You’ve seen the ads. You’ve seen the billboards. You probably know that if you’ve been hurt in an accident that you should call a personal injury attorney. Â
The Lacy Employment Law Firm could not agree more. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you recover more money. And can help you sue for damages.
Personal injury cases may seem the same. There are more personal injury attorneys than almost any other type of attorney.
How do you determine the personal injury attorney that’s right for your case?
The Lacy Employment Law Firm is an employment law firm. Let’s get that out the way. We will take a select number of personal injury cases. We tend to selectively limit our cases to those in which someone suffered catastrophic damages.
Why do we do that? Because if you have suffered those types of damages, you need someone by your side ready to try your case. Â
And here, at The Lacy Employment Law Firm, we are trial attorneys that can take any type of case to trial. The type of law does not matter.
For the other types of cases, we refer them out to experienced Pittsburgh and Philadelphia personal injury lawyers.
Before you speak to a Pittsburgh or Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer, you should give us a call first.
Here’s why:
Personal injury is a subset of civil law. There are two types of law in this country, criminal and civil. Most people are familiar with criminal law.
Unlike criminal law, no one is going to jail when it comes to civil law. The goal in every civil case is to sue someone or some entity to recover money.
In personal injury cases, the goal is to sue and recover damages for lost wages, medical expenses, pain and suffering, and even punitive damages. Â
A personal injury law firm focuses specifically on personal injury cases. We are not a personal injury law firm. Â
We focus almost exclusively on employment case, with the rare exception of personal injury cases that are likely to go to try or involve a significant injury. Â
The reason we only take a sliver of personal injury claims that may come our way is because we refer the cases requiring specialization to lawyers with years of experience in that area.
There are many different types of personal injury claims. Here’s a list of a few:
These are premise liability cases where someone slips and falls on someone’s property. There are other types of premises liability cases, but slip and falls are the most common.
Medical practice claims involve doctor error. In these cases, the doctor commits an error resulting in injury. Medical malpractice cases tend to be catastrophic. Â
An example of a catastrophic case would be one that results in a traumatic brain injury.
A car accident case is one in which a person is injured during a car accident. That’s fairly obvious. But what isn’t obvious is that a car accident lawyer must possess skill in dealing with insurance companies. Â
A good car accident lawyer will get you a better settlement sole based on the insurance company knowing that the lawyer fights hard. And that the insurance company cannot expect the car accident lawyer to take a quick settlement.
You need someone who deals with numerous car accidents. Handling a large volume of car accidents gives an attorney the needed experience to negotiate with the insurance company.
A motor vehicle case is one in which any motor vehicle injured someone else. This could include:
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You need a Pittsburgh or Philadelphia personal injury attorney that is experienced in each of these types of cases. Each type has specific nuances can only be conquered with years of experience.
In a past life, Attorney Lacy exclusively handled complex product liability cases. There’s normally two types: heavy-machinery cases and pharmaceutical drug cases.
These are the types of cases that The Lacy Employment Law firm will handle, given Attorney Lacy’s years of experience in this niche. Â
In product liability cases, you typically have to prove that the manufacturer of the product was negligent in some way. This normally happens through expert testimony.
A wrongful death case is one in which a person dies because of someone else’s negligence. We see this typically in medical malpractice or product liability cases.
These claims end up being brought by someone’s relative. These cases are the most catastrophic and routinely result in million dollar verdicts at trial. Sometimes much more.Â
But if you’re grieving the loss of a loved one, no amount of compensation is less than you deserve.
The law around most personal injury cases is relatively straightforward. It involves proving that someone breached some type of duty and that the breach caused you duty.
This means that someone should have created a safe product, taken better care while driving, performed the surgery up to a medical standard of care, etc.
The law that applies across all of these types of personal injury cases might be the same. But what’s important is the facts and evidence-gathering.
Someone who has deposed hundreds of doctors understands what questions to ask in a medical malpractice case. Â
Similarly, someone who has worked with hundreds of engineers possesses the ability to determine whether the manufacturer adequately designed the crane.
The law may be straightforward. But the application of it to the facts is not.  Â
For complex personal injury cases you must get a lawyer. If you think your case is going to court, then it’s complex.
You can’t do this alone. First, there are many procedural rules in civil law. You have to file motions. Serve discovery. Respond to motions to dismiss. These are all things that a lawyer is trained to do.
Next, you may have to work with experts. And master certain types of science. Lawyers are only able to master the science after years of experience. You cannot do this for one case.Â
There is always a temptation to not hire a lawyer in a small dollar personal injury case. These are ones that usually involve a motor vehicle. Â
Trust us, negotiating with the insurance company is hard work. And they know a person with a lawyer is much less of a threat to file a case in court.
Because you do not pose that threat, the insurance company might try to lowball you.
Although your personal injury lawyer will take a fee, you still are likely to walk away with more money.
If you’ve been injured you should see a lawyer right away. Most lawyers offer a free consultation.
You want to make sure that all evidence is preserved. And a good attorney can advise you on that.Â
You also have only so long to file your case. Personal injury claims have a statute of limitations. If you wait too long you may lose your ability to file your personal injury case. Â
Your injury will impact your job. You might need a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  You might need to take unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Contacting an employment attorney after you are injured is smart. We can help you fill out the correct paperwork.
We can educate you on your disability rights.
And we will be there for you if your employer discriminates against you. Or if your company retaliates against you.
Further, we can assess your personal injury case and get you in touch with a top-notice personal injury attorney.
This is the best part. If you’re coming to us early, we will give you this consultation for free. You will get employment advice, a referral for a great personal injury attorney, and be on your way to obtaining a high settlement or jury award.
You could go to Google and look at reviews. That’s an okay way to judge an attorney. But you have to consider that most people will leave a positive review when asked.
And some people may not even realize that their attorney did a poor job. If an attorney hands you a check for $100,000, you might not question the fact that you could have gotten you $200,000. Â
Referrals are probably the best way to find a reputable attorney. As employment attorneys, we often get our referrals from personal injury lawyers.
We are in a good position to assess who is and who is not a good lawyer for your case.   Â
We only take a very small number of cases ourselves with our main focus being employment law. Â
We only take cases that we feel are trial worthy. Or that a trial lawyer could push a higher settlement. Sometimes cases settle when they believe that the lawyer will actually take it to trial.
Trial lawyers can really take any case, if it’s going to trial. Jerry Spence and Johnny Conchran are two of the best trial lawyers of all time. They both handled criminal and civil cases, two completely different areas of the law.
If a case is going to trial or might go to trial, we can handle it.Â
Regarding everything else, it’s our goal to find you a lawyer that will get you the highest settlement.  Â
The best lawyers tend to find good cases. We want those lawyers to refer good cases to us. And we have a large interest in referring good cases to them. Â
So, instead of looking at Google or asking your buddy who they used for a lawyer, call us instead. Â
We will refer you to a good lawyer. And we will do it for free.
Lawyers stick to what they are good at. We are good at employment law. We are good at trying any type of case to verdict. We are good at pushing high settlement demands.
You should give us a call. We will not take a case that we cannot do well. But we will refer you to someone that can. Â
The Lacy Employment Law Firm
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