Woodland Heights Personal Injury Lawyer

It’s frequently said that accidents are a part of life, but that doesn’t mean that they’re any less devastating when they occur, especially when they result in serious bodily injury, an inability to provide for your family, or even the death of a loved one. In cases where a negligent person’s actions caused your losses, filing a personal injury suit may be your only chance at a full recovery. A Woodland Heights personal injury lawyer from HawkLaw can help. Call us today to get started.

What Does a Woodland Heights Personal Injury Lawyer Do?

The primary role of a Woodland Heights personal injury lawyer is to help their clients recover compensation when a negligent party injures them or damages their property. To do this, they may assist with evidence collection, filing paperwork, or interviewing and/or deposing witnesses, insurance representatives, or the negligent party themselves. Once they’re able to build a solid case for their client, they advocate for their client during the settlement process or represent them in court if a fair settlement cannot be reached.

Why We Want You to Choose HawkLaw

We understand that you have plenty of choices when it comes to law firms, but when it comes to personal injury suits, who you pick to represent you is arguably the most important decision you can make. HawkLaw is a well-established law firm whose experienced attorneys have represented South Carolinians for several decades, and we have the results and testimonials to prove it. We’ve recovered more than $200 million* for our clients in a variety of complicated cases. To find out how we can apply the same dedication and resources to your case, we encourage you to reach out for a free consultation*.

Can I Afford a Woodland Heights Injury Attorney?

Yes, you can afford a Woodland Heights injury attorney from HawkLaw. Our firm offers our services on a contingency basis, which means that our clients never pay legal fees upfront*. Additionally, if you don’t win your case, you will not be required to pay anything at all for our legal representation*.

What Kinds of Injury Claims Do You Take?

Typically, HawkLaw is open to taking any case where a person has been negligently harmed either from a physical injury, emotional trauma, or damage to their property. This may include (but is not limited to) claims involving:

• Broken bones
• Brain injuries
• Spinal cord injuries
• Burns
• Birth defects or birth injury
• Coma, brain death, or vegetative states
• Organ damage
• Internal bleeding
• Permanent scarring or disfigurement
• Amputation
• Assault, including physical or sexual abuse
• Workplace illness
• Permanent or temporary disability

Our firm also works with the surviving family members of individuals who have died due to the negligent actions of another person or organization to pursue justice and compensation for their loss.

Common Causes of Serious Injury in South Carolina

HawkLaw routinely represents people who have sustained catastrophic injuries – the types of injuries that cause long-term, if not permanent, damage and trauma. While a person can be hurt in myriad ways, the most common causes of our clients’ serious injuries are:

Motor Vehicle Accidents

In 2023, more than a thousand people were killed in traffic accidents in South Carolina; on average, around 40,000 people are injured in traffic accidents on our roads each year.

Regardless of the severity, it’s never a good idea to handle car accident cases without a lawyer, especially in cases involving motorcycle riders, intoxicated drivers, or injured pedestrians or cyclists, which can result in life-threatening injuries. Taking on rideshare companies, transportation authorities, or trucking companies that have million-dollar legal budgets at their disposal is virtually impossible to do on your own. Fortunately, our legal team has an excellent track record in these types of cases and more, many of which were settled before going to court.

Fatal Accidents

If you’ve lost a family member due to an accident or injury caused by the negligent actions of someone else, you have a right to pursue compensation for your loss and suffering. You can also pursue economic damages such as your loved one’s lost income, medical bills left behind, or burial and funeral costs. These types of personal injury cases are known as wrongful death lawsuits, and out compassionate counselors are here to guide you through the process while advocating for your rights.

Dangerous Properties

Premises liability law in South Carolina holds property owners and managers responsible for maintaining their premise. Specifically, those in charge of the premises must eliminate or warn of unreasonable risks to invitees and  warn of hidden dangers to licensees. Failure to do so leaves them open to liability in cases involving a dog attack or slipping and falling on a wet floor or icy walkway. If there’s evidence that shows your injury could have been avoided through a property owner’s actions, we want to help.

Work-Related Injury Claims

Workers’ compensation is a tool for injured workers to receive compensation for medical expenses and lost wages during their recovery process. In most cases, workers’ compensation is a great tool for workers who were injured while performing duties arising from and in the course and scope of their employment, such as a construction worker who loses their balance and falls from their scaffolding. Unfortunately, workers’ compensation is not an option for some self employeed workers or some classes of workers like temporary farm laborers.

While workers’ compensation can cover medical expenses, occupational therapy, medication, and some wages, it is not designed to cover non-economic damages such as pain and suffering. However, when a worker is injured on the job due to the negligence of a third party, a personal injury suit may be an additional option for recovery of non-economic damages. An experienced attorney can help you evaluate whether you may have the right also to pursue a third party claim in addition to a workers’ compensation claim. HawkLaw is experienced in both and can help you with a workers’ compensation claim or a personal injury claim at any stage in the process.

Dangerous Products

Government regulation is supposed to weed out harmful products that can cause illness or injury to consumers who buy them, but it doesn’t stop all dangerous products from reaching the market. Some manufacturers ignore those regulations; others work off an inherently faulty design, or use shoddy materials to save money. Whether this is done intentionally or unintentionally is irrelevant; you can file a product liability claim regardless. In some cases, you may wish to join or pursue a class action lawsuit on your own.

Medical Negligence and Malpractice

Medical professionals owe you, their patient, a duty of care. If they fail in this duty, you can hold them liable for your injuries and losses. Medical malpractice lawsuits can name doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, specialists, and others as defendants, which can make them challenging to pursue without legal counsel. After all, they have a small army of lawyers on their side; you deserve to have a fighter on your side, too.

What Damages Can I Seek After a Serious Injury?

If the defendant in your personal injury case is deemed negligent, your lawyer will point to specific examples of ways this negligence has harmed you. You can seek compensation for these harms, and that compensation is known as damages. There are three types of damages that a person can sue for:

• Economic damages are compensation for specific financial losses, such as medical bills, lost wages and income, property damage, and more. If there is a receipt, it is an economic damage.
• Non-economic damages are not as defined, and can include emotional trauma, including anxiety PTSD, or depression, disfigurement, the inability to socialize, loss of consortium, or the inability to find work after an injury. These are generally subjective, and it can help you to have a Woodland Heights injury lawyer who knows how to calculate these damages.
• Punitive damages are designed as a form of punishment, and they are very rare. In South Carolina, you must be awarded compensatory damages (economic and non-economic) to even claim them, and then as a plaintiff you need to provide “clear and convincing evidence that [the] harm was the result of the defendant’s wilful, wanton, or reckless conduct.” The State imposes caps on these damages as well. We can discuss whether or not your case merits this type of request during our consultation.

Filing a Personal Injury Claim in South Carolina

The process for filing a personal injury claim in South Carolina generally works like this:

You contact the proper authorities about the incident that caused you harm: In a car crash or assault act, you’ll get a police report. In a work-related case, you’ll get an incident report. The point is to get documentation about the incident that is official. This helps inform our discovery requests later.

You get a full medical workup and report on your health: This can take time, but it is one of the most important parts of any case. If we don’t understand the full extent of your injuries, we cannot accurately value your claim. That means you risk leaving money on the table, so to speak, that should be yours.

You hire a Woodland Heights personal injury lawyer: We hope you choose the attorneys of HawkLaw to represent you.

We open an official claim and send a demand letter: Once you hire us, you never have to talk to the insurance company alone again. We’ll handle all the paperwork, create the demand letter, and start the negotiations. Often, we reach a mutual agreement on a settlement and within a few weeks, you should get your compensation check. But if the insurance company refuses to negotiate in good faith, or the defendants attempt to bury us in paperwork to delay the process, then we may need to go to trial.

We pursue a personal injury lawsuit: If you’re offered an unfair claim, or if the responsible parties or the insurance company assigned to your case is ignoring communication, the next step is to file a lawsuit. Depending on the nature of the claim, this can be done at the Magistrate Court in Spartanburg, at the Court of Common Pleas, or elsewhere. Sometimes, this is enough to make insurance companies sit up and take notice; because we are willing to go to trial, they may be more willing to come back to the table for another round of settlement talks.

We take your case before a judge or jury: Jury trials can be a risk because they’re made up of people, and people can be unpredictable. But sometimes, the best chance you have at true justice comes from 12 strangers who listened to your story.

At HawkLaw, we prepare every case as though it will eventually end up in front of a jury. Not only does this give us an advantage later if we do need to go to court, but it forces us to be as precise and thorough as possible at every stage.

Do You Have a Woodland Heights Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me?

HawkLaw serves a variety of communities in South Carolina. If you need a Woodland Heights personal injury lawyer, you can visit our Spartanburg office at 5506 Reidville Rd, Moore, SC 29369. We are just down the road from Reidville Road Pet Salon and Boarding; if the salon is on your right, we’ll be coming up on our left in .3 miles. We have additional offices serving Anderson, Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville for your convenience.

Contact a Woodland Heights Injury Attorney Today

As you can see, there’s a lot that can happen when opening up a personal injury claim, and having an experienced and knowledgeable Woodland Heights injury attorney on your side may be the difference between an unsuccessful claim and a successful one. Whether you have questions about an existing claim or you need help getting started, HawkLaw is available to assist you regardless of where you are in the process. Contact us for a free consultation* or stop by our Spartanburg location today.