If you or a loved one has been injured or someone has died due to a personal injury incident in Pennsylvania, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries, monetary losses, and the pain and suffering that resulted through insurance or a lawsuit. Pennsylvania personal injury laws are complicated, and insurance companies will try to get you to accept less than you deserve, so it makes sense to get legal assistance to make sure your case is handled properly.
A Pittsburgh personal injury lawyer at Berger and Green is ready to help you fight for justice and the compensation you are entitled to. We understand how difficult it is to be recovering from an accident and will take the burden off you by handling all insurance and legal hurdles involved with getting a fair settlement.
We offer a free and confidential consultation to discuss the details of your case and show you how we can help. Call us today for a free case evaluation at (412) 661-1400.
Types of Personal Injury
Our attorneys help with a wide range of personal injury cases due to someone else’s negligence. Among the most common are:
- Motor vehicle accidents, including cars, trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, and injuries to pedestrians.
- Slip and fall injuries
- Product liability
- Medical malpractice
- Dog bites
- Sexual abuse
- Work injuries
Regardless of how you were injured, our Pittsburgh personal injury attorneys understand what you are going through and will provide the legal assistance you need.
For a free legal consultation with a lawyer serving Pittsburgh, call (412) 661-1400
Compensation We May Win For You
A personal injury accident may affect you physically, emotionally, and financially. A Pittsburgh personal injury lawyer from our team may be able to help you seek compensation for losses that include your monetary or economic damages, as well non-economic damages that are less tangible and do not have a specific monetary value.
Compensatory damages include:
- Economic damages, which are expenses that can be objectively calculated and may include:
- Medical, therapy, equipment, and rehabilitation costs
- Lost income from being unable to work
- Property damage
- Funeral and burial costs, if a death is involved
2. Non-economic damages, which may include:
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of a marital relationship (consortium)
In some rare cases, you may be awarded punitive damages. These are for cases when the negligent party acted with willful, malicious conduct, and a wanton disregard for the safety of others. The amount of punitive damages will be a multiple of the total compensatory damages, depending on the egregiousness of the wrongful conduct.
Amounts of damage awards vary, according to the individual circumstances of the accident and the extent of your injuries. Our attorneys can examine the specifics of your case and give you an estimate of what your settlement might be. Call Berger and Green at (412) 661-1400 today so we can get started.
Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me (412) 661-1400
Proving Negligence for Your Accident
To win your personal injury case, our lawyers would have to prove that another party, the defendant in the case, was negligent and therefore at fault for causing your injuries. This means showing:
- The defendant had a duty of care not to injure you
- The defendant failed that duty by actions or failure to act
- This failure caused your injuries
- You suffered damages as a result.
Pennsylvania has a modified comparative negligence rule. Under Statute 42-7102, if you did something to contribute to the accident, compensation is reduced by an amount equal to your percentage of fault. However, as long as you are not more than 50 percent at fault, our attorneys may be able to help you win a settlement for the percentage that the other parties were at fault.
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Steps to Proving Fault
Because proving fault is so integral to winning your case, our attorneys will immediately start investigating and gathering evidence. We may do this by:
- Examining the accident scene
- Obtaining police, first responder, and medical reports and records
- Interviewing witnesses
- Gathering evidence from photographs and videos from surveillance and traffic cameras
- Getting expert witnesses to reconstruct the accident and provide testimony
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Important Pennsylvania Laws
There are several Pennsylvania laws that you should know about, as they can directly affect your case. These include:
Time Limits
In Pennsylvania, according to Statute 42-5524, there is a statute of limitations or time limit of two years from the date of an injury to file a lawsuit in the state’s civil court system. You must file a lawsuit before the statute of limitations runs out or the court will likely refuse to hear your case.
Per Statute 42-5522, if your claim is against a city, county, or state government agency, you must file a notice of intent to sue within 6 months.
Damage Caps
There are no limits or damage caps on how much you can collect in your personal injury case, except for claims against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and local governments, which are capped at $250,000 (per Statute 42-8528) and $500,000, respectively (per Statute 42-8553).
Dealing With Insurance Companies
If you claim involves dealing with insurance, be aware that insurance companies are out for profit and will likely try to get you to settle for less. They often will make you a lowball offer in return for signing a release that keeps you from getting anything additional should your injuries worsen and you wind up needing more care.
Our attorneys know how to deal with insurance company adjusters and their lawyers. We have a good idea what your case is worth and can effectively negotiate for a higher settlement and take your case to court if an agreement is not made. Often, just knowing you have an attorney fighting for you is enough to get a higher offer.
Allegheny County Personal Injury Lawyer
We are here to help you in:
- Duquesne
- West Mifflin
- Monroeville
- Upper St Clair
- Wilkinsburg
- Bethel Park
- Allison Park
- Plum
- Mckeesport
- Baldwin
Innocent people are hurt in accidents every day. Serious accidents like slip and falls or car accidents frequently leave victims unable to return to work or even get out of bed without pain. Worst of all, these victims often end up shouldering hefty bills, including vehicle repairs and the cost of personal medical expenses.
However, in many cases, financial relief is available for these innocent victims in the form of a personal injury claim. If the deliberate or negligent actions of another person caused a serious accident, call a personal injury lawyer in Allegheny County, PA to discuss your options to recover compensation.
Call Berger and Green today at 412-661-1400.
Types of Personal Injury Cases
What are the most common types of injuries?
There are many types of personal injuries that can stem from almost any kind of accident, but the most common we handle include:
Car Accidents
Whether you suffered your injury while driving in your own car, riding a motorcycle or bicycle, or walking on the side of the road, if another driver caused your car accident, you deserve compensation. Contact one of our car accident lawyers to help you recover the damages you are entitled to.
Truck Accidents
An accident with a semi-truck can be catastrophic. You may be entitled to compensation, but fighting a trucking company and its insurer can be especially difficult for someone unfamiliar with the laws regulating the trucking industry.
Slip and Falls
Owners of stores that open their doors to the public and other public places have a duty to keep their property free of dangerous conditions that could cause visitors to fall and injure themselves. Dangerous conditions might include snow and ice accumulation, standing water, debris, and uneven flooring.
Assault
If you sustain injuries through another person’s violent actions toward you, you may be able to recover compensation from that person.
Defective Products
If you sustain injury from an improperly designed or poorly maintained product, such as medical equipment, a car part, or a power tool, you may be eligible to file a claim against the manufacturer or the seller.
Medical Malpractice
If a doctor or another medical provider injures you during a medical procedure, you may be able to hold the medical professional liable by filing a medical malpractice claim.
Workplace Injuries
If you sustain an injury at work, you may be able to file a third-party claim as well as recover compensation from your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance.
What should I expect during the personal injury process?
If you decide to file a personal injury claim against someone, you will have to prove that his or her negligence caused your injury. To do this you will need to prove four elements:
Duty
The person you are suing owed you a duty of care. Every person owes someone else a duty of care. The duty owed depends on who the party is. For example, other drivers on the road have a duty to follow traffic laws and the owners of stores and restaurants have a duty to maintain their premises in a reasonably safe condition.
Breach of Duty
To have a valid injury claim, you must be able to prove the other party (i.e., defendant) was negligent. Negligence basically means that the person failed to perform the duty he or she owed to you.
A person can be negligent with actions or inactions.
In the examples above, if a driver backs out of his or her driveway onto a busy street without looking, he or she has acted negligently. If a store owner fails to remove snow and ice accumulation from his or her roof and it falls onto the sidewalk where customers are gathered, this inaction is also negligence.
Causation
The negligent action caused your injury. In order to win your personal injury case, you will have to connect the other person’s negligent action to your injury.
Consider the case of the negligent driver who backs out of his driveway into traffic. If you suffered whiplash in that collision, you must be able to prove that you would not have suffered your whiplash injury but for the negligent actions of the defendant.
Damages
You suffered real, measurable damages. In order to recover damages, you will need actual proof that your injuries are real. You can use your medical records, medical bills, W-2s, pay stubs, expert witness testimony, and testimony from your friends and family to prove damages.
Should I hire a lawyer?
The personal injury claims process is complicated. In most cases, you will be facing a large insurance company with years of experience tricking injured victims out of compensation. Even when the defendant was in the wrong, you could lose your personal injury case if you are not properly prepared.
The Allegheny County personal injury lawyers at Berger and Green have decades of experience defending Pennsylvania residents against all the tricks insurers might pull.
We will ensure you do not say anything could jeopardize your case, and if it would make you more comfortable, we can handle all communication with the insurer or any legal teams.
This means you can sit back and recover while we fight to get you the compensation you deserve. Leave the stress and hassle to someone trained to handle it and get the result you need.
Call Our Firm for Help
No matter what your injury or its cause, a Pittsburgh personal injury lawyer from Berger and Green may be able to manage all legal aspects of your case. We will communicate and negotiate with insurance companies, collect and preserve evidence to support your claim, file paperwork in a timely manner, work with experts and witnesses, and take your case to court, if necessary.
We work on a contingency basis, so you pay nothing unless and until we win a settlement for you.
Call Berger and Green today for your free, no-obligation consultation at (412) 661-1400.
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