Tag: personal injury

Do I Have a Civil Lawsuit Case?

Civil Lawsuit case

When you’ve been wronged by someone else, intentionally or by accident, and your injuries are substantial, you may be left wondering if you have a legal remedy in the form of a lawsuit. In order to have a civil lawsuit case, there has to be some legal theory supporting the other party’s liability. This is where the expert knowledge of an attorney comes in, understanding the law and applying it to the facts of your case. Beyond this, there are practical realities that must be taken into consideration as well.

Legal Liability

In most civil lawsuit cases, liability is based on the commission of a “tort.” A tort is a civil wrong, as defined by common law, i.e., the collective history of judicial opinions going back hundreds of years. There are many types of torts, from battery to conversion (theft) to defamation. It would be impossible to cover all of them here, but we can briefly overview the most common tort: negligence.

Negligence is so prevalent because it covers almost every situation where an injury is caused by an accident. To demonstrate negligence, a plaintiff must prove each of these four elements:

1. Duty of Care

A duty of care means that, in a given situation, the defendant had an obligation to prevent harm to the plaintiff. For example, a doctor has a duty of care to their patient, business owners have a duty of care to people who come onto their premises, and drivers must operate their vehicles safely on the roads.

2.  Breach of Duty

In order to be negligent, a defendant must have breached their duty of care to the plaintiff by failing to exercise reasonable care.

3.  Causation

The defendant’s behavior must have been a “but-for” cause of the plaintiff’s injuries, meaning that the injuries would not have happened if not for the defendant’s actions. The breach also must be the “proximate cause” of the injuries, meaning it was a foreseeable consequence of the defendant’s actions.

4.  Damages

The plaintiff must have suffered legally recognized harm to themselves or their property.

Whether the case involves a traffic accident or medical malpractice, these four elements provide the general roadmap in a civil lawsuit for negligence.

Practical Considerations

Virtually every plaintiff’s attorney works on a contingency-fee-basis, meaning the client doesn’t pay any up-front fees, and the attorney will take a portion of any compensation received. Overall, this arrangement is very beneficial to clients and makes legal representation more accessible to everyone, but as a result, there are some practical considerations to take into account.

The Complexity of the Case

How much time and effort will it take to litigate the case? Most civil lawsuits settle before trial, but not all of them. The case may require a lengthy discovery process, numerous court hearings, and even a months-long trial with expert witnesses. A more complex case means more investment in time and money and a less certain outcome. The attorney will have to account for this increased risk.

The amount of damages at issue impacts this calculation; a lawyer simply cannot afford to take the risk if the amount is too low. However, people often underestimate how much their case is worth, so you shouldn’t let this factor discourage you from consulting with an attorney.

The Ability of the Defendant to Pay

You can’t get blood from a stone. A $10 million judgment is just an expensive piece of paper if the defendant has no assets or means of paying you. A very real consideration, therefore, is the defendant’s ability to pay. However, sometimes other parties are vicariously liable, such as when a worker injures someone else during employment, so it’s still worth discussing your case with an attorney.

Talk to an Attorney

The only real way to know whether you have a civil lawsuit case is to sit with a lawyer and tell them your story. A personal injury specialist can quickly evaluate your case, ask the right questions, and give you an idea as to your options moving forward.

The first step is to schedule a consultation. Contact our office to get started today!

Lawsuits: Pain and Suffering Damages in California

Pain and Suffering Damages

Imagine if someone intentionally burned down your house. You would be entitled to recover damages from the person who did it, of course, but how do you calculate the value of your losses? In a lawsuit, can you get damages for your personal pain and suffering?

It’s easy to determine the economic damages—the value of the house, the appliances inside, etc.—but that doesn’t cover the full extent of the harm you’ve suffered. In California, you could also likely recover monetary compensation for non-economic damages, like pain and suffering.

What Are Non-Economic Damages?

Most damages in civil lawsuits are compensatory, meaning they are meant to compensate the plaintiff with money for the losses they’ve suffered (often phrased as “making the plaintiff whole again”) rather than punish the defendant for their bad behavior. Non-economic damages are no exception. They are “subjective, non-monetary losses” for which a jury or judge must determine a monetary value. Non-economic damages include:

  • Pain
  • Suffering
  • Inconvenience
  • Mental suffering
  • Emotional distress
  • Loss of society and companionship
  • Loss of consortium (being kept from the benefits of a family relationship)
  • Injury to reputation
  • Humiliation

Using the burned house example above, you could make an excellent argument for non-economic damages for pain and suffering in a lawsuit. Even if you were not physically injured, losing your home and everything inside (including family photos, cherished keepsakes, etc.) likely caused you severe emotional distress, as well as considerable inconvenience.

As with other damages, a plaintiff must present evidence to demonstrate non-economic losses. Relevant evidence will vary depending on the situation, but it is anything that establishes the existence of the injuries and helps the judge or jury attach a specific monetary value. The evidence could include testimony from medical and mental health experts, family and friends, and you.

Limits on Non-Economic Damages

In California, there are some situations where non-economic damages are limited to a certain amount or prohibited altogether. For example, in medical malpractice cases, they are capped at $250,000, an amount that has remained the same since it was passed into law in 1975. In addition, in traffic accident cases, a plaintiff cannot recover non-economic damages at all if they were uninsured or driving under the influence at the time.

Another important limit is that multiple defendants are not jointly liable for non-economic damages. It means each defendant is only responsible for paying their portion depending on how much they were at fault. For example, if there are two defendants, one who is a millionaire and another who is penniless, and the millionaire is only 1% at fault, they only have to pay 1% of the non-economic damages. There are important exceptions to this rule, such as an employee-employer relationship between the defendants.

Personal Injury Experts in Southern California

Non-economic damages can form a large part of a plaintiff’s claim, but they are very complicated to litigate. Our experienced team of personal injury attorneys can help you prove your case and maximize your recovery. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.