West Jordan Personal Injury Attorney

After suffering a personal injury, recovering compensation from the liable party is a key step toward getting your life back on track. The cost of medical treatment alone can easily be overwhelming. 

One of the best things you can do to increase your chances of recovering the money you need is to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer in West Jordan.

At the 1Law West Jordan office, we have a dedicated legal team who will fight hard to ensure you get the money you need for your injuries. We offer free consultations to prospective clients.

Do I Have a Valid Claim?

The first thing to determine when you are trying to recover compensation to pay for the damages associated with an injury is whether or not you have a valid compensation claim. If your injuries were the result of another party’s negligence or deliberate action, you will likely have a case against them.

However, if this other party behaved properly and took reasonable actions regarding any potential duty of care they held towards you, they likely will not be responsible for your damages. If your injuries resulted from your own actions, an insurance claim with your own insurer will typically be your only path to recover compensation.

An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you identify any potentially liable parties in your case and build your case against them.

Do I Need to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer?

When you suffer a serious injury, you can attempt to recover compensation on your own, but it is not recommended. Those who represent themselves tend to take home substantially smaller payouts from the liable party than victims who hire an experienced personal injury attorney. Even after paying your lawyer’s fee, you will likely be in a far better financial position.

Hiring a personal injury lawyer in West Jordan to represent you as you pursue compensation will also be helpful in the recovery process. Stress can greatly increase the amount of time it takes for your body to heal from an injury, and pursuing legal action tends to be highly stressful. By hiring an attorney, you can relax and focus on healing from your injuries.

What does a Personal Injury Lawyer Do?

When you hire a personal injury attorney, they will get to work on your case immediately. Most often, the first step will be to open an independent investigation into your accident. Your attorney and their investigative team will gather evidence and review all the information about your accident to determine who is liable for your damages and build your compensation claim.

Investigating the Accident

The steps of a personal injury investigation typically include:

• Visiting the scene of the accident to take photographs, record observations, and gather any available evidence
• Contacting any witnesses to the incident and recording their statements about the event
• Consulting with various experts about different aspects of your case
• Obtaining a copy of the official accident report that was filed with the police
• Reviewing your medical history as it relates to the injuries you suffered

Assessing Your Damages

After completing their investigation, the next step will be to determine the value of your claim. Your lawyer will look at the various damages that you suffered and perform the necessary calculations to determine how much your case is worth. 

Consulting You

Your attorney will then discuss their findings with you. They will go over the strength of your case and how much you can realistically expect to recover for your damages. They will advise you of the various pros and cons of your options going forward.

Filing Paperwork

The next step will depend on how you choose to proceed. In the majority of cases, injury victims will go ahead with one of two options. Either your attorney will file a personal injury lawsuit with the court, or they will file an insurance claim with the liable party’s insurance provider.

Going Through the Pretrial Process

If you are pursuing a personal injury lawsuit, the next step will be for your attorney to begin the pretrial process. This process includes sharing discovery, recording depositions, and mediation.

Representing You in Court

After completing the pretrial process, your attorney will argue your case in court and fight to get you the compensation you deserve for your damages.

Negotiating for a Settlement

In the majority of cases, not all the above steps will be completed. Most personal injury cases get settled out of court. Depending on how negotiations proceed between your lawyer and opposing counsel, a settlement deal could be reached at any point during the process, from before you file a lawsuit up until a judge rules on your case.

The Cost of Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney in West Jordan

One of the biggest worries that people have when hiring a lawyer is how much it will cost. With the way personal injury lawyers charge their clients, this should not be a significant concern. Unlike other lawyers who bill their clients throughout the process of building their case, your personal injury lawyer will not charge you anything until your case concludes.

West Jordan personal injury lawyers work on a contingency fee basis. That means that their pay is entirely based on results. When you hire a personal injury attorney, you will agree to pay them a certain percentage of the compensation you recover from the liable party. This means that the more money you get, the bigger the payday for your lawyer.

On the other hand, if they fail to secure compensation for you, your lawyer won’t earn any money for your case. You can feel confident with this system that your attorney will work hard on your case and always keep your best interests at heart.

The Statute of Limitations for a Personal Injury Claim in Utah

After an injury in West Jordan, the state of Utah gives injury victims four years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. Failure to file a claim in this timeframe can lead to a loss of your right to recover compensation. Additionally, you need to be aware that there are several exceptions to this rule.

For instance, when the liable party in your accident is a government agency, the amount of time you have to file a lawsuit will be greatly reduced. Alternatively, if you were a minor when your injury occurred, the four-year clock won’t necessarily start until you reach the age of 18.

The best way to make sure that you meet all deadlines is to hire a personal injury attorney as soon as possible after your accident. An experienced attorney will be aware of any special circumstances that apply to your case and protect your right to recover compensation.

Damages You Can Seek After a Personal Injury

When you suffer a serious injury, you will likely be able to recover a wide variety of damages. To simplify things, compensatory damages are divided into economic and non-economic losses. Determining what damages you are eligible to recover will depend on the specific circumstances of your accident and injury, which your West Jordan personal injury lawyer can determine.

Economic Damages

Economic damages are simple. These are the monetary losses you suffered, and the aim of awarding compensation for these damages is to offset the costs you face. Ideally, the money received for economic damages should equal the money lost.

Economic damages cover both current losses and projected losses for the future. These damages can compensate an injury victim for money they were forced to spend as well as the money they failed to earn because of their injury.

Some of the most commonly claimed economic damages include:

• Property damage
• Lost wages
• Diminished earning ability
• Medical bills
• Future medical expenses
• Home or vehicle modifications required to accommodate a disability

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages are not nearly as easy to compensate for. Many of these losses are things that can never be replaced. Unfortunately, due to this and the limitations of the law, recovering anything resembling fair compensation in these circumstances is impossible.

Since the best that the law can do in this situation is to give injury victims more money, the amount awarded for these damages is often very high. In most cases, the compensation for non-economic damages is far greater than the money received for economic damages.

Some of the most commonly claimed non-economic damages include:

• Pain and suffering
• Mental anguish
• Permanent disability
• Scarring or other disfigurements
• Loss of quality of life
• Loss of consortium

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages are another type of damage that you could possibly receive after an injury. These damages are far different from those mentioned above. While economic and non-economic damages focus on the losses suffered by the accident victim, punitive damages focus on the actions of the at-fault party.

These damages are not meant as compensation for any losses suffered. Instead, they are designed as a punishment. Punitive damages are only awarded in a small percentage of personal injury cases. In order for punitive damages to be awarded, the liable party must have acted in a manner that was criminally negligent or carried out with the intention of causing harm.

The Insurance Company does Not Have Your Best Interests at Heart

When dealing with a personal injury claim, you need to realize that the insurance company is not on your side. It does not matter if you are dealing with another party’s insurer or your own, their main focus is going to be on protecting their bottom line. Insurance adjusters have a large playbook for how to avoid paying out a claim or at least minimizing the amount they have to pay. 

A common tactic they will use is to approach accident victims as soon as possible after they get injured to offer a settlement deal. On the surface, this can appear helpful to victims, but what they may not realize is that the amount being offered is far below the actual value of the claim. If you take this offer, you will be shutting the door on your options to recover further compensation.

In order to protect yourself against these predatory practices, you should decline to discuss your case with an insurance company directly. Instead, hire a personal injury lawyer shortly after your accident, and the insurer will have to deal with them instead. Your lawyer will know all the tricks up the insurance adjuster’s sleeve and be able to neutralize any potential threat.

Talk to a West Jordan Personal Injury Attorney Today

At 1Law, our personal injury attorneys in West Jordan have a long history of recovering significant payouts for our clients. We know how devastating a personal injury can be and that the road back to full health can be a long, painful, and expensive one. We believe that everyone deserves an experienced legal professional by their side when seeking compensation.

If you suffered an injury due to another party’s negligence, we are here to help you get the money you need to start getting your life back on track. Give us a call, fill out our online contact form, or use our free legal chat tool today to get started. 

We offer free case evaluations to any potential clients. We will review your case and answer any questions that you may have. We will then advise you of your legal options for attempting to pursue compensation.