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West Greenville Personal Injury Lawyer
Injuries can happen at any time or any place, and there is no shortage of scenarios in which they can occur. Even the most cautious individuals may still fall victim to the negligent actions of others, resulting in serious injuries or even lifelong disability or death. When this happens, a personal injury suit is an option that many take to pursue compensation for medical expenses, emotional trauma, or a forced change in lifestyle due to the injury. If you’re considering legal action against the negligent parties responsible for your injuries, hiring a West Greenville personal injury lawyer is an important first step.
Do I Really Need a West Greenville Personal Injury Lawyer?
While you’re not legally required to hire a lawyer for a personal injury lawsuit, doing so may significantly increase your chances of securing fair compensation. Working with a local personal injury attorney in West Greenville – one who is familiar with local ordinances and state laws regarding negligence – also means that you’ll be spending less time filing paperwork and compiling evidence and more time focusing on healing from your injuries.
What Sets HawkLaw Apart
Hiring a lawyer locally is a great first step to securing a solid personal injury claim, but you’ll also want to make sure that your lawyer has plenty of verified successes in the courtroom as well as positive testimonials from past clients. HawkLaw has proudly recovered over $200 million in damages* for our clients in a diverse array of personal injury cases, and we’ve dedicated over 20 years to serving our communities in South Carolina.
What Is a Personal Injury Claim?
A personal injury claim is a legal process that allows victims who have been injured due to negligence to pursue compensation for the damages that they’ve suffered. A person may file a personal injury claim for physical injuries such as brain or spinal cord injuries, burns, or broken bones, or for actions that may encompass more than just physical injury such as sexual abuse or nursing home abuse.
You don’t necessarily need to be a direct victim of a negligent party; if your loved one is killed or severely injured due to the harmful actions of others, you may be able to file a lawsuit for your own losses, or on behalf of your loved one for ongoing care.
Types of Personal Injury Cases We Take
HawkLaw represents people who are seriously injured because of others’ negligence. Many of our clients seek our counsel for help with:
Car, Truck, and Other Vehicle Claims
Car accidents, motorcycle accidents and truck accidents are among the most common causes of injury. The injuries that result from motor vehicle accidents are often very serious, especially in the case of an intoxicated or distracted driver, which means that the cost of medical bills and property damage are very high. Our team of West Greenville personal injury attorneys is exceptionally talented in gathering evidence and negotiating settlements in these cases, and many other related ones such as:
Work-Related Injury Claims
Most South Carolinians spend more time at work than at home, and that can increase the risk of a serious injury. This is especially true if you work a physically demanding or dangerous job such as construction or manufacturing. While workers’ compensation is one avenue for help after a work-related injury or illness, if a worker is harmed due to negligence (whether from an employer, co-worker, or someone else), they may be able to pursue a personal injury claim.
Dangerous Properties
Premises liability laws essentially state that a property owner has a duty to prevent their visitors from being harmed while on their property. For example, if a person slips and falls in an icy parking lot of a grocery store or if a neighbor’s dog gets loose and bites a person knocking on their door, the property owner or manager can be sued for the injuries that occur as a result. This protection may even extend to trespassers if the victim is a child or if the trespasser was intentionally harmed through malicious means.
Dangerous Products
Manufacturers of harmful products can also be held liable for their negligent actions. This can include medications with life-threatening side effects, poorly prepared food that makes consumers sick, or beauty products that cause skin rashes. It may also include building materials that contain toxic elements such as lead or asbestos. Whether the manufacturer knowingly put these dangerous products on the market or they did not keep up with the testing required to prevent serious injury or illness to consumers, the public has a right to seek compensation for the damages they suffered as a result of poorly developed products. Our firm takes dangerous product cases very seriously and if we believe that others have suffered in addition to our clients, there may be grounds for a class action.
Medical Negligence and Malpractice
Doctors, nurses, dentists, and all other medical professionals have a legal obligation to provide care and advice that will not cause avoidable harm to their patients. If this duty is breached, whether intentional or not, there may be grounds for a medical negligence lawsuit. For example, if a surgeon fails to sanitize their equipment before a procedure and their patient suffers an infection as a result, the patient or their family may be able to sue for their suffering or loss.
Wrongful Death
In all of the types of personal injury cases listed above, there is always a risk of death as a result of the incident that occurred. When a person dies as a result of the negligence of another person, business, or organization, their family has a right to sue for their loss and the suffering that their loved one endured. In wrongful death cases, it’s common for our clients to not only receive compensation for the emotional trauma that comes with losing a loved one, but also for the burden of medical debt that their loved one may have left behind as well as funeral and burial expenses.
How Long Will My Injury Case in West Greenville Take?
The length of time that a personal injury case may take can differ significantly depending on the specific circumstances surrounding the case. For example, a car accident that was captured on camera and seen by multiple witnesses is typically more “open and shut” than a case involving a long-term (but not life-threatening) illness or injury.
Beyond this, other factors beyond either the plaintiff’s, defendant’s, or even the Court’s control may contribute to a shorter or longer settlement process. This is one of many reasons why it’s important to contact a lawyer as soon as you make the decision to file a personal injury suit. Not only will collecting evidence and filing paperwork alone take many weeks or months to complete, but you also generally only have three years from the date of the accident to file due to South Carolina’s statute of limitations. Except in very rare cases, once the statute of limitations is up, you will lose your opportunity to seek compensation for your injury.
How Much Is My West Greenville Injury Claim Worth?
Every case is different, so we cannot estimate the costs of your claim without understanding the nature of your case. What we can say is that all injury victims can seek to recoup their losses. Damages are generally organized into two categories in South Carolina – economic and non-economic . Economic damages include the quantifiable financial losses that you’ve sustained due to negligence. Examples include:
- Medical bills, including therapy, medications, and treatment cost
- Lost wages and income due to your inability to work
- Damage to your property
Non-economic damages, on the other hand, are more subjective. Examples of non-economic damages may include:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional trauma, such as depression, anxiety, or PTSD
- Loss of opportunity due to emotional trauma, such as the inability to find work or socialize
- Disfigurement
- Loss of consortium
- Loss of enjoyment of life
Because non-economic damages are not tangible, there is often disagreement between the parties about how much should be awarded. This is why having an experienced West Greenville injury lawyer on your side may be beneficial. At HawkLaw, we have years of experience negotiating for fair and just settlement offers. And if those negotiations fail, we are always prepared to try cases in front of a judge and jury.
The Personal Injury Claims Process in South Carolina
Regardless of why you or a loved one is seeking compensation, the process of filing a personal injury suit generally follows the same guidelines. Once you have sought medical attention and hired us as your legal representation, we can:
- Review all your documentation and reports. We look at your medical records, employment records, police report (if applicable), and any immediately available videos or photos. With this information, we can deduce who may be liable and assess your current (and potential) medicals expenses, lost wages and related costs.
- File a claim, generally with an insurance company: We start with an insurance claim, in most cases. We create a demand letter that speaks to your losses and we send it to the insurance company.
- Negotiate: We may need to go back-and-forth with the insurance company a few times, but often, we can reach a fair settlement offer for your losses.
- Pursue legal action: If a fair settlement cannot be reached, we can file a personal injury lawsuit in Circuit Court. Once the lawsuit has been filed, we begin the discovery process, which includes:
- Taking depositions
- Submitting interrogatories
- Requesting any and all evidence and documentation the defense has
- Making appropriate pre-trial motions regarding discovery and evidence
- Hiring expert witnesses to help with your case
- Renegotiate: At this point in the process, we may open up negotiations again with the defense, to see if a fair settlement can be reached. Often, insurance companies and other defendants are more willing to negotiate in good faith because they realize we are willing to go to trial.
- Trial: If these final negotiations fail, we try your case.
As you can see, the personal injury claims process has a lot of moving parts. Fortunately, hiring a lawyer for personal injury makes this process a lot easier for you; your law firm handles almost all of it, including communicating with the negligent parties and insurance companies, gathering evidence, and filing paperwork at the correct deadlines.
Do You Have a West Greenville Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me?
HawkLaw serves most of South Carolina, and has offices all over the state, including Greenville. If you’re based in West Greenville or any other area of the city, our office is conveniently located at 3 Caledon Court, Unit A, Greenville, SC 29615, right off Pelham Road, next to Bimini’s Oyster Bar and Seafood Cafe.
Contact a West Greenville Injury Attorney Today
Regardless of the event that has caused you to consider filing a personal injury suit, we understand that you’re likely going through an incredibly difficult time in your life and feeling anxious about the future. HawkLaw prides itself not only on our decades of experience in personal injury cases but our dedication to serving as advocates to members of our community who have struggled to get their voices heard. Whether you’re just beginning the claims process or you’re looking for advice on how to navigate a current claim, our West Greenville injury attorneys want to hear from you. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.
Frequent Asked Questions
When a lawyer works on contingency, it means that the firm covers all of the costs involved with filing a suit (including their own fees) upfront*. If you win your case, these costs will be repaid with part of your settlement. If you do not win your case, you will not be required to pay anything*.
In most cases, no. Most plaintiffs are successful in pursuing compensation through the settlement process, especially if there is clear evidence they’ve been wronged. In cases where there is limited evidence, the defendant (or the insurer) refuses to negotiate fairly or in good faith, or the plaintiff is being countersued, you may end up in trial.
The most important thing you should bring to an initial consultation for a personal injury suit is any documentation that relates to your case. This may include witness testimony or contact information, medical bills, communication between you and your insurance, medical reports, pictures of property damage or injuries, and police reports. Additionally, it may help to write down a list of questions you may have for your lawyer so that you have a clear understanding of the process and what to expect in the coming weeks or months.
In some personal injury cases, there may be multiple people responsible for a person’s injuries, including the claimant. However, even if you are partially to blame for your own injuries, you likely still have a good chance at securing compensation for your injuries, so long as the other person is mostly responsible for your injuries. South Carolina follows a “modified” comparative negligence doctrine, which means that as long as you are deemed no more than 50% at fault, you can still receive compensation for damages.
At HawkLaw, clients work with an entire team of legal professionals. You’ll meet with a lawyer to discuss your case, and your attorney will handle the negotiations, reviewing the evidence, working with expert witnesses, and so forth. Our team members may handle other aspects of your case, like sending you paperwork to sign or requesting documents for your doctor or employer. Of course, if you have any questions about the progress of your case, or anything else, we are happy to answer questions or clarify any worries you may have.
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Greenville, SC 29615
John Hawkins is the Founder and CEO of HawkLaw He has been licensed to practice law in South Carolina since his graduation with honors in 1994 from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he was on the Law Review and Order of Wig and Robe.