Elizabethtown Personal Injury Law Firm

What is Personal Injury? Do I Need a Personal Injury Lawyer?

Many types of injuries fall under the umbrella term “personal injury.” You may have suffered an injury if you were harmed at work, in a traffic accident, using a defective product, or receiving improper healthcare. If this was due to negligence on the part of someone else, you may be able to make a personal injury claim to receive monetary compensation.

Compensation can include damages you’ve already incurred as well as future damages, such as medical expenses, loss of wages, lost earning capacity, and general damages. General damages covers compensation for your pain and suffering, disability, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment in life.

Elizabethtown KY Has a High Rate of Personal Injury Accidents

While Elizabethtown has much to offer, the city has a high rate of car and truck accidents. According to the Kentucky Department of Transportation, Hardin County had over 6,600 motor vehicle accidents in the past two years. That is more than the state average of accidents per capita. It could be caused by the fact that I-65 and the Western Kentucky Parkway both pass through Elizabethtown. It could also be caused by heavy stop and go traffic on 31W (Dixie Highway.) Whatever the reason, please drive carefully when you are in town and pay attention to the road signs.

What Happens If You Go to Litigation?

If you’re unable to settle a case through a demand package, it will be necessary to file a lawsuit, which begins with the process of litigation. Your personal injury attorney will serve the at-fault party (or parties) with summons along with a complaint — a document that summarizes your claims. The at-fault party will then need to file a response.

After this comes the discovery phase. Your personal injury lawyer and a representative for the at-fault party will request documentation from each other through a formal procedure. The process may also involve questioning witnesses under oath.

Usually, litigation results in mediation, where the two sides attempt to settle the case. The majority of the time in personal injury lawsuits, it’s possible to resolve the case through mediation and there’s no need to go to trial.

Types of Personal Injuries

As we said up top, there are many different types of personal injuries. As all are quite distinct from one another, it’s useful to consider each in turn.

Traffic Accident

In addition to car accidents, traffic accidents can involve trucks, motorcycles, bikes, and even pedestrians. In the best case scenario, injuries are only minor. However, it’s also possible to suffer life-changing injuries, such as loss of limbs, head or spinal cord injuries, and brain damage. It is not uncommon for a traffic accident to lead to a death.

In many cases, it is unclear who was at fault until an investigation is complete. Whereas the negligent party is often a driver, other times the accident may be due to a defective vehicle, improper signage, or poor road conditions.

Worksite Accident

It’s common for personal injuries to happen in places like construction sites, factories, and warehouses. However, it’s also possible to suffer an injury in many other situations, such as when lifting a heavy object, through electrocution, or through an accident with a hand tool.

Injuries on worksites are often due to poor oversight, faulty equipment, or unsafe working conditions. Negligence may be attributed to an individual, your employer, or the manufacturer of some equipment or a vehicle.

If you suffer an injury while working, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation. Even if you work as a contractor, it may be possible for an injury attorney to argue this case, as your employer could have misclassified your work status.

Dog Attack

After a dog attack or bite, you may suffer from both physical and psychological injuries. To receive compensation, you will need to establish the identity of the dog and make a record of your injuries. In most cases, the owner of the dog will be considered negligent. An exception is if it is determined that you were trespassing on the owner’s property.

Defective Product

There are new product recalls in the news almost every day. These range from vehicle parts and electronics to furniture and toys. If you suffer an injury as a result of a defective product, the process to receive compensation can be complex.

Your injury lawyer will first need to identify all the parties who are potentially responsible, including the manufacturer who assembled the product, everyone who was involved in making the components, and the retailer of the final product.

The next step is determining where the error occurred. It could be during design, manufacturing, or labeling. Technical as well as medical experts may need to become involved at this point to effectively prove your claim. Together, they will determine if the product was directly responsible for your injuries, whether the injury was preventable, and whether you could have foreseen the potential for injury.

Slip and Fall

You may have a case for a slip and fall personal injury claim if the owner of the property where you had your accident failed to implement a safety hazard or failed to warn people of the risk. Such accidents fall under premises liability and apply to both private and public property.

Examples of slips and falls include:

• Slipping on wet floor.
• Tripping due to poor condition of flooring (such as broken tiles, torn carpeting, uneven sidewalks, and potholes).
• Falling because of inadequate lighting or broken stairs.

Medical Malpractice

A medical malpractice case could be due to a failure to diagnose cancer, a birth injury, a defective medication, or an inappropriate prescription. In fact, any case where the healthcare provider failed to meet an applicable standard of care could mean you are entitled to financial compensation.

In Kentucky, there is a one-year statute of limitations for medical malpractice. For this reason, it is important to start your claim early if you suspect you may have suffered harm due to medical negligence. Although the courts can decide to extend documentable instances five years after suspected negligence or discovery, you cannot rely on this being the case for you.

Wrongful Deaths

Damages in a wrong death case may include funeral expenses, loss of income, and punitive damages to punish the at-fault party in the case of gross negligence or assault. There are also survival claims, which allow you to recover expenses incurred by medical treatment if the victim survived for some time immediately after the accident.

The amount awarded from a wrongful death claim is divided among close relatives. After accounting for expenditures for the funeral, medical bills, and legal costs, half of the sum goes to the spouse and the other half is split between the victim’s children. If the deceased has no spouse, the children receive the full amount. If there are no children, the victim’s spouse receives the full amount. If the deceased has neither a spouse nor children, the damages go to the parents. Finally, if the victim has none of the above, damages are distributed among other relatives in accordance with Kentucky estate laws.

If you have suffered an injury and believe someone else may have been at fault — or if a close relative has tragically suffered a wrongful death — it is always worthwhile talking with an experienced personal injury attorney. You could be entitled to a large sum. As most attorneys offer a free initial consultation, you’ll lose nothing to find out.

Contact Us Today

The Fleck Firm is here to help you. Our office is in the Cool Springs shopping center on Ring Road. We represent a large number of residents residing in Western and Central Kentucky and all across the bluegrass.

The law places limits on how long you have to file after you have been injured. The general idea behind filing a claim is to ensure that any injuries you have obtained are compensated adequately and fairly. The object of this process is to place you back in the position you were in had you not been involved in an accident.

If you have been injured in a car accident, a slip and fall, boating accident, or some other type of accident, contact The Fleck Firm today.