If someone else’s actions have left you seriously injured, then in addition to physical pain, there’s a good chance you also feel significant financial pain. The cost of medical treatments, missing work, and adapting to a serious injury can disrupt your entire life. In the world of law, wrongful actions that cause injury to someone are called torts. The people who commit these wrongful actions can—and should—face legal liability for the damage those actions inflict. A Henderson personal injury lawyer can help you evaluate whether someone owes you money for injuries their actions caused. The sooner you contact an attorney, the better. Under Nevada law, in most cases you have just two years from the date of your injury to take legal action.
Causes of Personal Injuries
Every day, people cause injuries through negligence—often because they’re not paying attention to their responsibilities to drive responsibly or conduct their businesses safely. If this happens to you, you can seek compensation for injuries sustained in:
Car accidents (including accidents caused by road rage, driver fatigue, drunk drivers, reckless driving, distracted driving, tire malfunction, and speeding)
Truck accidents (caused by many of the same issues as car accidents, plus unqualified drivers and blind spots)
A person’s or company’s careless or reckless actions can cause a wide variety of harm to others. Below are just a few of the types of injuries clients of Benson & Bingham have suffered through no fault of their own, and for which they deserve compensation:
Joseph L. Benson II, and Ben J. Bingham, Nevada Personal Injury AttorneysBurns. Accidental burns happen because of exposure to fire, chemicals, electricity, or radiation. They commonly occur on job sites, in car accidents, and at home. Severe burns can cause agonizing pain, life-threatening health complications, and extensive scarring.
Lacerations and abrasions. Cuts and scrapes are one thing. But their more-severe forms, lacerations and abrasions, can result in blood loss, infection, and the need for extensive medical intervention (including surgery). These traumas commonly happen in motor vehicle, cycling, and pedestrian accidents, as well as when dogs bite children.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBIs are often caused by a jolt or blow to the head, but can also occur after the brain is deprived of oxygen for a sustained period. These injuries can affect a person’s emotional, cognitive, and motor abilities, and may require long-term treatment and therapy.
Bone fractures. Broken bones happen in a wide variety of scenarios, including accidental falls and motor vehicle accidents. They are particularly debilitating for older Nevadans and can lead to significant secondary health complications requiring hospitalization and surgery.
Loss of limbs. A particularly violent accident can crush or sever a person’s limb. Losing an arm or leg does not only inflict a lifetime of disability, it also causes severe emotional distress. Victims of these injuries must adapt to a whole new (and often expensive) way of life.
Spinal cord injury. Damage to the spinal cord can leave accident victims temporarily or permanently paralyzed. Living with these injuries means incurring the huge costs associated with medical care, rehabilitative therapy, and specialized equipment (wheelchairs or home modifications to make their homes accessible). Emotional trauma is also common among those who suffer a paralyzing injury.
Cancers and terminal diseases. Long-term exposure to toxins in an unsafe work or living environment can lead to life-threatening health conditions, including cancer, a depressed immune system, and chronic respiratory illness. Toxin exposure can also cause birth defects and developmental delays in children.
Economic Damages
There are two general categories of damages you may have the right to recover if someone’s wrongful actions have injured you. The first is known as economic damages (sometimes also called special damages). These damages reflect your out-of-pocket costs of an injury, such as:
Initial medical costs – Costs you incur during your on-scene medical treatment, transfer to an emergency treatment facility, and initial hospital stay;
Ongoing medical costs – Prescriptions, follow up appointments, specialists, ongoing testing;
Rehabilitative costs – Physical or occupational therapy, specialized equipment or machinery, costs from an inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation facility, mental health treatment;
Costs of modifications to your home or vehicle – Installation of ramps, specialized driving equipment, or other modifications made to allow you to access your home or car; and
Lost wages – Wages you didn’t earn because of your hospital stay or having to miss work for appointments.
Non-Economic Damages
The second category of damages victims of someone else’s wrongful conduct may have the right to recover is called non-economic damages (also known as general damages). These damages reflect the generalized harm of an injury, such as your own pain and suffering, your loss of enjoyment of life, and damage to your personal relationships. In the event a person dies because of someone else’s wrongful actions, that person’s family may recover types of damages in a legal action known as a wrongful death claim.
But how are these damages calculated? It’s complicated and requires assigning a dollar amount to damages that are by their definition not easy to calculate. Often, calculating non-economic damages requires the services of a financial expert (or actuary) who specializes in calculating the value of hard-to-measure damages like physical and emotional pain, lost future earnings and opportunities, and the total cost of making a full recovery. An experienced personal injury lawyer routinely works with these sorts of experts.
Contact Benson & Bingham’s Henderson Personal Injury Attorneys
A serious injury caused by someone else can leave you experiencing physical pain, emotional trauma, and enormous, unplanned financial burdens. Recovering the compensation you deserve for these harms requires the services of an experienced Henderson, Nevada personal injury attorney.
The lawyers at Benson & Bingham have years of experience guiding injured clients through the process of taking legal action to recover economic and non-economic damages from those who did them harm. Over the last 15 years, our firm has helped recover over $215 million for our clients. While no two cases are alike and no attorney can guarantee a result, at Benson and Bingham we can guarantee that we will bring our exceptional dedication, compassion, and legal know-how to every matter we handle. Contact us at (702) 382-9797 today to schedule a free consultation and case evaluation.
