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How to Pick a Car Accident Attorney

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Knowing how to pick a car accident attorney when you’ve been injured in a car crash is incredibly important. It’s nice to think that every attorney will provide you with the same level of care, commitment and expertise, but that’s just not the case. Choose the wrong lawyer and you could end up getting substantially less for your personal injury lawsuit than you might have otherwise.

So, how should you choose a lawyer? Here are a few things you’ll want to either keep in mind or do before you sign on with a lawyer or legal team that you don’t know:

  1. Ask lots of questions. The last thing that you want to do is hire a lawyer that you haven’t thoroughly vetted. Ask questions that focus on the attorney’s background, practice, and history, such as:
    • How long has the lawyer been in practice?
    • Does the attorney have experience litigating car accident lawsuits?
    • Does the attorney have a history of winning personal injury cases?
    • Is there a fee for the initial consultation?
    • How much will your case cost you if you don’t win?
  2. Find out if the lawyer is professionally recognized. Legal awards and recognition from professional legal organizations can speak to an attorney’s skill and reputation. If a lawyer doesn’t have any professional awards or achievements, however, you might consider seeing what sorts of testimonials past clients have given. A lawyer who doesn’t have any specific legal awards but many glowing testimonials may just be more focused on winning cases for his clients than winning over other lawyers.
  3. What about client reviews and testimonials. The best way to tell if an attorney is a winner is to see if he/she has a winning track record. Real testimonials and a history of winning personal injury lawsuits for clients can show you just how skilled an attorney truly is.

Once you pick an attorney to handle your case, be sure to get everything in writing. The contract that you sign should specifically outline what services the attorney will provide and how fees will be assessed. Remember that even if you do not sign a written agreement but make an oral agreement to pay fees, you will be held responsible for any fees assessed under your verbal agreement.

For more information from a qualified car accident attorney who has a long track record of winning cases for his clients, call Milwaukee personal injury lawyer Karl Gebhard. Gebhard offers free initial consultations, and all personal injury lawsuits are handled on a no-fees-unless-you-win basis.

Getting Everything You Deserve For Your Car Accident Claim

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For many accident injury victims, the hours and weeks following a serious accident can be stressful, painful and scary. For those, however, who suffer traumatic, life-altering injuries like amputation, disfigurement or permanent disability, that stress and pain may never go away.

Regardless of whether your accident injuries result in short-term or long-term trauma, if the accident was not your fault, you may be entitled to monies for:

  • Lost earnings from lost wages, bonuses, commissions, and other work-related benefits.
  • Lost future earnings from wages lost because you are unable to return to work or cannot do the work that you used to be able to do.
  • Medical expenses such as medication, medical supplies, physical therapy, surgery and medical care, chiropractic care, and the like.
  • Future medical expenses for ongoing medical care like in-home care.
  • Property damage, including damage to your vehicle and personal belongings.
  • Emotional trauma, including pain, suffering, psychological trauma, and loss of companionship.
  • Punitive damages in cases of gross negligence or intentional wrongdoing.

And, if someone you love was involved in a fatal car accident, you may be entitled to damages to cover funeral and burial costs, as well as damages for loss of support and loss of companionship.

Seek Qualified Legal Counsel

One of the most important things you can do to get the full worth of your car accident claim is to work with an experienced, qualified personal injury attorney. Put your case in the hands of someone who doesn’t know Wisconsin personal injury law and you will most likely not get everything you deserve.

A good lawyer can help you understand how the law works, how to deal with insurance companies, and how to protect and build your case. Regardless how serious your injuries are, if the accident was not your fault, a good lawyer can help you build a winning a case. Depending on the specifics of your car accident lawsuit, you may be able to seek damages from:

  • The at-fault driver’s auto insurance company
  • The manufacturer of the at-fault driver’s vehicle
  • The at-fault driver’s employer
  • Anyone else who in any way may be responsible for the accident

For more information on protecting your rights after an auto accident, call Milwaukee personal injury attorney Karl Gebhard for a free consultation. He’ll fight to get you everything you deserve.

Why You Should Seek Medical Attention After an Accident

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At Gebhard Law Office, we often hear from accident injury victims who, because they did not seek medical attention after an accident, find out years later that they will not be able to recover damages from their accidents. It’s unfortunate and all too common.

Here are the three biggest reasons it is important to see a medical professional after an accident:

  1. Some types of injuries do not produce immediate signs and symptoms. Did you know that you can suffer a traumatic brain injury and not know it? Even if you do not actually hit your head during an accident, your brain can sustain very real injury just from the collision that occurs within your head when your brain hits the inner wall of your skull. Without the help of a skilled medical professional who knows how to spot the early warning signs for common accident injuries like brain trauma and whiplash, you may walk away from your accident with untreated injuries that could worsen or prove fatal.
  2. Seeking medical attention after your accident proves you took steps to minimize any physical damage you may have sustained. If you need to recover damages for medical expenses or permanent disability due to injuries you sustain in an accident, the court will want to know that you took appropriate precautions and care to minimize your injuries. If the court believes that you neglected to take care of your injuries in a reasonable manner, they could decide that responsibility for the seriousness of your injuries lies with you, and not the person with whom you were in an accident.
  3. Seeing a doctor proves that you sustained your injuries in the accident and not in some other manner. If you wait weeks to see a doctor about the injuries you receive in an accident, how can the doctor or anyone vouch for the veracity of your claim? This is particularly true when it comes to work accident injury claims, auto accident lawsuits, and premises liability claims. If you are injured through no fault of your own due to someone else’s negligence, it is extremely important that you seek medical attention right away to tie your injuries to the actual accident.

For more information on protecting your rights after an accident, call Milwaukee personal injury attorney Karl Gebhard today for a free consultation.

How to Prove Premises Liability in Wisconsin

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Proving that you deserve compensation due to unsafe or defective conditions on someone’s property can be tricky. Like most personal injury cases, premises liability lawsuits involve proving negligence. So, how do you prove premises liability in Wisconsin? If you think you’ve got a case, here are some basic concepts you’ll want to know.

What Is Premises Liability?

This is the liability of a property owner when an injury happens on his/her property that was caused by some type of unsafe or defective condition on the property that is directly related to the injury and the property.

For instance, if you slip and fall on someone’s property because they have not properly iced their sidewalks or because their walkways are cluttered with debris, the owner of that property can be held liable for your damages.

Premises liability accidents can happen just about anywhere, such as at hotels, in parking lots, in stores, business buildings, hospitals, parks, and even at private residences.

Proving Fault

Whether property is commercial or private, owners and occupiers have a legal duty to maintain their property to ensure that those who enter the property are protected from an unreasonable risk of injury. This is because owners have control over the condition (and therefore safety) of their property while while those who are just visiting do not.

To prove a premises liability claim, you must be able to show that at the time of the injury you were using the property normally. For instance, if you are injured after jumping into a water fountain or sledding off of a roof, the owner of the property is not likely to be held liable for your injuries.

Determining Liability

In order to prove that a property owner is liable for your injuries, you will need to prove at least one of the following:

  1. The property owner or occupant caused the dangerous condition.
  2. The property owner or occupant was aware of the condition and did not take action to fix it.
  3. The property owner or occupant should have been aware of the dangerous condition on the property because any reasonable person taking care of the property would have.

Obviously, the question here is negligence, which is a failure to take proper care in doing something. If you can prove negligence on the part of the property owner or occupant, you can win your case.

If you have been injured on someone else’s property through no fault of your own, call a Milwaukee personal injury lawyer with Gebhard Law Office today for a free consultation regarding a personal injury lawsuit. Services offered on a contingency basis, so you don’t pay unless you win.

 

Important Things to Know About Truck Accident Lawsuits

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If you have never been in an accident with a commercial vehicle, you may not realize that pursuing a car accident lawsuit can be very different than pursuing a case against a truck driver. Truck accident lawsuits involve a number of factors that often do not apply to standard accident-related personal injury lawsuits, such as:

  • The status of the truck driver’s license. Did the driver have a commercial license when he/she hit you? Depending on the type of commercial vehicle that a driver is driving, the vast majority of truck drivers are legally required to carry a particular type of commercial driver’s license. This is particularly true for larger, heavier vehicles like semis. If the driver who was responsible for your accident was not a licensed commercial driver, your personal injury case against the driver’s employer can change quite a bit.
  • The status of the truck. Was the truck that was involved in your accident properly maintained? Were there faulty vehicle parts that may have caused the collision? Was the truck overloaded or improperly loaded? Depending on these factors, you may not only have a suit against the driver, but you may have cause to sue the driver’s employer or even the company that manufactured the commercial vehicle involved in your accident.
  • The status of the truck driver. Was the driver who hit you intoxicated? Overly tired? Overworked? Texting when he/she hit you? There are federal regulations in place that limit how many hours truck drivers can work in one sitting, and if the truck driver involved in your accident was working long hours that violated these standards, he/she may have broken the law.

Truck accidents can be devastating, but a successful personal injury lawsuit can help you reclaim damages. If you have been involved in an accident with a truck, call personal injury attorney Karl Gebhard today for your free consultation. All personal injury services are offered on a contingency basis.

Gebhard Law Office