Catastrophic injuries force you to change the way you live your life. While you may have to learn to live with these injuries, you don’t have to let the party liable for your losses off the hook. Our team of catastrophic injury attorneys in West Valley City, UT, can help you hold liable parties accountable for your accident losses.

1Law specializes in providing injured parties with the representation they need throughout civil cases. You can discuss the extent of our catastrophic injury services with our team during an initial case consultation. Whether you want to arrange negotiations or go to trial, we can provide you with the legal guidance that you need.

Personal Injury Lawsuits and Catastrophic Injuries

Catastrophic injuries, despite their severity, still qualify as personal injuries in the eyes of Utah’s civil court. With that in mind, you can request compensation for a catastrophic injury by filing a personal injury complaint. You should, however, use your complaint to outline why you believe your injury is more severe than those addressed in standard cases.

Our catastrophic injury lawyers in West Valley City, UT, tend to address cases involving:

• Loss of limbs
• Brain injuries
• Temporary or permanent paralysis
• Extensive burns
• Life-changing illnesses (i.e., cancer from exposure to asbestos)

If you’re not sure how to classify your personal injury case, talk to one of our attorneys. We can assess the extent of your losses and make sure your case is addressed through the appropriate lens.

Requesting Compensation for Catastrophic Injuries

If you want to request compensation in return for a catastrophic injury, you need to file a legal complaint. Like insurance claims, legal complaints allow you to detail the circumstances that led to your accident and, in turn, request financial support based on fault. 

When you file your legal complaint, you need to have the means to elaborate on why you believe a particular party may be liable for your loss. This means gathering evidence of liability ahead of time and using it to paint a story of your accident. You should also be prepared to elaborate on the relationship between yourself and the named party at the time of your accident.

Be prepared to bring forward evidence defending your right to certain forms of compensation, too. This means elaborating on the cost of post-accident medical bills, lost property, and lost opportunities to work. Our attorneys can gather this information on your behalf while you’re still recovering.

Duty of Care and Catastrophic Injury Liability

To indicate that you believe a particular party may be liable for your losses, you need to name them in your legal complaint. These parties can range in their relationship to you, serving as:

• Motorists
• Motorcyclists
• Pedestrians
• Truck drivers
• Corporate drivers and/or rideshare employees
• Government officials
• Small business representatives
• Corporate salespeople, manufacturers, and/or CEOs

To hold one of the aforementioned parties accountable in court, however, you need to indicate that they owed you a duty of care when your accident took place. Further, you need to have evidence on hand proving that the named party violated that duty of care.

Duty of care refers to the responsibility individuals owe one another to reasonably protect one another from harm. You can use a litany of evidence, from bystander statements to photos and video, to make your case. Our West Valley City catastrophic injury lawyers can accuse liable parties of negligence, deliberate intent, or some combination thereof.

Calculating Your Catastrophic Injury Compensation

Catastrophic injuries tend to be more expensive to contend with than their less severe cousins. Fortunately, you can use a catastrophic injury complaint to request financial support based on the losses another person inflicted upon you. Your estimated compensation, included in your original complaint, should detail the cost of your:

• Accident-related medical bills
• Property damaged and in need of essential repair or replacement
• Lost opportunities for work
• Wages lost while recovering
• Essential home care throughout your recovery
• Physical therapy and counseling, if applicable
• Wrongful death fees and funeral expenses, if applicable

You can also discuss the value of your non-economic damages with our team. We can apply multipliers to your case to stand in for losses like pain and suffering or emotional distress. Learn more via our free legal chat.

Filing Your Catastrophic Injury Complaint

Utah is generous with its personal injury statute of limitations. According to Utah Code Ann. § 78B-2-307, you have four years from the day an accident occurs to file for catastrophic injury compensation. 

That said, if you fail to file your complaint within this deadline, you will waive your right to financial support as provided through civil court. If you’re concerned that you may miss your filing deadline, contact the catastrophic injury attorneys in West Valley City. 

We can work on filing your complaint within the appropriate deadline.

Make Sure You Can Represent an Injured Party in Court

If a loved one of yours is injured beyond the point where they can represent themselves in court, you may wish to pursue a catastrophic injury complaint on their behalf. There are certain circumstances under which you may be allowed to do so. 

Utah notes that you must be an injured party’s personal representative or blood relative to bring a concern to court on their behalf. So long as you fall into one of these roles, you can pursue compensation based on your loved one’s losses.

If you do not fall within one of these roles, you can still bring your concerns regarding a loved one’s well-being before an attorney. We can work with you to determine what your loved one’s right to representation may be and how the justice system can best serve them.

Catastrophic Injury Attorneys Help You Overcome Accident Bills

Recovering from catastrophic injuries takes time and patience. In the face of someone else’s negligence, though, your losses can seem monumentally unfair. That is why our team is prepared to step in on your behalf. While you recover, we can begin building your catastrophic injury case.

West Valley City, UT, catastrophic injury lawyers are prepared to represent your best interests in civil court. You can connect with the 1Law team to learn more about how our services may benefit you. Contact us online or over the phone to schedule your first case consultation.