An unexpected serious injury can cause a variety of personal and financial difficulties. You may require expensive medical care, miss time from work, and struggle with pain, suffering, and emotional distress. If your injury was caused by negligence, you deserve financial support for these difficulties.
When a negligent party causes an accident that leaves someone else injured, the injured party may have grounds to file a personal injury claim. These claims can provide financial compensation for all damages related to your injuries.
If you believe your injuries were caused by negligence, you can learn more about your legal options by contacting the Henderson personal injury lawyers of the Cottle Firm.
What Is Negligence?
Negligence is a legal term that describes careless or reckless behavior that puts others at risk. In a personal injury claim, the plaintiff and their personal injury attorney must show that the defendant was negligent, or at fault, for the plaintiff’s injuries. In Nevada, proving negligence involves proving four criteria.
Duty of Care
In a personal injury claim, the plaintiff must show that the defendant owed them a legal duty of care. Duty of care is a legal obligation to act within a standard of reasonable care and avoid careless or reckless behavior that could hurt others.
For instance, all motorists have a legal duty of care to drive safely and follow all traffic laws. This duty is owed to all other motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, and anyone else using the same roadways. Store owners owe all property visitors a duty of care, which requires them to keep their properties free of foreseeable hazards that could cause injuries.
Breach of Duty
If the plaintiff has shown that the defendant owed them a duty of care, the next step is proving that the defendant breached their duty. This means that the defendant failed to act in the way that a reasonable person would in the same circumstances.
For example, let’s say you slipped and fell on a liquid spill in a store. To prove a breach of the duty of care, your personal injury lawyer would need to show that the property owner knew or should have known about the spill, but failed to address it promptly. Your lawyer might argue that a reasonable person would have been aware of the spill and cleaned it up before your accident.
Causation
The plaintiff must provide proof that the defendant’s breach of duty of care directly caused the plaintiff’s injuries. They must establish that if it were not for this breach, they never would have been injured.
Damages
You must show that your injuries resulted in real damages. The damages most commonly pursued in personal injury claims include medical bills, lost wages, property damage, loss of quality of life, emotional distress, and pain and suffering.
Areas of Practice
The Henderson personal injury lawyers of the Cottle Firm have represented countless clients in a wide range of personal injury accident cases.
Auto Accidents
As motorists, we all owe each other a legal duty to drive safely and avoid any actions that could cause a preventable accident. But sadly, even safe drivers can be involved in accidents caused by the negligence of others. The results of this negligence can be devastating, as auto accidents are one of the leading causes of severe and fatal injuries in the United States.
Many forms of negligence can cause a car accident. Some of the most common types of negligence our Henderson car accident lawyers see include:
- Drunk driving
- Drowsy driving
- Distracted driving
- Aggressive driving
- Failure to follow traffic laws
Trucking Accidents
The likelihood of suffering severe or fatal injuries in an auto accident skyrockets when a commercial truck is involved. The massive size and weight of these vehicles cause a devastating impact when collisions occur. Victims of truck accidents often suffer severe injuries like traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and even death.
Most personal injury lawsuits are complex, but truck accident lawsuits involve their own set of complexities. Assigning liability can be complicated and more than one party may be considered liable, such as both the driver and the company that employs them. Due to these unique legal complexities, victims of truck accidents should consider consulting with an experienced trucking accident lawyer.
Slip and Fall
At the Cottle Firm, our Henderson personal injury lawyers have represented clients who were injured in slip-and-fall accidents in a wide range of locations. These accidents can happen anywhere, such as in casinos, grocery stores, shopping malls, and public sidewalks.
All types of property owners have a legal duty of care to keep their premises reasonably safe. When a dangerous property condition occurs, the owner is legally obligated to remove the hazard in a reasonable timeframe. When a property visitor is injured by a hazard that should have been removed, the property owner could be held liable in a premises liability claim.
Defective Products
When consumers purchase any type of product, there is an expectation of safety. Companies have a legal duty to ensure that all of their products are safe before they make them available for sale. However, sometimes defective products are released and end up injuring innocent consumers.
If you have been injured by a defective product, you have legal rights. The manufacturers of defective products can be held liable for injuries through product liability lawsuits. The team of product liability lawyers at the Cottle Firm is prepared to evaluate your case and help you determine the best course of legal action following your injuries.
Insurance Bad Faith
When you sign up for insurance, you and the insurance company both agree to the specific terms included in the contract. Insurance companies are legally obligated to adhere to these contractual obligations. However, some insurance companies attempt to renege on their agreements with policyholders, which constitutes insurance bad faith.
Some common examples of insurance companies acting in bad faith include:
- Attempting to deny a legitimate insurance claim
- Delaying payments
- Offering unfairly low settlements based on the damages suffered
Insurance companies who engage in bad faith practices can be held liable in an insurance bad faith lawsuit. These companies often expect their clients to accept unfair settlement offers due to desperation. At the Cottle Firm, our dedicated bad-faith insurance lawyers help our clients fight for the full financial compensation they deserve by taking on the insurance companies who have violated their contractual obligations.
Burns
Victims of burn injuries often suffer lifelong complications and emotional trauma. Burn injuries can occur in a wide range of accidents, including fires, exposure to harmful chemicals, explosions, and electrical malfunctions.
In some cases, burn injuries are caused by the negligence of someone other than the victim. For example, a fire that started in a workplace that was not in adherence to fire safety protocol would be an example of employer negligence. Apartment building fires that started due to unaddressed fire hazards would constitute property owner negligence.
If negligence was a factor, the victim could have grounds for a personal injury lawsuit. This additional financial compensation is often necessary to cover the high expenses of living with a burn injury, such as ongoing medical care, lost earning potential from being unable to return to work, lost wages, pain and suffering, and emotional distress.
Wrongful Death
In cases where negligence causes the death of an innocent person, the family members of the victim have legal rights. A wrongful death lawsuit may be filed against the negligent party to cover damages suffered by the family, such as medical expenses, loss of consortium, funeral and burial expenses, pain and suffering, and emotional distress.
Learn More From Our Henderson Personal Injury Lawyers
If you were injured in a preventable accident caused by the negligence of another party, you should not be forced to pay for your recovery alone. At the Cottman Firm, our experienced Henderson personal injury lawyers are prepared to help you fight for the financial compensation you deserve and need to recover from your injuries and move on with your life. Contact us today to learn more about your legal options in a free consultation.
FAQ
How Are Economic Damages Calculated in Nevada?
The damages awarded in a personal injury case fall into one of two categories: economic or non-economic. Economic damages describe the monetary losses you have suffered as a result of your injuries, while non-economic damages include less concrete damages, such as pain and suffering.
Plaintiffs in Nevada personal injury cases are permitted to seek financial compensation for the full scope of economic damages they have suffered. This includes current damages, such as your current medical bills, as well as future damages. For example, if you require ongoing care for your injuries and will not be able to return to work because of them, you could be awarded damages for these future economic losses as well as your current economic damages.
Is There a Cap on Non-Economic Damages in Nevada?
Some states have a cap on the amount of non-economic damages that can be awarded in personal injury lawsuits. However, Nevada has no such cap. This means that there is no limit to the amount of financial compensation you can receive for pain and suffering, emotional distress, and other non-economic damages. There is an exception for medical malpractice non-economic damages, which are limited to $350,000.
See also: