Charlotte Personal Injury Lawyer

Charlotte Personal Injury Attorney

A personal injury happens when one party harms another party through a failure to use reasonable care or some type of illegal misconduct. If you recently sustained any type of physical injury and/or economic loss because of another party’s actions in the Charlotte area, contact our office. You may have grounds to pursue compensation under North Carolina’s personal injury laws.

Experienced Personal Injury Representation for Charlotte, NC, Clients

The attorneys at Bridgman Gantt can offer compassionate and detail-oriented legal representation for your impending personal injury case in Charlotte, NC. Our firm has years of experience handling workers’ compensation cases along with many other types of civil claims for damages.

Whether you were injured while working and your workers’ compensation benefits do not fully cover your losses or a specific party inflicted an injury with their negligence or illegal misconduct, you deserve compassionate help. At Bridgman Gantt, we can help ensure accountability and compensation for your losses. Our firm has the experience and skill to ensure the most optimal outcome for your case. While it is possible to file a personal injury case without hiring an attorney, you are much more likely to win your case when you have an experienced legal team representing you.

Time is an important factor in any personal injury case. You must file your claim within the three-year statute of limitations imposed by state law. This may appear to be enough time in which to file your case, but it will take time to gather the evidence, documentation, and other components that form the foundation of your claim. The sooner you connect with a Charlotte personal injury attorney you can trust, the more likely you are to succeed with your claim.

Understanding Negligence in Charlotte Personal Injury Cases

The majority of the personal injury claims filed each year arise from acts of “negligence,” a legal term that defines an individual’s failure to use reasonable care and caution in a given situation. Most adults have various duties of care they must uphold every day in various situations. For example, a driver has a duty of care to be attentive behind the wheel, refraining from distractions such as using their cell phone while driving. Negligence can also pertain to inaction in some situations, for example, failing to have a broken brake light fixed, which later contribute to causing an accident.

Proving negligence is typically a crucial first step in a personal injury case. The plaintiff must identify the party or parties they believe to be responsible for causing their damages and then prove they held some duty of care. Next, the plaintiff must show that the defendant failed to uphold this duty of care and caused their damages. To succeed with your personal injury case in Charlotte, NC, you must not only prove who caused your damages but also establish causation between their behavior and your damages. In other words, you must prove that you suffered your claimed damages because of the defendant’s actions and not some other cause.

An individual can cause a personal injury with some type of illegal misconduct. Driving under the influence (DUI) of drugs or alcohol is one of the most common examples of this. Whenever a defendant has inflicted a personal injury while breaking the law, their penalties in criminal court can increase significantly. DUI, reckless driving, interpersonal violence, and other forms of illegal activity can potentially lead to felony charges when they result in serious bodily injury or death.

Contributory Fault in Charlotte Personal Injury Claims

If you intend to pursue any type of compensation with a personal injury suit, you must understand the state’s contributory negligence law and determine whether you share fault in any way for causing your claimed damages. Under the contributory negligence law, any amount of fault on the part of the plaintiff negates their ability to claim compensation from the defendant. Even if your shared fault is minimal, it will completely nullify your ability to recover your damages from the defendant.

It’s common for defendants in personal injury cases to assert contributory negligence in their efforts to avoid liability for the damages they have caused. If you are concerned that you bear partial liability for your injury, you need to speak to a trustworthy attorney as soon as possible.

Claimable Damages in a Charlotte Personal Injury Case

The goal of a personal injury claim is for the plaintiff to prove fault for their damages and recover compensation from the defendant. The expectation is for the successful case to make the plaintiff as whole as possible again after their injury. State law allows a personal injury plaintiff to claim complete repayment of any direct financial losses the defendant caused; they can also seek compensation for long-term damages. A few types of compensation you could potentially secure from your successful case include:

• Property damage. It’s possible for a personal injury case to entail damage to personal property, such as the plaintiff’s home, vehicle, or other belongings. Your Charlotte personal injury attorney can help accurately calculate the full extent of the property losses you can include with your claim. Some of these losses could be recoverable through insurance, depending on the type of injury you had.
• Medical expenses. Most of the personal injury claims filed in Charlotte pertain to physical injuries, some of which require extensive medical care and ongoing rehabilitative treatment. Your attorney can help hold a defendant accountable for the entire extent of immediate and future medical expenses you face due to the defendant’s negligence or misconduct. Hospital bills, ambulance fees, prescription costs, and any costs associated with necessary long-term care are all recoverable under the state’s personal injury statutes.
• Lost wages. Many people who experience personal injuries are unable to work in the aftermath. If your injury has prevented you from earning income, the defendant is liable for the wages lost during this time. This also applies to any vacation time you had to use following the accident.
• Lost future earnings. While many people who suffer personal injuries are eventually able to recover, some are not so fortunate and are left permanently disabled. If your personal injury has left you disabled and you will not be able to return to work in the future, the defendant is responsible for the future income you are no longer able to earn. Your Charlotte personal injury attorney can help calculate how much you would have expected to make in the future had the incident not occurred.

The average plaintiff should be able to calculate immediately noticeable economic losses like medical bills and property damage, but accurately assessing long-term economic damages, such as their lost earning capacity, can be far more challenging. However, an experienced attorney can discover what might not be immediately noticeable. When you choose Bridgman Gantt to represent your case, we can assist you in gathering any documentation you may need to firmly prove the entire extent of your claimable economic damages, both immediate and future.

Pain and Suffering Compensation in Charlotte Personal Injury Cases

Your recovery from your recent personal injury does not end with your economic losses. You also have the right to seek pain and suffering compensation from the defendant who caused your injury. The average person might find it difficult to assign a monetary value to their non-economic damages, such as physical pain, emotional distress, and psychological trauma they have endured because of a defendant’s actions. Your Charlotte personal injury attorney can be invaluable when it comes to helping you determine a fair amount of pain and suffering to seek from the defendant in your case.

North Carolina law does not enforce any cap or limit on the amount of pain and suffering compensation a plaintiff can claim in most types of personal injury cases. Your Charlotte personal injury attorney can use various methods to calculate pain and suffering compensation in your case, the most common of which are the multiplier method and the per diem method. The multiplier method entails adding up the total of the plaintiff’s economic damages and then multiplying this amount by a factor of one to five to reflect their condition’s severity. The per diem method revolves around the length of time it takes the plaintiff to reach maximum medical improvement from their injury.

For most personal injury plaintiffs, pain and suffering compensation accounts for the majority of their case awards. When you choose Bridgman Gantt to represent your case in Charlotte, we can carefully review the full details of your injury and its effects on you and your family. The purpose of pain and suffering is to compensate the plaintiff for the intangible harm they suffered and the inconveniences their injury has imposed on their life. The more severe your personal injury, the more you could foreseeably obtain in pain and suffering compensation.

Resolving Your Personal Injury Case in Charlotte, NC

The recovery process from a personal injury varies from case to case. For example, if you were injured in a motor vehicle accident, whether as a car driver, motorcyclist or cyclist hit by a car, an auto insurance claim is likely your first option for recovering your losses, and if the at-fault driver does not have sufficient coverage to fully compensate you for your damages, you would then proceed with a personal injury case. Similarly, if a specific party is responsible for causing a work-related injury, you could be covered by your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance. This insurance generally prevents injured workers from suing their employers, but there are exceptions to this rule.

When it comes time to file your personal injury case in Charlotte, your attorney can be an invaluable asset for ensuring your claim meets all procedural requirements and filing deadlines. The personal injury claim filing process begins with a complaint submitted to the court, and then the court will serve the defendant the appropriate forms to issue their response. At this point, a personal injury claim may either proceed to settlement negotiations if the defendant accepts liability, or the case may go to trial if the defendant denies liability.

An experienced Charlotte personal injury attorney is the most valuable asset you have if you wish to settle your claim as swiftly as possible. As long as both parties will negotiate on mutually acceptable terms to resolve the case, it is possible for a settlement to only extend for a fraction of the time that litigation would require. When a personal injury case must be resolved in court, the judge has the final word. If the parties pursue a settlement, it is possible for them to both have more influence over the final outcome, keep their proceedings out of the public record, and save substantial time and money on legal fees in resolving their case.

Find the Legal Counsel You Need Today

The attorneys at Bridgman Gantt have years of successful cases behind us, thanks to our commitment to client-focused personal injury counsel. We take time to get to know our clients, listen to their story and understand the various effects their injury has had on their life. No two cases are exactly the same, and it’s common for a personal injury plaintiff to have many pressing legal questions concerning their options for legal recourse and the compensation they could potentially recover from a successful claim.

You have a limited time in which to pursue your recovery, and the sooner you reach out to a Charlotte personal injury attorney you can trust, the more likely you are to reach a positive conclusion to your recovery efforts. The team at Bridgman Gantt can immediately begin helping you build your claim, securing the evidence needed to firmly prove fault for your damages and to prove the full extent of the damages you are entitled to claim from the defendant. We can guide you through every step of your case proceedings and assist you in reaching the optimal outcome.

Contact Our Experienced Charlotte Personal Injury Lawyers Today

Bridgman Gantt can provide the personal injury counsel you need for your impending case in Charlotte, NC. Contact us today to schedule your free consultation with a Charlotte personal injury attorney and learn more about the legal services we offer.