DeRidder Personal Injury Lawyer

DeRidder Personal Injury Attorney

Personal injuries happen all the time, and they can be painful, frustrating, and financially draining. In some situations, your injury or illness was caused by the negligence or recklessness of another party. This may be another individual, a medical facility, or a company. When another party is at fault for your injuries, a DeRidder personal injury lawyer can help you hold them liable for your suffering.

A third party can be held legally responsible for, among other damages:

• Medical bills
• Property damage
• Future medical treatment
• Rehabilitative care
• The income you lost

An experienced DeRidder personal injury attorney is essential to determine if you have a viable personal injury claim. They can also help you navigate the process of investigating and proving a claim.

The Law Offices of R. Scott Iles has more than 30 years of experience in personal injury claims in DeRidder and the nearby communities. Our firm can look over your accident or other cause of a personal injury and quickly assess what your legal routes are for compensation.

Our team understands how frustrating it can be to deal with a personal injury that is someone else’s fault. We can provide you with the compassionate legal support you need during this time. Our firm can effectively negotiate your settlement or use our litigation experience to obtain the compensation you deserve.

Required Elements for a Personal Injury Claim

Personal injury claims can be filed against parties who maliciously caused the injury or did so while engaging in criminal activity. However, it’s more common that personal injury claims are the result of negligence.

The at-fault party could have acted recklessly or carelessly and still be held legally liable for your damages. For a successful personal injury claim in DeRidder, LA based on negligence, you must prove the following:

1. The party owed you a duty of care.
2. The party breached the duty of care.
3. The breach led directly to the accident, injury, or incident.
4. The incident or accident caused you to suffer legally recognizable damages.

Different types of personal injury claims have different requirements for these issues. In a medical malpractice claim, a medical professional owes you a duty of care if they agree to treat you, which can make this aspect easy to prove. However, the standard for what is considered a breach of that duty of care is different and often more complicated to prove than other personal injury claims.

An experienced attorney can determine if you have the necessary elements to prove a personal injury claim and help gather evidence for those elements.

Common Types of Personal Injury Claims

When you are searching for legal counsel for your personal injury, it is important to obtain the services of an attorney who has experience with specific types of claims like yours. There are many ways that personal injuries occur, and an attorney who has experience in a certain incident knows what parties may be at fault, where to find evidence and other specific complexities about a case that a new attorney may overlook.

Some of the personal injury claims that we have handled at the Law Offices of R. Scott Iles include:

Car Accidents

Auto collisions and accidents are one of the most common causes of personal injury. Louisiana is an at-fault state, meaning that drivers can file auto claims with the insurance company of the at-fault driver.

However, this coverage does not always compensate for all of an injured party’s damages. This is especially true in accidents between cars and motorcycles or passenger cars and commercial trucks.

The injuries in these and other severe accidents are often catastrophic or fatal. The damages often exceed a car insurance claim, and injured individuals or surviving family members must obtain damages through a personal injury or wrongful death claim.

Slip-and-Fall Accidents

Slip-and-fall accidents, which are often part of premises liability claims, can cause serious injuries. Property owners have a responsibility to keep their premises safe. If they fail to address hazards in a reasonable amount of time and an individual is injured, they can be held liable for those injuries.

Workplace Injuries

When employees are injured during work hours, they can typically file for workers’ compensation. In certain cases, however, employees can file personal injury claims to cover their damages. These include:

• Their employer doesn’t carry the state-required workers’ compensation insurance.
• Their employer maliciously caused the injury.

If a third party was at fault for the workplace injury, an employee may be able to file both a workers’ compensation claim and a personal injury claim. A personal injury claim could cover damages not managed by workers’ compensation, such as noneconomic damages or full-wage losses.

Certain maritime and offshore employees also have options outside of workers’ compensation. Under the Jones Act, there are unique circumstances that allow employers to obtain different levels of compensation. If you are an offshore or dock worker who has been injured, you need an attorney who has experience with these complex claims.

Medical Malpractice

Medical providers who act negligently and carelessly can cause serious harm and fatalities to their patients. Medical malpractice can take the form of:

• Surgical errors
• Misdiagnosis
• Nursing home negligence
• Prescription errors
• Any mistakes that are not up to healthcare professional standards

Healthcare providers and facilities can be held liable for negligence, but it takes skilled legal work.

How Does a Personal Injury Attorney Help Me?

Personal injury attorneys have extensive experience negotiating with insurance providers. These insurance companies are looking to protect their bottom line and, therefore, work to provide you with as little compensation as possible. An attorney knows how to navigate these negotiations. Your attorney can also calculate the value of your claim and knows not to accept a settlement that is less than you need to recover damages.

If an insurance provider does not give you fair compensation, your attorney can take the claim to court. You want an attorney with litigation experience who is not afraid to advocate for what you deserve.

Helping Personal Injury Victims in DeRidder

A personal injury claim can be hard to navigate when you are still recovering from your injuries. You need compassionate and experienced legal support. Contact the Law Offices of R. Scott Iles to determine if you have a claim and learn how we can help.