The role of a personal injury lawyer

If you’ve sustained injuries due to the negligence, recklessness or carelessness of another person, you may be able to sue and collect damages. Personal injuries can happen just about anytime or anywhere. You may be in a car accident. You might slip and fall on some icy pavement, or that pavement may be uneven, causing you to trip. A loose handrailing in an apartment building may cause you to fall down a flight of stairs. Or you could be injured if a product malfunctions or a doctor provides you with substandard medical care. The bottom line is that there are an untold number of ways you can be injured due to the actions of somebody else.

When you are injured, to recover damages you’ll need to hire a personal injury lawyer. While no two personal injury cases are exactly alike, virtually all personal injury cases rest on proving the same foundational principle. That principle is proving that another person acted with negligence or disregard for you. There are four tests that must be met to prove negligence:

1. That the defendant had a duty of care to act responsibly (i.e. no drinking and driving)
2. That they breached that duty of care (they drove drunk anyway)
3. That the breach can be directly attributed to your injuries (drunk driver was at fault in an accident involving you)
4. That as the victim, you sustained some form of loss, whether through pain and suffering, lost wages due to missed work, or expenses due to medical bills (hospital stay, lost time and work, lots of injuries and mental anguish)

The personal injury lawyer you hire should have many years of experience and be able to provide several relevant examples that closely mimic the facts of your case. You don’t particularly want an attorney who specializes in boating accidents if you’ve been involved in a truck accident. Likewise, they should be able to demonstrate a high success rate, along with judgments that are in a range similar to what your case is expected to bring.

The Lemle Law Group serves clients in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Culver City, Brentwood, West Los Angeles, Pacific Palisades, Beverly Hills, Venice, Malibu and other nearby Southern California cities.