Personal Injury Lawyer | Biddeford

Suffering injuries in an accident can leave you feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and angry. Despite your mounting medical expenses and an inability to work, you may also feel daunted by pursuing a personal injury case against the party that caused your injuries.

You may even wonder whether your situation qualifies as a personal injury case. Knowing when to call a personal injury lawyer is the first step toward justice and the compensation you need and deserve.

Learn more about how a Biddeford personal injury lawyer can help you and what you may be entitled to recover.

Contact us today to get started.

What Is a Personal Injury Lawyer?

Personal injury cases represent a complicated area of law. A skilled personal injury lawyer uses your case’s specific facts and circumstances to determine the best path forward and hold the proper party responsible.

The more severe your injury, the more critical it is to hire a lawyer to help you recover the compensation you and your family need.

Common Types of Personal Injury Cases

Personal injury law encompasses a wide range of cases where a person suffers an injury due to another person’s misconduct. Misconduct may include willful behavior or negligent behavior.

The most common types of personal injury cases include the following:

• Car accidents,
• Motorcycle accidents,
• Trucking accidents,
• Bicycle accidents,
• Pedestrian accidents,
• Wrongful death,
• Premises liability and slip and fall accidents,
• Brain injuries, and
• Dog bites.

Personal injury cases are complex and vary substantially from case to case. An experienced Biddeford personal injury attorney analyzes the facts of your case to determine a winning strategy.

How to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer

As you review the multiple pages that appear when you search for a personal injury lawyer, you may wonder how to find the right attorney.

Making the wrong choice could mean the difference between securing a favorable settlement or continuing to drown under the weight of your medical expenses and other costs.

There are several steps that you can take as you search for the right personal injury lawyer.

• Seek referrals from friends and colleagues. Using your social connections may help you look for the right attorney with a track record of helping out someone you know and trust.
• Expertise. Search for attorneys who are experienced in the field of personal injury law. Personal injury is a specialized area of the law, and an attorney practicing in this area understands the procedures, strategies, and tactics needed to bring a case to a favorable outcome.
• Cost. Most personal injury attorneys work on a contingency basis, minimizing the initial financial burden for victims. A contingency fee agreement means you pay nothing unless the attorney obtains a settlement or judgment on your behalf.
• Communication. You want an attorney who is prepared to communicate with you on every step of your case. They should be ready to explain complicated matters simply and provide you with a strategy specific to your case.
• Track Record. Ask a potential attorney for their track record of success in personal injury cases. A firm with considerable success obtaining favorable judgments for past clients may give you peace of mind that you are in good hands.

Choosing the right attorney may feel intimidating, but researching is important and helps the search process feel more manageable.

How Can a Personal Injury Lawyer Help Me?

An attorney helps their client in various ways to build a strong case so they can focus on their recovery.

Investigate and Gather Evidence

The preliminary part of preparing your case for settlement and trial is conducting an in-depth investigation of your case and gathering evidence. Your attorney may undertake some or all of the following tasks:

• Interview and depose witnesses;
• Obtain photographs of the accident scene and the involved vehicles;
• Get a copy of any accident reports;
• Find surveillance footage of the incident, if any exists;
• Find expert witnesses, if any are needed; and
• Review medical reports.

All of this information is used to build a strong case establishing how the accident occurred and who was responsible.

Determine Liability

The success of your claim hinges on holding the proper party responsible for your injuries. Through their analysis and review of the evidence, your attorney determines the at-fault party’s liability so you can pursue compensation against them.

Your attorney also understands how to determine fault in personal injury cases and how this may affect the outcome of your case. Maine operates under a fault system for personal injury cases.

Under this rule, an injured victim must prove that the other party was at fault, but they must also establish that they were less than 50% at fault for the accident.

If it’s proven that you were more than 50% responsible for your own injuries, you are barred from recovering any compensation.

Calculate Case Value

Injured victims in Maine are entitled to recover compensatory damages, which consist of economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages represent calculable losses that result directly from your injuries. Common types of economic damages include the following:

• Medical expenses,
• Lost wages,
• Loss of future earnings, and
• Property damage.

Your attorney uses medical bills, invoices, pay stubs, and other documentation to calculate the value of your economic damages.

Non-economic damages represent intangible losses usually caused by the pain and suffering associated with your injuries. These losses include the following:

• Pain and suffering,
• Emotional distress,
• Loss of consortium,
• Loss of enjoyment of life, and
• Permanent disfigurement and disability.

Non-economic damages are challenging to quantify and even more difficult to prove. An experienced attorney knows what tools are needed to calculate and help you recover the full value of your compensatory losses.

Negotiate

As you recover, your attorney takes over dealing with aggressive insurance companies and demanding attorneys. Insurance companies may make initial offers of settlement before you even have a chance to reflect on your experience.

While any offer of money may feel enticing to accept, these offers usually fail to grasp the full extent of your losses. Your attorney only begins settlement discussions when they can calculate the full value of your losses and your recovery.

Litigate

If negotiations fail, your attorney prepares your case for trial. Litigating a personal injury case requires extensive experience with courtroom procedures and strategies.

A skilled Biddeford personal injury lawyer knows how to prepare your case for trial, convince a jury your claim is valid, and successfully argue that the jury should award you fair compensation for your losses.

Contact a Biddeford Personal Injury Lawyer Today

For over 20 years, the attorneys at Mann Law have been advocating for injured individuals in personal injury cases throughout Maine and New England.

Our legal team is passionate about what we do and is committed to protecting your rights. We understand how sudden injuries from an accident completely derail the course of your life. You may be in intense pain with no relief in sight or unable to live as you did before your accident.

When someone else’s negligence puts you in this position, you deserve to recover compensation. We know what it takes to succeed in court and work with each of our clients to achieve the best possible results. We always provide risk-free, complimentary consultations.

Contact us today by phone or email to learn how Mann Law can assist you.