Personal Injury Attorneys in Concord

In order to determine whether or not you have grounds for filing a personal injury claim, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Did the responsible party owe you a "duty of care"? - In other words, was there a reasonable expectation that they should have acted in a manner that prevented another person's injury?
2. Did the responsible party breach that duty of care? - For example, if a driver was speeding, they can be considered to have breached the duty of care by violating the posted speed limit.
3. Did you incur damages as a result of that breach? - In order to claim personal injury damages, you must be able to prove that the injuries you suffered were a result of that other individual's behavior.

If you aren't sure whether or not you have grounds for pursuing a personal injury claim, you can reach out to our legal team today and discuss your case in a free initial consultation.

A question that we hear often from our clients is how much they should ask for when accepting a settlement, so it is worth exploring here. The answer is that you should ask for as much as you deserve based on your injuries and damages. There is no default dollar amount that makes a settlement worth accepting because every claim has a unique value.

Damages that add to the value of your claim include:

• Medical treatments
• Property damage
• Lost wages and income
• Pain and suffering
• Permanent disabilities
• Scarring and disfigurement

We can carefully calculate your claim’s damages by evaluating all of the ways that your life and finances have been impacted by the accident that the defendant caused. We will also want to research to see if the defendant has more than one insurance policy that we can file against, which could improve your chances of getting full compensation before hitting an insurance policy cap. Only through this thorough process can you then be sure that you are asking for the right amount in a settlement.

A personal injury settlement is usually paid in one of two ways:

• Lump-sum: If your settlement is a paid as a lump-sum settlement, then you will be paid the full amount at once.
• Monthly: When a lump-sum settlement is not offered or possible due to the defendant’s financial restrictions, the money will instead be paid in monthly increments, usually spaced out over two or so years, depending on how much is owed.

Keep in mind that any amount of compensation you receive might first be reduced by the payments of miscellaneous costs and debts owed. For example, if your injuries were treated through a medical lien, then the physician that agreed to the lien will need to be reimbursed first.

No one wants to wait forever to get the compensation that they need after being in an accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence. Yet it could be a bit of time before your case can reach a settlement. The average settlement time is difficult to estimate because all cases are different, but, in an ideal situation that involves no serious pushback from an insurance company, you could expect to see a settlement within four or six months of your accident.

On the contrary, if your claim is hotly contested and it has to go to court for litigation, then the timeline to close it will be much longer. It is not unusual for personal injury lawsuits to take one or two years to end. One of our promises to you when you are our client is that we will do all we can to ensure your case runs as smoothly as it can and with as few delays as possible.

Why should you hire our Concord personal injury attorneys from Upton & Hatfield, LLP when you could handle your injury claim on your own? We think our experience is simply too impressive to pass up. When you let us manage your case, all of our experience effectively becomes yours. There will be no complicated legal questions thanks to our knowledge, and there shouldn’t be any insurance company tricks thanks to our reputation. All in all, when you hire our Concord personal injury lawyers, you give yourself the opportunity to pursue compensation while simultaneously resting and focusing on your health and family.