Your Guide to Recovery: What to Do After a Personal Injury in Little Rock
When you’re in pain and suffering from an injury, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by everything. You might wonder how your pain will affect your life, how much it will cost you, and the best course of action to treat your injuries. But don’t worry.
This article will explain everything you need to know about personal injury cases, starting with getting medical attention immediately.
Personal Injuries in Little Rock, Arkansas
Personal injuries are a common occurrence in Little Rock, Arkansas. The most common personal injuries are car accidents, slips and falls, and dog bites. These can be caused by negligence or carelessness by another person or organization. For example, a fatal vehicle accident claimed the life of 75-year-old Owen Carroll at the Little Rock intersection in November 2022.
Additionally, slips and falls are also common occurrences. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), over 800,000 people are hospitalized across the US due to fall injuries. One example is an accident in June 2022 in Little Rock, where a contract driller fell over a 25-foot-high wall.
Personal injury cases can be expensive and require extensive medical treatment before you can return to work or normal daily activities. If you have been injured in an accident that wasn’t your fault, then it’s essential that you hire an attorney who will fight for your rights so that all costs can be covered by the other parties involved in causing them.
When selecting a Little Rock personal injury lawyer, look for a firm with a specialty in such cases. Keith Law Group is an example of a firm with a proven track record. It has helped clients recover over $100,000,000 in compensation. Moreover, the company has experience in various personal injury cases, including medical device injury, nursing home abuse, car accident, slip, and fall accident, etc.
Steps to Take After Personal Injury in Little Rock
If you are a personal injury victim, here are the next steps you need to take.
Seek Medical Attention
When you’re injured in an accident, seeking medical attention is essential. You want to ensure that your injuries are correctly diagnosed and treated so they don’t worsen over time. As listed by the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ), there are many government hospitals, like Arkansas State Hospital and UAMS Medical Center, where you can go for treatment.
Here are some things you can do:
- Get x-rays if you are injured. X-rays allow doctors and other health professionals to see the bones inside your body, which will help them determine how badly hurt you were in the accident.
- Get a diagnosis from a doctor or other health professional so they know how severe your injuries were and whether surgery may be necessary for them to heal properly. This could also mean seeing several different specialists until one gives them an accurate diagnosis about what happened during their personal injury case.
Document the Incident
Another important step is to document the incident. The better the documentation, the easier to claim compensation for your injuries. Here are some documenting tips that can help you:
- Get the names and contact information of all witnesses. They may be able to corroborate your story or have seen something you didn’t.
- Get the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all drivers involved in the accident.
- Take pictures of the scene before anyone leaves, including injuries sustained by you or others involved in an accident and the damage caused by an injury-causing event like a car crash or slip-and-fall injury on someone else’s property.
Fight for Compensation
If you are injured due to someone else’s negligence, you would want to claim compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, damage, etc. The average payout for car accident victims with minor injuries is $6,720 in Arkansas. The average claim for cases with significant injuries goes as high as $827,000.
In some cases, you may be able to resolve your case without going to court. The most common methods of resolving personal injury claims are:
- Court: You can sue your insurance company if they refuse your claim or offer too little money. Courts generally give more weight and respectability when deciding these cases because they are considered public records, and there is less room for error for both parties involved in litigation. However, this process comes with challenges, including high legal costs and long wait times before resolution occurs.
- Settlement: An alternate method is settling out-of-court with an insurer or third party who caused injury through negligence or recklessness.
- Mediation: An option where both parties sit down with an unbiased mediator who helps them come up with a fair solution based on facts rather than emotion alone. This process has lower costs associated with litigation but may take longer due to its nature being non-adversarial rather than adversarial.
- Arbitration: Another option that involves binding arbitration where both sides agree beforehand that only one decision maker will decide whether or not liability exists. If found liable, then damages awarded would likely be higher since no other arbitrators could rule differently later down the road after reviewing evidence presented during trial proceedings.
Regardless of the option you choose, you will need to hire an attorney.
How to Find the Right Attorney for Your Case
When you’re looking for an attorney, here are some things to keep in mind:
- Look for someone with experience. Personal injury cases can be tricky and complicated, so your attorney must handle similar cases before.
- Find someone who fights for their clients. Your attorney should be willing to go the distance for you, whether taking your case to trial or negotiating a settlement on your behalf.
- Trust their opinion about how best to proceed with your case and follow through on recommendations they make regarding settlement offers or strategy choices.
Conclusion
When you suffer a personal injury, it can be overwhelming. You may have to deal with pain, suffering, and the financial costs of medical bills and lost wages. The good news is that resources are available to help you get back on track with your life.
