Law and Justice

Posts Tagged ‘Injury’

A personal injury lawyer is an attorney who represents an individual who claims to have been injured physically and/or emotionally as the result of trauma caused by the negligence of another person, group, or government agency. A personal injury law firm in Minneapolis MN has experience with law in regards to damages to a person, their property, and other civil wrongs. They deal with tort law. This is a body of law that addresses civil wrong doings that are not contract related.

Instead of attempting to represent yourself for any compensation resulting from an accident, a personal injury lawyer knows the best way to proceed. They can also advise you on the amount to ask for when going to trial. An experienced personal injury lawyer can make sure that the other party does not try to take advantage of you and that you get what you deserve from the trial. The court will determine the loss and damage done to you and then it is up to the attorney, who has personal injury experience, to ensure that a fair settlement is agreed upon on your behalf.

Unfortunately, many accidents occur yearly and even daily. Whether you have experienced a car accident, wrongful death, or medical malpractice, for example, there are many benefits from hiring an experienced personal injury law firm to represent your case.

The many situations that can lead to the hiring of a personal injury law firm include: Vehicle accidents, boat accidents, plane crashes, medical malpractice, bus accidents, wrongful death, amputation injuries, and brain injuries, to name a few.

If you live in the state of Minnesota, there is a no-fault insurance law. This entitles a person to compensation for the losses suffered in an accident, even if the accident was partly the individual’s fault. This law can help compensate for loss of wages, and other activities of daily living. If the incident was mainly someone else’s fault, you may be compensated for pain and suffering as well.

The best way to see if you qualify for the Minnesota no-fault insurance law is to hire an experienced personal injury lawyer in Minnesota (Minneapolis is a good city to go for this service).

When in an accident, first contact emergency personnel. If you become injured, one of the first steps you should take – after medical help has been enlisted – is to contact your insurance company. An experienced personal injury lawyer should be contacted to guide you through the process of compensation for physical and emotional losses.

It is important to choose an attorney who has a history of being with clients until the end of the settlement and that satisfactory compensations were met.

Another benefit to hiring and experienced personal injury lawyer is that they will do all of the “homework” for you. You should contact an injury lawyer as soon as possible after the accident. And they, in turn, should act swiftly in obtaining and preserving evidence from the scene of the incident. This is one less thing for you to worry about when injuries have taken place, causing emotional and physical trauma. An experienced attorney will also contact witnesses and focus on other important factors related to the accident.

The information you obtain from this article is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for individual advice regarding your own situation.

Personal injury disputes arise when one person is wronged by another either because of:

1. The latter’s recklessness – for instance in Medical Malpractice Claims, Product Liability Claims and Wrongful Death Claims

2. His omissions or disregard of duty – like in Premise Liability Claims, Slip and Fall Claims and Animal Attack Claims

3. His intentional commission of an offense – for example in Motorcycle Accident Claims, Vehicle Rollover Crash Claims and Pedestrian Accidents Claims

In all three suits, in order for the victim to prove his case, he must first collectively determine the existence of the following elements:

1. That the respondent has the duty to act with necessary care and precaution

2. That said duty was violated or disregarded by the respondent, causing personal injury to the petitioner

3. That the action or omission of the respondent is the proximate cause of the damage suffered by the victim

4. That as a result, the victim sustained damages.

Filing a personal injury case is no joke. It would require a person’s undivided effort and attention, a great deal of time and large amounts of money.

Consequently, in personal injury settlement, the victim normally asks that he be compensated by the negligent party for the damages he suffered because of the accident. This may include:

1. Actual Damages for his medical costs and disability compensation or his loss of income.

2. Moral Damages for his emotional distress, sleepless nights, anxiety or besmirched reputation

3. Punitive or Exemplary Damages for disciplinary purposes or to teach the offender a lesson

4. Attorney’s Fees – for the services of the victim’s counsel.

When a person becomes a victim in a Personal Injury Dispute, it is imperative that he contact a Personal Injury Law Firm or Attorney as soon as possible to help him collect damages or defend his case.

Because of their legal knowledge and experience, the law firm or the lawyer can establish the necessary elements constituting Personal Injury. They can determine which type of damages to demand as well as their respective amounts; and collect the needed documentary and testimonial evidence.

With their help, the dispute may even be settled off-court or before reaching litigation. Off-court settlements are much cheaper and less time-consuming than actual court proceedings. The former is also more informal and less technical than the latter.

However, if the off-court settlement becomes unsuccessful, then the parties would be compelled to go to court where they can resolve their differences in front of a judge.

Being assisted by your Personal Injury Law Firm or Attorney during court proceedings is even more important. Meticulous preparation of your argument and evidence is the key in winning the case.

Furthermore, without the presence of your counsel, everything you say may be held against you; you may violate technical trial rules; you may be held guilty of delay or contempt of court and sometimes, your case may even be barred by laches and prescriptions.

This shows how important the Personal Injury Attorney’s role is.

Our Los Angeles law firm is experienced with handling cases involving personal injury. For more information, you can visit our website and avail of our free case analysis.

With the astounding growth of the online world, it has become absolutely necessary for every personal injury attorney to have an internet marketing strategy.

The basic idea behind law firm marketing on the internet is to be found wherever your prospects are looking. According to Pew Internet and American Life Project’s recent “Internet Impact” report, 73% of all American adults are online. That means that unless your law firm is using internet marketing to its advantage, you are missing out on an incredible amount of new business!

Consider your law firm’s target market and have a look some of the study’s more specific findings:

88% of 18-29 year-olds go online

84% of 30-49 year-olds go online

71% of 50-64 year-olds go online

80% of adults with a household income of

between $30,000 and $50,000 go online

86% of adults with a household income of

between $50,000 and $75,000 go online

91% of adults with a household income of over

$75,000 go online

The widespread adoption of the internet has made it possible for you to become more visible than ever before while also giving you the opportunity to position yourself as a personal injury lawyer that can be trusted.

In today’s world, when somebody is looking for a personal injury attorney, they no longer refer to the phone book or the local paper; they turn to search engines such as Yahoo or Google. Unless your law firm is ranked well in the search engines or has a healthy pay-per-click program, you won’t be found.

Even if somebody isn’t looking for a personal injury attorney, but simply searching for information about injuries and the law; your law firm can still be found through other methods of internet marketing, such as article marketing or blogging. These strategies will allow you to build trust in case they need a personal injury lawyer at a later time.

Another great thing about internet marketing is that it’s one of the least expensive methods for your law firm to reach its key prospects. Creating a website is a one-time fee, article marketing and blogging are free, and paying for hosting is dirt cheap. In fact, even pay-per-click campaigns can be much more affordable than offline advertising. The bottom line is this: if you’re looking for a strong return on investment, you will certainly be pleased with internet marketing!

Instead of searching for clients high and low, go where they are searching when they need a personal injury lawyer… go online!

Marketing your law practice is one of the most frustrating aspects of running a small law firm. No one ever taught you how to market in law school and the typical lawyer marketing article in your state bar journal tells you all the things you can’t do.

Here are eleven major mistakes that personal injury lawyers make with their advertising.

1. Failing to make a decision as to what the perfect business and perfect customer look like. You can’t develop a marketing plan (or purchase advertising media such as Yellow Page ads, TV commercials or websites) without understanding where you are going. What does your perfect client look like? What do you want your law practice to look like? The correct answer to the question “why do you want to spend any money on marketing?” should not necessarily be, “more cases.” Not drawing at least a mental picture of what it is you are after with your practice is like getting on an airplane and saying “take me anywhere.”

2. Failing to accept that marketing and practice building is the most important thing you can do in your law firm – look around. Is it only the best lawyers, real estate agents, doctors in your town who get the best business? Just being a good trial lawyer, (even the best) doesn’t cut it anymore. Isn’t it frustrating to see a lawyer whose has never tried a case get better clients than you do and then brag about it later? By understanding how to market effectively you put yourself into a position to see more cases from which you can choose the ones that match your “perfect customer” profile.

3. Thinking That Copying What Other Lawyers Are Doing With Their Marketing Will Get You A Better Result. Earl Nightingale, one of the world’s foremost experts on what makes people successful, had some good advice for lawyers and other business owners who want to market their practices. He said, (and yes, I am paraphrasing) that if you wanted to learn a new skill in business, and you had no mentor or guide you could trust, that the best thing you could do was figure out what everyone else was doing and then do the opposite. What the majority does is, at best, average. So it is with marketing.

4. Ignoring the Gold In Your Files Right Now. It costs at least ten times a much to obtain new customers as to keep in contact with old clients and indeed, everyone who contacts you. Your files are filled with names of folks who know you. Those folks generally have at least 50 other friends in their “circle of influence.” (Read How to Close Every Sale, by Joe Girard.) Personal injury lawyers are happy to spend thousands on Yellow Page and TV marketing while ignoring completely those who they already have some relationship with.

5. Failing to capture the name of every new person who indicates that he/she is interested in what you have to say. Lawyers spend thousands on generating new leads (potential client inquiries) yet never market back to the cases they don’t accept. In most offices that’s MOST of the new inquiries. Yet this is a goldmine of people that you can directly market to in the future. You can’t rely on the fact that if they or someone they know needs your services or products that they will remember you tomorrow because they called you once in the past.

6. Failing to get ahead of the marketing curve. How many lawyers spend any time trying to start a relationship with a potential client BEFORE that person has a problem? Most personal injury lawyers view marketing as reactionary. That is, the relationship starts once a person is injured and they start trying to find a lawyer. How about if you offered a good reason for people to call you BEFORE they get hurt (good quality information on how to buy car insurance comes to immediate mind), BEFORE they need you. Once they tell you who they are they are inviting a conversation and giving you their permission to market to them directly and as frequently as you can afford to. If you can develop a “herd” of people that listen to you before they have need you, they won’t be looking in the Yellow Pages after they have an accident or need your product.

7. Being an advertising “victim”-most business owners think about their advertising and marketing plan the 30 minutes or so before the Yellow Page rep comes walking through the door. They don’t do any independent research or study. They follow the crowd because “it must be working or else everyone else wouldn’t be doing it.” If it doesn’t work they then take the Yellow Page rep’s advice to “buy more, and use color.” A real sign that you are an “advertising victim” is that you allow the Yellow Page rep to design your ad. This is usually a huge mistake. Think about it–the goal of the Yellow Page rep is not to make your ad beat all the other ads in the book.

8. Failure to accurately measure resultsdo this test. Ask anyone who spends a lot money on advertising exactly how much revenue is returned (ROI-return on investment) they get from a particular TV spot. Better yet, ask the folks running double truck (huge, 2 page) ads inside the Yellow Pages how much revenue those pages generate vs. the outside back cover they are also buying. They won’t be able to answer that question. Would you buy mutual fund without demanding a specific accounting of actual results? 9. Failure to develop a terrific referral system–we all know that the best clients with the best cases come from referrals and are pre-sold on you. Strange as it may seem, clients don’t always know how to refer. The lawyers who really understand marketing have figured out ways to have current friends and customers refer new consumers to them BEFORE they need an attorney. Developing good consumer information products and backing it up with an interesting firm newsletter that it consistently mailed is a terrific way to greatly expand your referral base without using high priced TV marketing.

10. Failure to Diversify Your Marketing-”one” is a very dangerous number. Don’t forget to see what other industries are doing. There are lots of media out there, for example, media not traditionally used by lawyers. While most lawyers think in terms of Yellow Pages, TV and websites, sophisticated lawyer marketers understand and also use low cost coupon media, postcards and free standing inserts. The key is to choose media that is relatively easy to test and then to measure results.

11. Trying to Win the Advertising Game by “Shouting Louder”Most injury lawyers try to differentiate themselves in print and TV media by simply spending more money to “shout louder.” This is accomplished by buying more color, more space, or more TV as spots. The two fold problem of this approach is that (1) it’s an expensive way to run a business and (2) there will always be someone who can spend more than you can.

Personal injury lawyers need to learn to “make a different kind of noise” with their marketing.