Talk to Our Experienced, Compassionate Personal Injury Lawyers.
If you’re seriously injured in an accident, your life has drastically changed. At the Waldman Legal Group, our experienced team of personal injury lawyers in Houston knows the challenges you face and is ready to help. Reach out to our personal injury attorneys to talk about your case. When your life is upended by a serious injury, you’re not working and spending your time getting medical care and physical therapy. Bills are piling up when your income is down.
You need legal representation, but who can you trust? The Waldman Legal Group understands what you and your family are going through. They have been helping families like yours since 1980. Let us help you, too.
Your priority should be recovering and getting your life back together. That can be much easier if an attorney deals with the insurance company and makes sure you’re getting the best care possible. Our personal injury lawyers will treat you with respect, answer your questions, and work hard to make sure you get the most compensation possible for your injuries.
Why You Should Get Legal Help from Our Personal Injury Lawyers in Houston
You may think about taking a settlement from the insurance company without hiring an attorney. We talk to people all the time who are unhappy with the settlements they made. They wanted cash fast and signed away their rights to get more. Now they have financial problems and have nowhere to go.
Reasons to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer and Not Do It Yourself
It’s best to rely on an attorney’s knowledge, experience, and skill, because you may not know the law or the process of a personal injury case. If you don’t have strong knowledge of all the elements of a case, you may get a much lower settlement. If your case heads to litigation and you face insurance company lawyers, you’re at a substantial disadvantage without relying on a skilled personal injury trial lawyer.
There are several reasons why you should not try to handle your own case.
- The value of your case: You wouldn’t know whether an offer from an insurance company is fair or ridiculously low. What you think it’s worth could be much more or less than its true value. You may sell yourself short or ask for so much that the insurance company won’t take you seriously.
- How insurance works: Without knowing the insurance company’s legal obligations, how they work, or the information they need to evaluate claims, you won’t get a good settlement.
- Personal injury law: Many of our clients are referrals from other attorneys who specialize in other areas of law. Even attorneys without personal injury experience won’t handle these cases.
- What to say: There are things you could say that may jeopardize your claim. The adjuster will be happy to talk to you and take notes of every damaging thing you say. It’s never a good idea to talk to an insurance adjuster without talking to a personal injury lawyer first.
- How to negotiate: Outside of the legal profession, very few people engage in negotiations as part of their occupation, and even fewer do it well. When was the last time you negotiated anything? When you bought or sold a car? Your settlement may be worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, or more. Do you want to learn the art of negotiation while such substantial dollar amounts, and your future, are at stake? The insurance company representative that you’re talking to is a trained, experienced negotiator who does it every day.
Why Waldman Legal May be the Right Personal Injury Lawyers for You
You need to find the best attorneys for you, your family, and your case — attorneys who will tell you the truth and guide you through the insurance claim and litigation processes. Choosing an attorney boils down to trust. Do you trust that attorney to fight for your rights, negotiate your case with skill, and do what’s right for you?
The Waldman Legal Group has been earning the trust of personal injury clients since 1980. We do it by working hard, being honest, caring about our clients, and getting results. You wouldn’t just be a case file that’s passed from attorney to attorney. You would be a client: someone we are sworn to serve and zealously protect.
The Types of Cases Our Houston Personal Injury Lawyers Take
Though we’re a small firm, we help clients injured in a wide range of situations. Many of our clients have been injured on the job and we help them with workers’ compensation claims. Often the employee was injured due to the fault of a third party, in which case a personal injury claim may also be an option.
Injuries at Work
We help those involved in:
- Construction accidents
- Electrocutions/chemical exposure
- Maritime accidents
- Oilfield and offshore accidents
- Railroad accidents.
Injuries in Vehicle Accidents
We also work with those who have been injured on Texas roads. Personal injury cases may be simple and settled quickly. Or they may be highly complex because they involve several parties and insurance companies. Some of the types of accident case our personal injury team handles are …
- Motor vehicle accidents
- Bicycle/pedestrian accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Commercial truck accidents
- Hit-and run-accidents.
Other Types of Personal Injury Cases
Personal injury cases can come from just about any situation where, due to someone’s negligence, the victim was seriously injured. Accidents can cause lifetime disabilities, even death. They can happen while walking down the street, when getting medical care, or while using a defective and dangerous product at home.
- Brain injuries
- Spinal injuries
- Medical malpractice/drug Injuries
- Premises liability
- Product liability
- Slips and falls
- Wrongful death
Most Personal Injury Cases Involve Negligence Claims
Cases can be filed by a Houston personal injury lawyer against someone who intentionally hurt you. But most cases involve negligence claims, which are covered by insurance policies. If you’re seriously injured, the average person doesn’t have enough money or unprotected assets to pay your claim. If they have insurance, the harm you suffered may be covered, but policies have limits on the types of negligence they will cover and the amounts they will pay.
How Negligence Applies to a Case
Negligence is a legal theory used in personal injury cases when serious mistakes caused harm. To have a successful negligence claim, you would have to show that it’s more likely than not that …
- The person owed you a legal obligation: For example, the store’s floor should be kept safe for customers. Other drivers should drive reasonably safely. Companies selling rechargeable batteries need to make them safe for their intended use.
- The person didn’t live up to their obligation: Store management knew the floor was slippery and didn’t clean it in a timely manner. The other driver knew he was speeding, saw the stop sign, but drove through it. While recharging batteries they over-heated, caught fire, and caused a fire in your home.
- The person caused the accident, which resulted in your injuries: You slipped on the store’s floor and suffered a head injury. The car collision resulted in a back injury. Your home was heavily damaged and you suffered serious burns.
- Under the law, the person needs to compensate you for the harm you suffered: In personal injury lawsuits, harm, measured in dollars, is called “damages.”
The Role of Fault in Personal Injury Cases
We all make mistakes. Your mistake may have played a role in your accident and injuries. Under Texas law, you could make an error but still have a valid personal injury claim. If the person sued blames you for the accident, you would have to show that you are no more than 50% at fault. If you can’t do that, your case will be dismissed.
Your share of fault will reduce the damages you can receive. For example, if the jury decides your mistake is one-third of all the things that led to the accident, your recovery would be reduced by a third.
Possible Damages in a Texas Personal Injury Case
Damages you may be awarded depend on the facts of your case. The more serious your injury, the longer it will impact you. Also, the greater your financial losses are, generally, the greater your damages should be, too. You may be awarded economic and non-economic damages.
Economic Damages
Economic damages in personal injury cases are more easily determined. They are the money you lost due to the accident, as well as how much you’re expected to lose in the future. They include:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages due to time away from work
- Lower future wages if you’re less able to make money in the future
- The value of job benefits you lost in the past and may lose in the future
- Lost household services (the value of work around the house that you can no longer do).
Non-economic Damages
Non-economic damages related to your injuries are harder to put into dollars. They can cover what has happened since the accident and what is expected in the future. They include:
- Pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Physical impairment
- Disfigurement (changes to your appearance, such as scars or amputations)
- Loss of consortium (the loss of relationships with immediate family members).
The Deadline to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit
In many personal injury matters here in Texas, you have two years from the date of your injury to file your lawsuit. If you miss this deadline, your case will probably be dismissed. ***To understand the exact deadlines that apply to your specific claim, you must speak directly with a licensed attorney.*** We encourage you to call us as soon as possible after your accident. We can investigate your accident and learn the facts of your case. We can then discuss your options and plan what needs to be done to protect your rights.
Your Next Step: Call One of Our Personal Injury Attorneys Today
You want fair compensation for your injuries. Here at the Waldman Legal Group, we have experience evaluating and handling personal injury claims. We can assess your claim, put together a plan of action, and fight for your rights. Our team of personal injury attorneys in Houston makes a difference in our clients’ lives every day. We can help you, too. Contact the Waldman Legal Group today at (713) 688-4878.
