intended to restore or put injured victims in the state they would be in if not for their injuries. By assigning a dollar value to their injuries, these damages will help restore the victims’ financial, emotional, and physical states.

Compensatory damages include damages for compensating the victim’s economic losses and those for compensating their non-economic losses:

• Economic Damages – These are objectively provable monetary losses, such as:
  • Medical bills
  • Lost earnings
  • Costs for replacing or repairing property
  • Lost use of property
  • Loss of employment
  • Loss of employment or business opportunities
  • Costs for obtaining substitute household services
  • Burial and funeral costs for wrongful death
• Non-economic Damages – These are non-monetary, subjective losses, such as:
  • Actual and mental pain and suffering
  • Inconvenience
  • Emotional distress
  • Humiliation
  • Injury to reputation
  • Loss of companionship and society
  • Loss of consortium

Exemplary or punitive damages aren’t intended for compensating victims but for punishing negligent individuals for harming the victims and preventing others from doing the same thing. These damages, however, are only awarded when the conduct of the negligent party was particularly outrageous or egregious.

Be Very Careful When Dealing With Insurance Claims Adjusters

Insurance claims adjusters are highly trained to shrewdly influence claimants into saying something that will shield their bosses (the insurance companies) from liability. This means that anything you say to them can be used to undermine or discredit your claim. This is why you should never talk about your injuries or how you got them with anyone until you’ve spoken to an attorney.

Insurance providers are all about making money and minimizing payouts to injured claimants, so you should keep in mind that they will be looking out for their best interests and not yours. Claims adjusters will even attempt to offer you legal advice, which is actually illegal for people who are not lawyers. Remember that no matter how warm and friendly the adjuster seems, their main goal is to reduce your payout as much as possible.

It’s also common for claims adjusters to make a quick settlement offer. But if you agree to a settlement or sign any documents before you’ve had a chance to talk to a lawyer, this can prevent you from getting maximum compensation for your losses.

They are hoping that you’re still not sure about the full cost and extent of your injuries and related losses. Therefore they offer quick settlements.

When you work with the Ventura personal injury attorneys at The Law Offices of Bamieh & De Smeth, PLC, we can make sure that the insurance provider will pay your claim’s full value, including all your future and past losses.

You Must File Your Claim As Soon Possible

All states have their own rules for filing lawsuits, including the deadline or statute of limitations for filing personal injury lawsuits. Once this deadline passes, your claim will no longer be considered valid in the eyes of the law. In California, the statute of limitations will vary based on the specific claim:

• For personal injury claims, the deadline is two years from the injury date. But if you did not discover the injury right away, the deadline becomes one year from the date you discovered the injury.
• For property damage claims, the deadline is three years from the date you incurred the damage.
• For personal injury or property damage claims against government agencies, the deadline for filing an administrative claim is six months from the injury date.

In some cases, the time limit can be tolled or suspended for some time and then start running again. For instance, tolling can be granted when a defendant is insane, a minor, or is in prison or not in the state. But once the reason for the suspension ends, the statute of limitations starts running again.

Depending on your case, it can be difficult to determine when the time limit for filing your claim starts and ends. If you’re unsure about the statute of limitations for your claim, talk to our Ventura personal injury attorneys immediately.

Get in Touch With The Top Ventura Personal Injury Attorneys Today

Get your personal injury claim started today by discussing your case with the highly qualified Ventura personal injury attorneys of The Law Offices of Bamieh & De Smeth, PLC. We will fight aggressively for your right to receive proper compensation, whether in or out of court and ensure that you will have the means to recover fully from your injuries.

You can find out more about your personal injury case and your options for recovering compensation by speaking to one of our skilled Ventura personal injury attorneys today. To set up a free case evaluation, please send us an online message or call 805-643-5555.