Georgetown

Personal injury law is a confusing term for many people unfamiliar with legal terminology and may think personal injury claims relate only to physical injuries.

Personal injury need not refer to a physical injury but rather encompasses all types of harm a person could suffer due to negligence or intentional conduct by another person or entity, such as a corporation or employer.

If you believe you have suffered personal injury in the Georgetown area, contact a Georgetown personal injury lawyer from McCoy & Hiestand to learn more about your case and how an experienced attorney can help.

Personal Injury Laws in Kentucky

While personal injuries can certainly include physical injuries, such as those stemming from a fall, car accident, or medical malpractice, they can also consist of financial damage, as in the case of fraudulent misrepresentation, property damage, or an assault that resulted in costly medical bills and lost wages due to time off work.

Personal injury can also include damage to a person’s reputation, such as defamation or harm caused to a person’s mental or emotional well-being, which occurs when a personal injury causes extreme psychological stress, anguish, or turmoil.

In many cases, a negligent or harmful act can cause several different personal injuries, as well as related damages. Overall some of the types of cases personal injury attorneys in Georgetown that we work on include:

• Medical Malpractice
• Slip and Fall
• Car Accident
• Product Liability
• Truck Accident
• Comparative Negligence Doctrine
• Wrongful Death

In Kentucky, personal injury cases must abide by the comparative negligence doctrine. This means that a victim who is found to have contributed in part to causing their own injuries will have their personal injury compensation award reduced by the portion of fault for which they are responsible.

Fortunately for Kentucky injured plaintiffs, victims’ recovery is not completely barred, as in pure contributory negligence states. If you believe it is possible that your actions contributed in part to causing your accident or injuries, your Georgetown injury attorney can still help you pursue fair compensation from the other party involved.

In other words, you can still hold the other party responsible, and they will not be able to argue that your actions should prevent you from receiving any damages. Regardless of whether you share in some of the faults in causing the personal injury you suffered, our Georgetown personal injury attorneys are here to help.

We Can Help Prove Negligence in Personal Injury Cases

Personal injury cases are complex cases that require negligence to be proven. If you cannot prove negligence or show fault in a case, you won’t be able to receive compensation for your losses. Luckily, McCoy & Hiestand specializes in personal injury cases and knows the exact things that must be completed for a successful case.

And, like we said before, a successful case starts with proving negligence. We will do this by ensuring the four elements of negligence are met. These elements are:

1. Establishing a duty of care: A duty of care is the basic level of care that is owed to you in a given situation. For instance, if you go to a mall, you will expect nothing to occur on elevators, escalators, or other machinery you will contact. This is because all are owed a basic level of care.
2. Noting that a breach of this duty of care has occurred: After establishing a basic level of care, we will determine if others have breached this duty. Using the same example above, if you go to the mall and find that an escalator injured you, those in charge of keeping this intact would be held liable.
3. Due to this breach, injuries were sustained: Causation must have occurred and must be proved in this element of liability. This means that someone’s lack of care or negligence led to your injuries.
4. These injuries sustained have caused losses: Lastly, we will take a look at the direct link your injuries have caused and the losses you have sustained. For example, if your injuries have caused you to refrain from work, your losses will entail wages. And, the loss of wages can be directly linked to the injuries from the negligent parties actions.

Our Personal Injury Lawyers Will Calculate Your Damages

Throughout personal injury cases, the same damages will be calculated based on the specifics of your case. This means that the details of your case, the level of liability that has been proven, and the amount of losses you have sustained will impact your compensation amount.

The most common types of damages we can collect for you include compensatory, general, and punitive damages. Compensatory damages include all things that you have lost associated with money. These damages are:

• Medical bills
• Lost income
• Ongoing treatments

On the other hand, general damages are things that have no monetary value associated with them. For instance, these include pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment, and mental pain and anguish. To explain further, these are intangible things you have endured and lost in conclusion to your injuries.

Lastly, punitive damages are hard to be awarded and are only done so in extreme cases of negligence. If the negligent party acted in serious negligence and caused severe injuries, then punitive damages will be awarded to ensure that the negligent party will never act this way again or cause others harm.

Ready to Hire an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer from McCoy & Hiestand?

Those who have suffered due to the negligence of another party should seek the counsel of a Georgetown injury lawyer as soon as possible to discuss filing a claim. An attorney will be able to discuss what damages may be available based on the case’s facts and determine the best course of action for filing a successful claim.

When you decide to hire, consider the dream team. At McCoy & Hiestand, we fight for you and your case. If you’re interested in a free case evaluation, contact us today. We’re there for those who have suffered serious injuries due to negligence.