State College Personal Injury Lawyer

If you sustained injury because someone else acted carelessly, you may be trying to recover while also dealing with the effects of the accident. A State College, PA personal injury lawyer can explain your options, help support your claim from the beginning, and manage the legal process so you can prioritize your health.

Berger and Green has helped injured clients for more than 40 years, and manage many types of preventable injury cases, assessing the circumstances and outlining what you should expect when trying to recover damages.

What Types of Personal Injury Cases May Result in Compensation?

Our personal injury attorneys handle all kinds of claims in State College and elsewhere around the state, msot notably:

• Car, truck, and motorcycle collisions
• Bicycle and pedestrian crashes
• Dangerous property conditions
• Dog bites
• Defective products
• Catastrophic injuries
• Wrongful death
• Third-party work injuries

A successful claim generally requires proof that another party owed you a duty of care and failed to meet it. You must also show that this conduct caused your injuries. The evidence needed will depend on how the accident happened and what losses followed.

In a traffic-related case, the condition of the vehicles and the roadway may help explain what occurred, in addition to the testimony of any witnesses. In a busy university community, pedestrian and bicycle crashes can prompt questions about right-of-way or whether a driver was alert and aware.

State Laws That Affect Your Personal Injury Claim

Pennsylvania laws can affect whether you recover compensation and how much you receive. Under 42 Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes § 5524, you must start many negligence-based personal injury lawsuits within two years. Filing after the applicable deadline may prevent you from pursuing damages in court.

State law also follows a modified comparative negligence rule under 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 7102. If you share some responsibility for an accident, our State College personal injury attorneys explain how that percentage of fault may affect your claim. If your negligence is less than the percentage of fault of the defendant(s), you may still recover damages. However, the court reduces any award according to your percentage of fault.

Fault disputes can change a case’s value, so our lawyers review the evidence carefully before discussing settlement. We may also challenge insurance arguments that assign you too much responsibility.

Managing the Legal Details of Your Personal Injury Claim

Managing an injury claim can add difficulty while you are recovering. We investigate what happened, gather the records needed to support your case, and communicate with insurers so you do not have to manage those demands alone.

Your level of compensation depends on the losses caused by the accident and the evidence supporting them. As your claim develops, our personal injury lawyers in State College assess its value and explain whether a settlement offer fairly reflects the available evidence. If negotiations do not result in a fair resolution, we may then file a lawsuit. Throughout the process, we keep you informed and respond to your questions so you are always kept in the loop even as you focus on other important matters.