Will I Need to Go to Court for My Riverside Personal Injury Accident Case?

If you have been involved in a Riverside, California personal injury accident you likely have a number of worries and concerns. Clearly, getting the medical treatment that you need should be at the top of the list. Getting needed repairs done to your vehicle is also important as is making sure that you don’t lose your job. At some point, you will probably start worrying about legal representation and how to get compensated for your injuries. For many people, when they start thinking about the legalities involved in a Riverside personal injury accident case they start to worry about whether they will need to appear in court if they pursue compensation for their injuries. For many people, the idea of having to go to court and testify in front of a jury can be an extremely scary prospect. No two accident cases are exactly the same. For that reason, it is impossible to definitively tell you that you will not ever need to appear in court for your case. The Riverside personal injury accident team at Ledger & Associates, however, can reassure you that the chances are very slim that you will need to appear in court-much less testify in front of a jury.The Riverside personal injury accident team of Ledger & Associates settles about 95% of all cases without the need to take the case to trial. While this statistic alone should be reassuring, understanding why they are able t successfully settle so many cases should be even more reassuring. The team at Ledger & Associates-Riverside carefully interviews and screens each potential client and case to determine whether or not the client has a compensable personal injury accident case. If the team does not believe that you have a good case they will tell you that from the beginning. That way, they don’t waste your time or get your hopes up only to crush them at the last minute. The team at Ledger & Associates looks at two basic issues to determine whether you have a compensable personal injury case. The first is negligence. Negligence is a legal term used to describe fault or blame. In order for you to receive compensation for your injuries the other party must have been more negligent than you in the accident. The second issue is damages. Damages is the legal term for injuries-both economic and non-economic. . When a personal injury case ends up in trial it is generally because either negligence is not clear or the parties cannot agree on the amount of damages.With the experienced team at Ledger & Associates-Riverside on your side, your chances of reaching an agreeable settlement prior to ever stepping foot in a courtroom are excellent. If you would like to have a free and detailed evaluation of a potential personal injury case in which you are the victim, please contact the Riverside personal injury accident team of Ledger & Associates at 951-801-5862 or 800-300-0001. The Riverside office is located at 11801 Pierce Street, Riverside, CA 92505

Sometimes, it’s obvious that you have been the victim of a Riverside personal injury accident case. For instance, most people realize that if you were involved in a car accident and the other driver was at fault then you likely have the basis for a personal injury accident lawsuit. What many people do not realize is that car accidents are hardly the only situation that can be the basis of a Riverside personal injury lawsuit. The personal injury accident team at Ledger & Associates-Riverside have been representing victims of Riverside personal injury cases for over a decade and have had the opportunity to litigate a wide range of cases that fall under the purview of personal injury torts. To help you determine whether you have been the victim of a personal injury accident and consequently are entitled to compensation for your injuries, the team at Ledger & Associates-Riverside offer the following information.

The best way to determine with certainty that you have been the victim of a Riverside personal injury accident is to consult with an experience attorney. Short of that, however, a basic understanding of the law and how it applies to a personal injury case may help. Personal injury cases are founded on the law of torts. Torts can be intentional, strict liability or negligent. The vast majority of personal injury accident cases are founded on negligent tort. Negligence has a long and interesting legal history. For purposes of understanding what is required to for the basis of a personal injury accident lawsuit, negligence requires four basic elements: duty of care; breach of the duty of care; causation; and damages

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As a potential victim of a Riverside personal injury accident case you must consider whether the defendant had a duty of care to you. An analysis of a potential personal injury accident tort is very fact specific, but the general question is “Was the defendant required to use a reasonable amount of care to prevent likely harm from befalling you?” Courts have long decided that a motorist on a public roadway has a duty of care to other motorists on the roadway. Other situations are somewhat more complicated. A pilot has a duty of care to the passengers of a plane as does a conductor of a train. Many times the owner of a dog has an duty of care to the public as does the owner of a shop. If the defendant had a duty of care then you must move on to whether or not he breached the duty of care. The breach of duty can be even more complicated that finding the original duty. Exactly what was did the duty of care require of the defendant? Clearly a person cannot be expected to protect another from ALL possible harm, but once the duty is found then the defendant was expected to protect you from reasonably foreseeable harm. The legal terminology used by courts to explain the standard of care may differ somewhat but the general idea remains the same.

If you believe that the defendant had a duty and that the duty was breached then the last two elements come into play – causation and damages. Causation, as it sounds, requires you to prove that the defendant caused your injuries. Damages is the legal term used to describe injuries – both economic and non-economic.

As you can see, a Riverside personal injury accident case can be predicated on far more than a car accident. If you would like to have a free and detailed evaluation of a potential personal injury case in which you are the victim, please contact the Riverside personal injury accident team of Ledger & Associates at 951-801-5862 or 800-300-0001. The Riverside office is located at 11801 Pierce Street
Riverside, CA 92505