People seek out the services of personal injury attorneys in Destin, FL when they are owed compensation for injuries they have sustained as a result of someone else’s carelessness.
Accident victims can have personal injuries that include traumatic brain injuries, fractures, spinal cord injuries, soft tissue injuries, broken bones, burns, and much more. Even if you have bruises and scrapes, you should still seek out the legal counsel of experienced attorneys.
Your Destin personal injury lawyers can help you level the playing field when it comes to insurance companies while advising you of your rights. With an experienced attorney in your corner, you can rest easier and heal knowing that we will fight for maximum compensation.
At Fasig | Brooks, we offer free consultations for accident victims in Destin, FL. We will discuss what happened and help potential clients understand their rights. We may be able to develop a claim or take their case to trial and recover monetary damages for them.
Types of Personal Injury Accidents
Accidents happen: they are a part of life. However, some accidents are the result of severe recklessness and negligence. Examples of accidents that cause Destin personal injury claims include:
Destin Car Accident Lawyer: Specializes in representing clients injured in car accidents, focusing on securing compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
Destin Motorcycle Accident Lawyer: Provides legal representation for motorcyclists involved in accidents, aiming to protect their rights and pursue fair compensation for injuries.
Destin Truck Accident Lawyer: Focuses on cases involving large truck accidents, working to hold trucking companies and drivers accountable for negligence or regulatory violations.
Destin Catastrophic Injuries Lawyer: Represents clients who have suffered severe, life-altering injuries, seeking maximum compensation for long-term medical care and loss of income.
Destin Bicycle Accident Lawyer: Advocates for cyclists injured in accidents, ensuring they receive compensation for medical costs, rehabilitation, and other damages.
Destin Slip and Fall Lawyer: Handles cases involving slip and fall injuries due to unsafe property conditions, fighting for compensation for medical expenses and lost wages.
Destin Work-Related Accident Lawyer: Represents workers injured on the job, helping them navigate workers’ compensation claims and potential third-party lawsuits.
Destin Product Liability Lawyer: Focuses on cases where defective or dangerous products cause injuries, holding manufacturers and distributors accountable.
Destin Medical Malpractice Lawyer: Represents patients harmed by medical negligence, seeking compensation for additional medical expenses, suffering, and other damages.
Destin Rideshare Accident Lawyer: Specializes in accidents involving rideshare vehicles, ensuring injured parties receive fair compensation from insurance companies.
Destin Wrongful Death Lawyer: Provides legal support to families who have lost a loved one due to another party’s negligence, seeking compensation for their loss.
Destin Uber Accident Lawyer: Focuses on cases involving Uber accidents, working to secure compensation for injuries and damages from rideshare companies or at-fault drivers.
Destin Pedestrian Accident Lawyer: Represents pedestrians injured in accidents, pursuing compensation from negligent drivers or other responsible parties.
Destin Boating Accident Lawyer: Handles cases involving boating accidents, working to secure compensation for injuries caused by operator negligence or other factors.
Destin Dog Bite Lawyer: Specializes in cases where individuals have been injured by dog bites, seeking compensation for medical expenses and emotional distress.
Destin Construction Accident Lawyer: Represents construction workers injured on the job, pursuing compensation for injuries resulting from unsafe work conditions or employer negligence.
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What Should I Do After an Accident in Destin?
Being injured in an accident can be a scary, painful, and confusing event. It can be challenging to know what you should do and what actions you should take to support your personal injury claim. Here are a few tips to keep in mind if you are in an accident through no fault of your own:
Call 911
The dispatcher will send paramedics to take care of your injuries and police to assess what happened. The police will write a report of what happened, which can be used as leverage when negotiating with the insurance company.
Never Apologize or Admit Responsibility
Always remember that anything you say can be used against you. For some people, it is human nature to feel guilty about a terrible accident—even if they are not at fault. People may feel compassion and empathy towards the other person and apologize or admit fault. Insurance companies will use this to deny your claim or severely reduce your compensation. In the event of an accident, it’s always better to say as little as possible.
Apologizing can be misconstrued as an admission of guilt or fault, so don’t do it even if you feel like consoling the perpetrator. Also, avoid talking about your injuries and accident on social media since the other person’s insurance company will use it against you.
Get as Much Evidence From the Accident Scene as Possible
If you can, document the accident scene to build your personal injury case. Take pictures of your injuries, the surroundings, and anything related to the accident. Also, get the contact information of any witnesses.
Go to the Hospital or Doctor
No matter what kind of personal injury you’ve suffered in Destin, FL, or even if you feel pain, you should always get your injuries examined after an accident.
There are many reasons you should prioritize your health. First, you may be in shock and not realize how bad your injuries are, like with whiplash or organ damage. We recommend going to the emergency room so that you can get medical care ASAP.
Secondly, it is incredibly helpful to have a paper trail of evidence concerning the extent of your injuries when it comes to potential litigation. Waiting a week or two before seeing a doctor could hinder your insurance claim.
Finally, seek the legal services of a Destin personal injury lawyer.
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The Three Parts of a Personal Injury Case in Destin
Most personal injury lawsuits comprise the following three elements:
- Duty of care
- Breach of duty
- Causation
Duty of care means another person’s obligation not to injure others or place them in harm’s way. We all have a duty of care towards others, and in a personal injury case, this is the first consideration to determine if you have a claim.
For example, a store owner or manager has a duty of care to keep people safe by mopping up spills, sweeping up broken glass, fixing broken steps or pathways, and much more. The store must take reasonable action to ensure its customers are safe from harm. Personal injury lawyers can help determine what could be considered reasonable.
Once a duty of care has been established, your experienced personal injury lawyer can help you determine if the duty of care was breached via recklessness or negligence. For example, failing to fix a loose handrail for many months.
According to personal injury law, if the defendant created a dangerous situation or broke the law in a hazardous matter, this would be a breach of duty.
Finally, you must establish causation between the personal injury accident and your injuries. If the store had a duty to clean up a spill, and they failed to mop it up, and you slipped and fell in the puddle and hurt your back, you can be compensated for your injuries and medical expenses.
These cases can be complicated, which is why you should contact Destin personal injury lawyers immediately. For example, in the slip and fall scenario, the store owner could claim that you fell because you were looking at your phone. Or they may say that you had a pre-existing back injury.
Compensation for Your Injuries
Your experienced personal injury lawyer can help you prove that you suffered harm because of someone else’s negligence and that you are entitled to receive compensation for your damages. Damages could be emotional, physical, or financial. Accident victims who suffered moderate to severe injuries can seek economic and non-economic damages.
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The Personal Injury Claims Process in Destin
Filing a personal injury claim in Destin requires several steps, and you must ensure that each step is done correctly to give your claim the best chance of success. Our professional legal team knows how to handle personal injury cases, and we are here to help you start the process.
The personal injury process in Florida involves:
- Filing a claim against the at-fault party to notify them that you are seeking compensation
- Negotiating for a favorable settlement with the at-fault party’s insurance company
- Filing a personal injury lawsuit with the court if the negotiations cannot be settled
- Pursuing alternative dispute resolutions
- Having your personal injury lawyer litigate the case in court if an agreement cannot be reached in any other way
At Fasig | Brooks, we handle all possible approaches so that our clients can get the compensation they deserve. We inform our clients of their rights, notify them of all their options, and help them find the path that will be the most effective.
We represent our clients’ interests throughout the entire process, and we will fight for the appropriate payouts based on their claims.
Contracts Claims vs. Tort Claims
There are two kinds of personal injury claims that you can file in Destin, FL: contracts claims and tort claims. Most injury cases resulting from someone else’s negligence typically fall under tort law. This means that you can file a lawsuit against the responsible party to receive financial compensation after an accident.
Tort Claims
The following steps must be taken to file a tort claim:
- You must file a written complaint with the Clerk of Court
- The defendant must be served the complaint
- If the defendant fails to respond, they automatically default, and you win your case by default
Contracts Claims
Contracts claims happen when one party owes another party service unrelated to recklessness or negligence. For example, if you hire a contractor to work on your home and they fail to finish the job to reasonable standards.
At Fasig | Brooks, our legal team can aid you in filing either a contract or tort claim in Florida. We have helped many clients handle these claims over the years, and we will fight every step of the way to get you the financial compensation you deserve. Call us to schedule a free case evaluation and learn more about your legal rights.
Your Deadline for Filing a Personal Injury Claim
In the state of Florida, you must abide by a statute of limitations, which is four years from when the accident happened. In order to receive the total compensation that you are legally entitled to, you must meet this legal deadline.
Our personal injury attorneys will do everything in their power to gather all the evidence you need to meet this deadline.
Damages in a Personal Injury Case
Here are some common damages found in different types of personal injury cases:
- Medical costs: This can include surgery costs, medical care, physical therapy, medications, and future medical treatment that result from serious injuries.
- Lost wages: This means income that you lose due to inability to work. This also includes future wages that you are unable to earn.
- Property damage: This covers damage to your property, such as your phone, the cost of repairs following car accidents, etc.
- Pain and suffering: Destin accident victims can seek compensation for all the pain and unhappiness they have suffered because of someone else’s actions. This can include a diminished quality of life.
- Emotional distress: Severe accidents in Destin, Florida, can create psychological issues that include anxiety, stress, fear, PTSD, depression, and more.
- Loss of enjoyment: If an accident has taken away your ability to do something that makes you happy, like going on walks, painting, biking, or reading, your injury lawyer can help you get compensated for such a drastic change in your life.
- Loss of consortium or relationships: If your accident has resulted in your relationships suffering, like with your spouse, child, or parent, you can recover damages.
At Fasig | Brooks, we also handle wrongful death cases. These are personal injury cases in which someone has passed away from their injuries. In a wrongful death case, the personal injury lawyer helps surviving family members recover compensation for medical bills, funeral costs, loss of services, lost income, pain and suffering, and emotional loss.
Why Should I Seek Compensation?
Recovering compensation isn’t about getting rich because you were involved in a car accident or other type of accident; it’s about preventing victims from suffering financially. It is not fair for anyone to worry about losing their house, car, or falling behind on bills because someone else was reckless or careless. Your legal team in Destin, Florida, will help protect your financial security and ensure that your medical bills and other accident-related costs are covered.
Personal injury law allows victims to seek damages, with or without an attorney, for anything they have lost due to an injury. You should never have to pay for the expenses that occurred because of another party’s callous behavior, including careless or thoughtless actions.
Some damages have clearly defined value, like the cost of surgery and the cost of a car—they can be deduced from medical bills and receipts. Other damages can be harder to place a monetary value on since they are abstract concepts like emotional damage and pain and suffering.
When Do I Need a Personal Injury Lawyer Destin?
Your personal injury lawyer is here to fight for your right to receive a fair settlement. We go above and beyond to bring you justice and a fair settlement amount, so you and your loved ones do not need to struggle needlessly.
If you or a loved one has been injured in Destin, Florida, you are entitled to recover monetary compensation due to someone else’s negligence. Personal injury cases can be complex. You may need to seek the legal services of a personal injury law firm. Your attorney will be by your side every step of the way of your personal injury claim.
At Fasig | Brooks, we represent clients and streamline the personal injury process for them so we can get them a favorable resolution.
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