What Kinds of Things Do South Bend Personal Injury Lawyers Consider When Assessing a Potential Case?

Serious accidents are an unfortunate fact of life in South Bend, but a personal injury case might be possible when someone else is at fault for them, and the odds of success could be even greater with skilled legal assistance. What kinds of things do South Bend personal injury lawyers consider when assessing a potential […]

September 20, 2024

Core Elements in Personal Injury Cases

The core elements in personal injury cases are “negligence” and “damages.” Negligence occurs when reasonable care is not exercised to avoid causing harm, otherwise called damages. If a defendant’s negligence inflicts bodily damages on a plaintiff, that plaintiff could initiate a personal injury claim against the defendant to obtain financial damages.

Usually, a personal injury lawyer will only take on clients who have incurred damages for which compensation can be sought from negligent defendants responsible for those damages. Because cases that do not meet this standard will likely fail, they tend to be rejected by reputable South Bend personal injury attorneys.

Can Defendants Be Identified?

The fundamentals of personal injury law may seem relatively simple, but a South Bend personal injury lawyer still faces a number of challenges when trying to evaluate and establish a claim, among them the difficulty of identifying the defendants. Defendants and their insurance companies are the primary sources of economic recovery in personal injury cases, and neglecting to go after all of them could leave money on the table instead of inside a client’s pocket.

A personal injury defendant may be anyone whose negligence brings about an injury, though what constitutes negligence will depend upon the incident leading up to that injury. Some incidents are fairly straightforward, such as South Bend car accidents, of which there were 3,617 in 2022. Defendants might include those whose actions directly caused a crash, such as a driver who hit someone, those who contributed to that crash through the driver’s actions, such as the owner of his or her car or any company making use of that car, and maybe others as well.

Other incidents that might form the basis of a personal injury claim could be much more complex, such as slip-and-falls on someone else’s property. The most common defendant in a slip-and-fall case is the owner of the property in question, but the causal relationship between a defendant’s behavior and a plaintiff’s injury is not as readily apparent as it would be in a car accident case. To be viable, a slip-and-fall case may need to prove that:

The owner owed the plaintiff a duty to maintain safe conditions on the property;

The owner breached this duty by not keeping the property safe; and

This breach made the plaintiff fall with resultant injury.

As a general rule, you should expect a South Bend personal injury attorney to pass on a case when it does not appear as if negligence by an identifiable defendant can be demonstrated.

Were There Actually Damages?

In addition to unearthing negligence and the defendants engaged in that negligence, a South Bend personal injury lawyer must verify that there were actually damages before accepting a client.

While current injuries and short-term medical costs might make up merely a small fraction of a plaintiff’s total damages, someone who was never treated for injuries stemming from a given accident will have no grounds to pursue a personal injury case for that accident. Consequently, a wise personal injury attorney will probably not agree to represent that individual.

Is There Insurance Coverage?

Even if significant damages are sustained because of obviously negligent conduct by known defendants, a case may nonetheless be doomed without insurance coverage.

Insurance policies are the chief means of reimbursement in personal injury litigation, such as an auto insurance policy in a car accident case or a homeowner’s policy in a slip-and-fall claim. Most often, these policies will apply to the defendants, though the plaintiffs themselves might be covered by policies that could come into play in some situations.

If, however, there are NO policies of insurance that would pertain to a particular incident, then a South Bend personal injury lawyer might choose not to handle that case, since there may not be a way to collect on the eventual settlement or verdict.

Maximize Your South Bend Personal Injury Case with Hensley Legal Group

A major injury can turn your world upside down, but you can maximize your South Bend personal injury case with Hensley Legal Group, where we have been standing up for the wrongfully injured for more than 25 years.

For a free case review with one of our dedicated South Bend personal injury attorneys, please call or text us at (317) 472-3333, chat with us online, or fill out our contact form at your earliest convenience.