Were you or a loved one recently injured in an accident someone else caused? You deserve financial compensation to cover your losses. Contact a Utah personal injury lawyer at Esquire Law today to get the compensation you deserve.
Why Choose Esquire Law as Your Utah Personal Injury Lawyer?
When you need a Utah personal injury lawyer to represent your case, you have many law firms to choose from. But no firm will fight for you like Esquire Law. Our personal injury lawyers have years of experience not only handling but winning all types of personal injury cases. You can count on us to achieve the results you want so you can finally move past your accident.
Personal Injury Law in Utah
Common Types of Injuries
- Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI): Traumatic brain injuries result from severe head trauma and can lead to cognitive, physical, and emotional impairments. Common causes include accidents, falls, or sports-related incidents.
- Fractures: Fractures involve broken bones, varying in severity from minor to compound fractures, often requiring medical treatment, casting, or surgical intervention to heal properly.
- Burns: Burn injuries occur when heat damages skin or tissues, often causing severe pain and scarring. Treatment depends on the burn’s severity and may involve surgery or skin grafts.
- Spinal Cord Injuries: Spinal cord injuries occur when an object or sudden impact injures the spinal cord or surrounding tissue. The initial injury, combined with swelling, can cause temporary or permanent paralysis in part or all of the body. Spinal cord injuries often necessitate long-term medical treatment and rehabilitative care.
- Soft Tissue Injuries: Soft tissue injuries cause damage to muscles, tendons, and ligaments. This damage can be caused by car accidents, sports injuries, or simply overusing the part of the body where the injury arises. Depending on how severe the damage is, surgery or physical therapy will be required to treat it.
- Amputations: Amputations involve surgically removing a limb or body part, often due to severe trauma or medical conditions. Prosthetic devices and rehabilitation are crucial for adapting to life after amputation.
- Eye Injuries: Eye injuries can result from accidents, foreign objects, or chemical exposure, leading to vision impairment or blindness. Immediate medical attention helps minimize long-term damage.
- Internal Injuries: Internal organ injuries, such as damage to the liver, spleen, or kidneys, can occur due to trauma or accidents. Surgery may be the only option to either fix or remove the damaged organ.
- Whiplash Injuries: Whiplash injuries typically occur in car accidents and involve sudden neck movement, leading to neck pain, stiffness, and potential long-term discomfort. Physical therapy and pain management are often part of the treatment.
- Emotional Distress: Emotional distress encompasses psychological harm caused by traumatic events, often resulting in anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therapy and counseling are common treatments.
Establishing Negligence
Negligence is the basis for any personal injury claim. A plaintiff can’t win their case or collect damages without first proving the defendant acted negligently, which caused their injuries. Let’s take a look at the four criteria that must be met to establish negligence in a personal injury case.
- Duty: The defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care.
- Breach: The defendant did not fulfill their duty of care.
- Causation: The defendant’s breach directly caused the plaintiff’s injuries.
- Damages: The plaintiff suffered a form of identifiable harm (physical, mental, or emotional) as a result of their injuries.
Comparative Negligence
Utah operates under modified comparative negligence. This legal principle states that a plaintiff can seek damages in a personal injury case even if they are up to 50% liable for the accident that occurred. The compensation they receive is simply reduced by their percentage of liability. Let’s say a personal injury case goes to trial, and the judge ruling over the case awards a total of $100,000 in damages. The defendant is 70% at fault, and the plaintiff is 30% at fault. The plaintiff will still receive $70,000 in damages.
The Role of a Utah Personal Injury Lawyer in the Legal Process
Our personal injury lawyers provide Utah clients with the following essential services.
- Provide legal counsel: Your Utah personal injury lawyer is your trusted legal advocate. They care just as much about you as they do about your case. They’ll be there to explain your rights and legal options, give advice about what to do, and support you along the way. You don’t have to go it alone.
- Investigate claims: After reviewing your case, your lawyer will launch a thorough investigation. This process involves gathering evidence, consulting medical experts, and interviewing witnesses. It ensures all information is uncovered and evidence gathered to paint an accurate picture of what happened.
- Manage cases: If you were injured by the negligent acts of another, you deserve justice. Unfortunately, justice has a deadline. Your lawyer will ensure all deadlines in the legal process are met, like filing a claim within the statute of limitations, so you get the compensation you deserve.
- Negotiate with insurers: Before jumping straight into litigation, your attorney will first try to settle with your insurance company and/or the at-fault party’s insurance company. If successful, this process will help you avoid lengthy court proceedings that could last several months or even a few years, depending on the complexity of your case.
- Represent clients in court: If, after a series of offers and counteroffers, a settlement can’t be reached, your lawyer will take your case to court. They will provide information to a judge and a jury, who will determine whether you deserve compensation and how much.
Types of Personal Injury Cases We Handle
Whatever type of personal injury case you bring to us in Utah, we can handle it.
Car Accidents
When two vehicles collide, one driver often seeks compensation from the other driver to cover the cost of resulting medical and other expenses.
Motorcycle Accidents
Personal injury cases stemming from accidents involving motorcycles, often due to the negligence of another driver or hazardous road conditions.
Truck Accidents
Mistakes like driver fatigue, inadequate vehicle maintenance, and overloaded cargo can cause accidents involving large commercial trucks.
Bicycle Accidents
Personal injury cases involving collisions between bicycles and motor vehicles or other hazards, where cyclists seek compensation for injuries sustained on the road.
Pedestrian Accidents
Personal injury cases where individuals on foot are struck by vehicles, leading to claims for damages caused by the driver’s negligence.
Boating Accidents
Personal injury cases arising from accidents on watercraft, such as boats or jet skis, are often caused by operator negligence, reckless behavior, or equipment failures.
Slip and Fall Accidents
Personal injury cases result from injuries sustained due to unsafe conditions on someone else’s property, with the injured party seeking compensation from the property owner or occupier.
Birth Injuries
Personal injury cases involving harm to a newborn or mother during the childbirth process, often due to medical negligence or malpractice.
Brain Injuries
Personal injury cases are where individuals suffer traumatic brain injuries, typically caused by accidents, falls, or medical negligence, and seek compensation for resulting damages.
Spinal Cord Injuries
Personal injury cases involve damage to the spinal cord, often leading to paralysis or other life-altering conditions, with the injured party seeking compensation for medical expenses and ongoing care.
Medical Malpractice
Personal injury cases stemming from healthcare providers’ negligence or errors, where patients seek compensation for harm caused by substandard medical care or misdiagnosis.
Steps to Take After Suffering an Injury
Acting promptly and taking the right steps after suffering an injury can be the difference between maximum compensation and no compensation. These are the first five steps you should take immediately after your accident.
- Seek immediate medical attention: Your safety is the top priority. Before doing anything else, check yourself for any visible injuries. If you need emergency medical attention, call 911. First responders will arrive swiftly at your location to provide necessary medical care. If necessary, they will transport you to the nearest hospital for additional treatment.
- Document the incident and gather evidence: Evidence is essential in any personal injury case. If you don’t have evidence to back up your claim that someone caused the accident which resulted in your injuries, you’ll be hard-pressed to get compensation. Take photos and videos of the scene, and gather witness statements.
- Report the incident: Your next move should be to report the incident to the police. Depending on the severity of the incident, officers may or may not respond to the scene. If they do, they will fill out a police report. Be sure to ask for a copy of this. If officers don’t respond, file an accident report through the local DMV, and ask for a copy of it. You should also report the incident to your insurance company so you can later file a claim.
- Avoid discussions with insurance adjusters: Upon filing a claim with your insurance company, an adjuster will call you to ask more questions about the incident. We recommend avoiding any conversations with the adjuster until after you hire a lawyer. You don’t want to say anything, whether intentionally or accidentally, that would implicate fault.
- Consult with a Utah personal injury attorney: Last but not least, you need to lawyer up. Be sure to hire a lawyer who focuses on the particular type of case you’re dealing with. For instance, don’t hire a truck accident attorney if you were involved in a birth injury. Your lawyer will help you gather evidence, build a strong case, negotiate for a fair settlement, and take your case to court if necessary.
Compensation You Can Expect
The aftermath of an accident is costly. You’re stuck with expenses for any injuries you sustained and any property damage that took place. You likely don’t have the funds available to cover these costs on your own. If someone else’s actions caused the accident that resulted in your injuries, why should you have to pay the price in the first place? You shouldn’t. We’re here to secure your rightful compensation so you don’t have to spend a dime.
In a personal injury case, you can seek compensation for economic and non-economic losses. Here’s a breakdown of each type of loss, along with some common examples.
Economic Losses
Many losses sustained in an accident are monetary, meaning they can be assigned a specific dollar amount. Some common examples of economic losses in personal injury cases are:
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Property damage
- Reduced future earning capacity
- Mental health treatment
- Household services
Non-Economic Losses
After an accident, you suffer more than just financial losses. You also suffer mental and emotional losses. That’s where compensation for non-economic losses comes in. Although incalculable, these losses are significant and impact one’s daily life. Common examples include the following:
- Loss of companionship
- Pain and suffering
- Psychological trauma
- Anxiety and depression
- Reduced quality of life
- Scarring and disfigurement
Why Insurance Companies Are Not Always on Your Side
Insurance companies will do everything they can to minimize your payout. Here are some common bad-faith tactics they use to keep you from securing maximum compensation.
- Denying or Delaying Claims: Insurance companies may deny or delay the initial claim to encourage you to accept a lower settlement. They may also use administrative hurdles to slow down the claims process.
- Lowball Settlement Offers: Insurers may make low settlement offers that do not fully cover the injured person’s medical expenses, lost wages, or pain and suffering. They may try to pressure claimants into accepting these offers quickly.
- Questioning Liability: Insurance companies may dispute liability, arguing that their policyholder was not at fault or that the injured person shares some of the blame for the accident. This tactic can decrease the amount of compensation you can receive.
- Medical Record Reviews: Insurers may scrutinize medical records for pre-existing conditions or prior injuries to argue that the injuries claimed in the current case are not entirely the result of the accident.
- Independent Medical Examinations (IMEs): Insurance companies may request that the injured party undergo an IME by a doctor of their choosing. These doctors may be more inclined to downplay the severity of injuries or dispute the need for specific treatments.
- Settling Quickly: Insurance companies may pressure injured individuals to settle quickly, often before they fully understand the extent of their injuries or the long-term impact of the accident.
- Claiming a Lack of Documentation: If you don’t have thorough documentation of your injuries, medical treatment, and expenses, insurers may argue that you haven’t provided enough evidence to support your claim.
- Legal Defenses: Insurance companies may employ legal defenses, such as statutes of limitations, to dispute the validity of a claim or reduce the amount of time you have to file a lawsuit.
An Attorney’s Role
Dealing with insurance companies is the last thing you’ll want to do after an accident. An Esquire Law attorney will handle all insurance negotiations for you so you can focus on your recovery. We won’t accept the first settlement offer made and will fight tooth and nail for the compensation you deserve.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How long do I have to file a personal injury claim in Utah?
The statute of limitations for personal injury cases in Utah ranges from one to four years. The type of personal injury case you’re dealing with—and whether the injury resulted in death—will determine how many years you have from the date of the accident to file a claim. Here’s a breakdown of the most common types of personal injuries, along with their statute of limitations.
- Car accident injuries: 4
- Property damage: 3
- Motorcycle accident injuries: 4
- Pedestrian accident injuries: 4
- Dog bite injuries: 4
- Defective drug: 2
- Bicycle accident injuries: 4
- Utah Transit Authority (UTA) bus accident injuries: 1
- Slip and fall injuries: 4
- Truck accident injuries: 4
- Wrongful death: 2
- Medical malpractice injuries: 2
- Product liability injuries: 2
- What if I had a pre-existing condition?
Whether you had a chronic condition or a previous injury at the time of your accident, the at-fault party must pay for whatever additional damage was done in the accident. Providing sufficient medical evidence of your pre-existing condition and your injuries will be essential to having a successful claim.
- How much will it cost to hire a Utah personal injury lawyer?
The cost of hiring a personal injury lawyer in Utah depends on factors like how skilled the lawyer is, how complex the case is, and how long the case takes to resolve. At Esquire Law, our goal is to make our legal services affordable for every client. That’s why we don’t charge for the initial case evaluation and work on a contingency fee basis from start to finish, meaning you don’t have to pay us until we win your case.
Contact A Utah Personal Injury Lawyer Today
Esquire Law is the firm you can trust to secure maximum financial compensation on your behalf. All you have to do is contact a Utah personal injury lawyer to set up your free case evaluation. We’ll take care of the rest. Contact us today to get one step closer to justice.