Were you seriously injured in an accident and have questions about how to win your injury claim? Read our blog, then call our attorneys now!
Steps to Filing a Lawsuit
One of the questions that clients ask when they come into the office is, “How do we get started? What are the steps in starting my case?” It differs from case to case. Initially, you come see the lawyer and we sit down and we talk about the case and find out what kind of case it is. Some cases, we will go to the courthouse immediately and file what is called a complaint. That starts your complaint in the court system. Other cases require us to put defendants on formal notice before we’re able to actually file a lawsuit against them. Come see a lawyer first. Let’s gather up all the facts. Let’s gather the evidence, which is very important. Then we know what we have, we know the direction that we need to take your case, depending on what kind it is. Here in northeast Florida, Nassau County, or Duval County, that’s how it’s done. If you live in those areas and you’ve been hurt, give us a call. We’ll be happy to sit down with you, talk to you in more detail about your case, and figure out what next steps are.
Recovering For Emotional Damages
Clients ask often what they can recover in their cases. Typically, the clients know the medical bills and lost wages are recoverable but many times they’ll ask if emotional loss is part of the claim that they can recover for. The answer is absolutely yes. Indeed, that sometimes is the major point of recovery where you have an emotional loss like the loss of a spouse, the loss of a child. Those are particularly tragic cases. Emotional loss is the major component of it. Yes, you can recover emotional damages. In northeast Florida, Jacksonville, Fernandina Beach, or the Nassau County area, we handle these kinds of cases. Call us today. We’d be happy to sit down with you and talk about your case and how we best can approach it.
Pre-existing Conditions
Nassau County is an aging community. Many of our clients have what is known as a pre-existing condition, something that was there before the accident or injury for which they’re coming to see us has occurred. They’re concerned about how that’s going to impact their case. Depending upon where on your body that pre-existing condition is, there will be an effect. For example, if you have a low back injury from years ago and you get involved in a rear end collision and you injure that low back area again, the insurance company is going to say it all came from before the accident. We have means and measures to deal with that.
It is an issue in your case, and to be quite honest with you, it will lower the settlement value of your case because the defense has the ability to point to something unrelated to the accident to say that’s where your hurt is. We get records. We educate ourselves on your medical condition so that we can approach your case in the best way. One of the things that we do not do is oversell your case. We get educated. We will know you as well as you know you. That is important. Don’t be dismayed that you have a pre-existing condition. Call us. We’ll approach it in a way that suits your case the best.
Settling Your Case
People ask often if it is possible that a case will settle before going to court. The statistics show that most cases do. Even with lawyers like us who have tried a lot of cases, the majority of our cases do settle before court. The reason for that is we prepare. We know our cases. The other side of the insurance company knows that we know our case. If they know our track record, they know that we’re willing to trial the case.
When that happens, if you have seasoned lawyers on both sides and seasoned insurance adjustors on the other side, then typically we will find ourselves in the same range of settlement value. In those cases, more likely than not, we will be able to settle your case but it will be done in a reasonable manner in a range that we think is reasonable. That only comes with experience. We have been practicing for decades and have been inside a courtroom. We know what a courtroom can do for you and we have a healthy respect for the courtroom. Give us a call if you’ve been hurt Nassau County or Duval County. We’ll be able to sit down with you and go over your case in detail.
Have you or a loved one been injured because of someone else and have questions about how to win your injury claim? Contact an experienced Nassau County personal injury lawyer at Paul Boone Law today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
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