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Sustaining a serious injury because of another party’s negligence often creates an enormous amount of stress for the victim. Injuries cause many to miss work while amassing medical bills and dealing with the pain of an injury. For some, that physical and emotional pain never leaves, making their accident a life-altering event. Whether one is injured in a car accident, truck accident, bike accident, at work, or at home using a defective product, those who are responsible deserve to be held accountable.

If you or a family member have been injured in the Summerville area because of someone else’s negligence or recklessness, you may be entitled to compensation. Because of South Carolina’s three-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims, it can be important not to wait to find legal representation. Call the Hughey Law Firm at (843) 881-8644 to schedule a free consultation.

Hughey Law Firm’s Results in Personal Injury Cases

The team at Hughey Law Firm has extensive experience handling all types of personal injury cases and recovering millions of dollars in damages for our clients. Recent settlements and verdicts range from $200,000 to well over $5,000,000 for a wide array of injuries including catastrophic injuries such as amputations, leg injuries, back injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and more. These are only examples and do not guarantee results in any particular case. The personal injury lawyers at Hughey Law Firm work to attain the best possible outcome for every client’s particular situation.

Personal Injuries May Result in a Lawsuit

Multiple scenarios might result in a personal injury lawsuit when a physical or psychological injury occurs because of the negligence of another person, a business, or a government entity. Personal injury attorneys handle a variety of injuries including:

Fault and Compensation in Personal Injury Cases

A wide variety of parties might be liable or share liability in a personal injury lawsuit. Here are some common examples of liable parties in a personal injury case:

  • Drivers who have violated traffic regulations, such as driving under the influence or texting, that led to an accident and resulting injury
  • Businesses who don’t properly maintain their properties and equipment resulting in injury to another
  • Employers who allow or encourage employees to break the law to do their job
  • Individuals who abuse or harass others at home, in a care facility, in public, or in the workplace
  • Manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers who design and sell a defective product or don’t provide consumers with information about dangerous aspects of their product

In South Carolina, the court might award plaintiffs compensatory and/or punitive damages in a personal injury lawsuit. Like many states, South Carolina only awards punitive damages in extreme cases. The court awards compensatory damages much more often, as those damages are designed to help victims recover from any losses incurred from their injury. The most common compensatory damages that the court awards in personal injury lawsuits include medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

Medical Expenses

Those who sustain an injury as a result of the negligence or recklessness of another party might recover a variety of medical expenses including ambulance costs, hospital stays, surgery, x-rays, medications, and physical therapy. When an injury results in a long-term condition or disability, victims might also recover damages for future medical expenses.

Lost Wages

If a victim misses work as a result of an injury, they might be entitled to recover the value of their lost wages. When a victim cannot return to work as a result of a long-term disability, he or she might be able to claim the loss of future wages, referred to as lost earning capacity.

Pain and Suffering

South Carolina courts and juries often award additional money for pain and suffering in cases that involve catastrophic injuries, but determining that amount is not always easy. An experienced personal injury attorney can help make the strongest case for this type of damages by pointing to, among other things, the severity of the injury, the victim’s age, the expected time of recovery, and the decline in the victim’s quality of life.

Don’t Let the Defense Shift the Blame to You

South Carolina applies a “modified comparative negligence” rule to almost all personal injury cases. Comparative negligence is the idea of shared fault. If the court finds the plaintiff partially to blame for his or her injury, it reduces a damage award by that percentage. In South Carolina, the plaintiff must always be less than 50 percent at fault for their injury to collect any damages from the defendant(s). This provides a strong incentive for the defense to shift the blame to the victim to lower the amount of damages they need to pay out, or not have to pay altogether.

The defense will often use a variety of strategies to shift some or all of the blame to the victim. For example, they may strictly deny culpability, but they might also claim that the victim violated traffic regulations, drove under the influence of controlled substances, or used a product outside of its intended use. A skilled personal injury attorney knows how to fight back against these attacks to help ensure that those who are liable pay their fair share.

Contact a Skilled Summerville Personal Injury Attorney

Like most law firms, Hughey Law Firm offers a free consultation for you to discuss the details of your case and for a lawyer to begin to explore your eligibility to recover damages. If our firm agrees to represent you in a personal injury lawsuit, the case will typically be handled on a contingent fee basis, in which we only recover fees out of a settlement or judgment in your favor.

If you have been injured in Summerville because of another party’s negligence or wrongful actions, contact an experienced personal injury attorney at Hughey Law Firm or call us at (843) 881-8644 to schedule a free consultation.