Were you injured in an accident in New Braunfels, TX that was someone else’s fault? Are you struggling with medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering? If so, you may be able to file a personal injury claim against the party or parties responsible for your injuries. We want to help.
If you were hurt, a New Braunfels personal injury lawyer from George Salinas Injury Lawyers can discuss potential paths to recovery during a free initial consultation. Contact us today at (210) 225-0909 to get started.
How George Salinas Injury Lawyers Can Help You
The New Braunfels personal injury attorneys at George Salinas Injury Lawyers help accident victims seek compensation for the damages they suffer. We put more than 110 years of combined experience to work to fight for the best outcome for our clients.
This approach has allowed us to achieve incredible results. We’ve recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for our clients and secured some of the highest personal injury verdicts and settlements in Texas and the United States for multiple years in a row.
If you hire our lawyers to represent you in a personal injury case in New Braunfels, Texas, you can expect us to:
- Answer all of your questions during your free, no-obligation consultation before you decide to move forward
- Investigate the cause of the accident and identify all parties who are financially responsible for your damages
- Manage claim paperwork and case deadlines
- Work closely with you so that we can understand your needs and the full extent of your injuries
- Compile evidence to establish liability and your damages
- Negotiate for maximum compensation
- Take your case to court, if necessary
You deserve to be able to focus on your recovery. Let our personal injury lawyers in New Braunfels, TX handle your claim. Get started by calling us today for a free consultation.
Who Is Responsible For Causing A Personal Injury?
It’s important to determine who is responsible for causing a personal injury. This is vital because those who are legally liable for harming you can be made to compensate you.
In order for someone to be legally responsible for harming you:
- They must have owed you a duty of care
- They must have breached that duty, which you can prove by showing they failed to behave with a reasonable degree of care compared to a hypothetical reasonable person or which you can prove by demonstrating a violation of a safety rule such as a speed limit law
- Their beach of duty must have been the reason why you got hurt
- Your injuries must have actually caused you to suffer damages such as incurring medical bills, finding your work abilities impaired, or causing you to experience pain, suffering, and emotional distress
Many people and companies owe duties to others. A property owner has a duty to make the premises reasonably safe, for example. As Rosas v. Buddies Food Store explains, “the duties owed by a landowner depend upon the role of the person injured on his premises.”
A driver also has an obligation to be careful behind the wheel so as not to cause an accident that injures pedestrians or bicycle riders or people in other vehicles. A product manufacturer has a duty not to release a dangerous product.
You can use witness statements, police reports, expert testimony, and other evidence to show that these and other individuals who hurt you failed to fulfill their obligations to you. If you can prove by a preponderance of the evidence that their failures damaged you, they will be required to “make you whole.”
In many cases, there will actually be more than one potential defendant you could make a claim against in your effort to recover compensation. It’s very common for you to be able to pursue a claim against the employer of those who hurt you. That’s because, as Painter v. Amerimex Drilling I, Ltd , “an employer is vicariously liable for its employee’s negligent acts if those acts are within the course and scope of his employment.”
A New Braunfels personal injury attorney at George Salinas Injury Lawyers will work with you to identify all of the defendants who could be at fault. The more defendants you can identify who are to blame, the more likely it is there will be enough insurance for you to be fully repaid for all your losses.
How Much Compensation Can I Recover in My New Braunfels Personal Injury Claim?
Every personal injury case is different, so if you’re looking for an “average” settlement, there is no such thing.
Instead, insurance companies and juries evaluate a number of factors to arrive at a fair amount of compensation for a claim, including:
- The type and severity of your injuries
- How your injuries impact your earning capacity and daily life
- The insurance coverage available
- Whether you shared any fault for the accident
- The number and identity of the defendants
Also, the quality of the personal injury lawyer you hire can make a big difference. If the insurance company doesn’t believe your lawyer is willing to go to trial, they may try to lowball any settlement offer. This isn’t the case with George Salinas Injury Lawyers.
We have secured some of the highest verdicts in Texas, including:
- 2019 Top 100 Texas Jury Verdict
- 2020 Top 10 Texas Jury Verdict
- 2020 Top 100 US Jury Verdict
- 2020 Texas Lawyers’ Southwest Top Verdicts & Settlements Award
Insurance companies know that we are not afraid to go to trial to achieve the best results for our clients, which often motivates them to settle the case for a fair amount.
Should I Accept a Settlement for My Personal Injury Claim?
When you make a personal injury claim, chances are very good that you will be offered a settlement by the insurer representing those responsible for hurting you. As the Bureau of Justice Statistics explains, only around 3% of personal injury claims go to trial so settlements are a far more common resolution.
When you’re offered a settlement, you are told you’ll be paid a certain amount of money if you agree. You’ll typically get compensated much more quickly than if you went to court. However, you have to give up future claims arising out of the accident.
You don’t want to accept a settlement offer that is lower than the compensation you should get, nor do you want to accept a settlement before you actually know how badly you were hurt and what the extent of your losses were. You should also be aware that you can negotiate when you receive an offer of compensation so if you aren’t happy with the amount of money that would be made available, you can argue you should be paid more.
If you can negotiate a fair settlement, there are benefits to this and those benefits go beyond just being able to get your money sooner. You can also avoid the stress and uncertainty of going to court where there’s no guarantee that you’ll win your case or get the specific amount of compensation you deserve.
Of course, the downside is that you might leave money on the table and could potentially have been awarded a larger amount of damages with a court verdict. Working with an experienced New Braunfels personal injury attorney reduces the chances of that happening. Your attorney knows how much your case should be worth and will negotiate on your behalf — and the insurer is more likely to make a fair offer when they know that a lawyer is involved.
What Damages Can I Recover in a Personal Injury Case?
The damages you may be able to recover in a personal injury case include:
Economic Damages
Economic damages under Texas law are intended to compensate the victim for financial losses.
Examples of economic damages in Texas personal injury cases include:
- Hospital bills
- Emergency room treatment
- Ambulance charges
- Future medical expenses
- Rehabilitation and therapy costs
- Out-of-pocket expenses, including transportation to and from medical appointments
- Lost income
- Vehicle repair or replacement costs
Economic damages include current costs as well as those you reasonably anticipate incurring in the future.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages compensate the victim for other losses they experience that are not tied directly to an economic loss.
Texas law recognizes the following types of non-economic damages:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Mental or emotional pain or anguish
- Physical impairment
- Inconvenience
- Injury to reputation
- Disfigurement
- Loss of companionship and society
- Loss of consortium
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- All other non-pecuniary losses
Like with economic damages, you can be awarded current and future non-economic damages.
Exemplary Damages
Exemplary damages – or punitive damages – are awarded as a penalty or to punish the wrongdoer rather than compensate the victim. Exemplary damages are not awarded in all cases. Instead, they are reserved for cases involving particularly egregious behavior.
Types of Cases We Handle
George Salinas Injury Lawyers focuses exclusively on personal injury law. We take cases involving:
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Electric scooter accidents
- Lyft accidents
- Uber accidents
- Taxi accidents
- Train accidents
- Boating accidents
- Bus accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Pedestrian accidents
- Premises liability incidents
- Slips and falls
- Birth injuries
- Dog bites
- Medical malpractice
- Product liability
- Nursing home abuse
- Oil rig accidents
- Construction accidents
- Workplace accidents
- Workers’ compensation claims
- Wrongful death
When working with a New Braunfels personal injury lawyer, it is important to hire one who is knowledgeable and experienced in your type of case. Representing a client in a medical malpractice case is much different than representing one in a car accident case. Our dedicated legal team can determine the best way to help you during a free, no-obligation consultation.
What Can a New Braunfels Personal Injury Lawyer Do For You?
A New Braunfels personal injury lawyer will offer valuable legal advocacy throughout the entirety of your claim.
Your attorney helps with all of the complex legal issues that can arise in personal injury claims. This can range from identifying all of the possible defendants to understanding what kinds of legal arguments to make to give you the best chance of fully recovering your damages.
Your lawyer will also help to ensure you comply with time deadlines, including the two-year statute of limitations for filing Texas personal injury claims that is set forth in Texas Code Section 16.003. You don’t want to make a mistake when it comes to pursuing your case in a timely manner as once the statute of limitations has run out, your case will be time-barred.
Since you have the burden of proving your claim, a skilled legal advocate will also help you to gather crucial evidence such as witness statements and police reports, as well as expert testimony, security camera footage, or whatever else you need to make a successful claim.
Finally, your attorney will negotiate a settlement or go to court on your behalf, both of which require specialized knowledge and skill. Remember, insurance companies representing those who hurt you have professionals to help them and you deserve to have your own advocate in your corner.
George Salinas Injury Lawyers have a long and successful track record in representing victims who suffered injuries and we’ll put our decades of experience to work on your case to maximize the chances of prevailing in your claim.
Common Types of Personal Injuries
Personal injuries include the type of physical harm you suffer because of an accident, such as:
- Traumatic head and brain injuries
- Neck and back injuries
- Spinal cord injuries, including paralysis
- Amputations
- Dislocated or broken bones
- Severe lacerations or punctured skin
- Road rash
- Burns
- Soft tissue injuries
- Internal organ damage and bleeding
Personal injury can also include psychological injuries such as PTSD.
How Can I Prove Fault in a Texas Personal Injury Case?
Two of the most common legal theories in Texas personal injury cases are negligence and strict liability.
Negligence
Most personal injury cases are based on the legal concept of negligence, which occurs when someone fails to act as a reasonable person and causes harm to another.
There are four legal elements that you must prove to establish negligence:
- Duty
- Breach of duty
- Causation
- Damages
An experienced New Braunfels personal injury attorney can gather evidence to help you prove your claim.
Strict Liability
Strict liability does not require you to show that the defendant was negligent. In limited circumstances, if you can show that the defendant did something that caused harm, they can be held strictly liable without you having to present evidence of their negligence.
The more common types of personal injury claims that may involve strict liability in Texas include:
- Abnormally dangerous activity – Defendants can be held strictly liable when they engage in an activity that creates a high degree of risk of serious injury, such as using explosives or chemical materials.
- Defective products – Manufacturers, designers, and others involved in producing and selling defective products can be held strictly liable for the harm their products cause.
- Dog bites – If a dog’s owner knew that their dog had bitten someone before, they can be held strictly liable for any future bites.
There are other times when strict liability applies. Talk to a skilled personal injury lawyer in New Braunfels to learn more.
What If I Can’t Afford a Personal Injury Attorney?
You can! At George Salinas Injury Lawyers, we take all personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that you can hire a lawyer now to represent you, and you don’t have to pay any attorney’s fees unless we successfully recover compensation for you.
At that point, we receive our agreed-upon percentage. If we are unable to secure compensation on your behalf, you will owe us nothing for attorney fees.
How Long Do I Have To File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Texas?
Each state has a statute of limitations that establishes a time limit to file a lawsuit after being injured by another party. The statute of limitations in Texas is generally two years from the accident date. This means that in most cases, you have just two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit against the at-fault party.
If this timeline passes and you have not filed a lawsuit, the court can dismiss any future case you file, and you can miss your opportunity to recover compensation.
There are situations when there may be more or less time. By talking to a skilled personal injury lawyer, you can learn the deadline that applies to your case and take legal action before it is too late.
Contact Our New Braunfels Personal Injury Attorney Today
If you would like to learn more about your legal rights and options following a personal injury accident in New Braunfels, TX, we can help. We bring more than a century of combined experience to the table to assist you with all aspects of your case.
Contact the New Braunfels personal injury lawyers from George Salinas Injury Lawyers for a free consultation. We are ready to help with every aspect of your case.