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Indiana’s Trusted Personal Injury Advocates Since 1963.
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An injury is catastrophic when it will have a permanent impact on a person’s future. These injuries are permanent and will require medical attention for the foreseeable future. Additionally, they will limit a person’s ability to earn a living and fully enjoy life. Incidents resulting in catastrophic injuries often demand significant compensation for past losses and estimated future costs. An Indianapolis catastrophic injury attorney could help provide more information about these losses and seek compensation and settlements that consider these facts.
Describing an injury as being catastrophic has little impact on liability for an accident. There is no such definition under state law. However, understanding what makes an injury catastrophic is essential to pursuing a case for its full value. If you suffered injuries because of someone’s negligence, discuss your case with a catastrophic injury lawyer from Yosha Cook & Tisch law firm in Indianapolis. We will analyze your situation and review the paperwork. During this free case evaluation, we will help you understand your legal options and the paths to pursue to get the settlement you deserve so you can recover.
A catastrophic injury will have a permanent impact on a person’s life. As a result, these traumatic events require extensive medical care and lifestyle changes. In many scenarios, this life-saving and permanent care could last for years or the rest of an individual’s life.
Our catastrophic injury attorneys in Indianapolis have experience in handling claims and lawsuits regarding the following catastrophic injuries (without being limited to them):
If you or someone you love suffers from a catastrophic injury, contact our Indianapolis attorneys. They will review your medical file and advise you on how to move forward with your legal action depending on the injury’s type, severity, and impact on your everyday life and future.
A catastrophic injury describes the extent of a person’s losses, not how those losses occurred. A catastrophic injury can occur at almost any time and under various circumstances. Almost any incident that can result in a minor physical injury has the potential to inflict catastrophic losses. Since the law states that an at-fault party is liable for any resulting damage, proving fault for an incident is essential in any catastrophic injury case.
Many catastrophic injuries result from car accidents, motorcycle crashes, or truck collisions. Even at low speeds, these incidents can result in brain damage, amputations, or third-degree burns. Pedestrians, in particular, are vulnerable to catastrophic injuries if they get hit by cars, trucks, motorbikes, or bicycles.
Another major source of catastrophic injuries is premises liability cases. They describe situations where a landowner allows an injury to occur on their property (private or commercial) because they failed to keep their visitors safe. The state’s laws concerning premises liability require property owners to provide a certain level of care to people who enter their land. If they fail to provide this protection and an injury occurs, those property owners and their insurance companies are liable to provide all necessary compensation.
Medical malpractice can also result in catastrophic injuries. Doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals must provide competent patient care. An Indianapolis catastrophic injury lawyer could review the facts of the incident and build a case.
Another common source of catastrophic injuries involves defective products. For example, a car may crash not because of a driver’s inattentiveness or reckless behavior but because of a faulty component. It is easy to imagine how a catastrophic injury may result from failing brakes or a defective tire. Similar concepts apply to consumer products, safety equipment, and even medications. To prove a case based on a defective product, it is often a requirement to show that a product was defective and that an alternative design would have prevented the injury at hand.
Other causes leading to catastrophic injuries include (but are not limited to) sports accidents, severe falls, fires and explosions, leisure activities (boating, horseback riding, jet ski, etc.), or violent crime.
To see whether you have a case, it is crucial to speak with a catastrophic injury lawyer Indianapolis expert about the circumstances leading to your current health status. Our attorneys will do everything they can to recover economic and non-economic damages through a claim or a lawsuit.
Unfortunately, these incidents can leave you with the necessity to seek continual medical care, impacting your ability to earn a living.
It can be difficult to understand how these events can impact a person’s life until they occur. In some situations, they will require a person to seek help with their daily activities and depend on others for financial support. Universally, a person’s life will never be the same. Because of this, the parties at fault for these incidents must provide appropriate compensation to bring comfort and financial aid to injured parties.
An Indianapolis catastrophic injury lawyer is here to help with this process, fighting to demonstrate that another party was solely responsible for the incident that resulted in your injuries. In addition, an experienced personal injury attorney can evaluate how a catastrophic injury has impacted your life and seek appropriate payments from the responsible party on your behalf.
The law says that all parties responsible for an incident resulting in a catastrophic injury must compensate the victims. However, an injured individual’s responsibility is correctly selecting these parties, known as defendants.
In some situations, identifying the proper defendant is easy. For example, all drivers who cause accidents while behind the wheel are responsible for their actions. At the same time, their insurance companies will provide some level of coverage to mitigate the direct liability of their drivers. In these cases, it is important to evaluate the level of insurance protection to obtain proper compensation from all parties.
However, choosing the correct defendant in other cases can be more complex. For example, if a catastrophic injury results from an assault, it may be possible to hold both an attacker and a property owner liable for the incident. This is because the property owner may have a duty to keep visitors safe from all potential harm, even that which results from an intentional act of violence. An Indianapolis catastrophic injury attorney could help to evaluate the facts that led to an injury and determine which parties may be liable for an individual’s losses.
An Indianapolis catastrophic injury attorney can help to pursue a case on time. Indiana Code § 34-11-2-4 creates the state’s statute of limitations. This law controls how long a person has to bring a case to court after an injury. Under this statute, there is a time limit of two years for most personal injury cases.
The law says that all parties are responsible for their actions. This includes compensating others who suffer injuries because of their negligence or carelessness. When these permanent injuries affect your foreseeable future, they are considered catastrophic.
People who have suffered these injuries deserve compensation for all of their damages. This requires selecting the proper defendants, demonstrating how those defendants were responsible for the incident, and measuring how the incident has impacted your life. This may become all the more difficult when dealing with life-altering injuries and focusing on getting your life back on track.
Fortunately, our Indianapolis catastrophic injury lawyers may be able to help. Whether your injury was the product of a car accident, medical malpractice, or any other source, our attorneys can explain your rights, gather information concerning the incident, and demand full payments from at-fault parties.
Give us a call today to schedule a consultation.
1. What are the consequences of catastrophic injuries?
A catastrophic injury may reduce a person’s functionality in a body part. This may include situations involving the loss of that body part in the incident itself or when doctors perform an amputation while under their care. Typical examples can include feet, hands, legs, or arms losses.
Catastrophic injuries may also involve damage to a person’s nervous system. The brain and the spinal cord form the central nervous system that the body uses for voluntary and involuntary acts. Any damage to these body parts could result in paralysis of limbs or internal organs. The most extreme examples could be a person left with a loss of cognitive ability, losing limb function, or even being left in a coma.
Another common catastrophic injury that can result from an accident is burns. Burns on their own and in isolated locations are not necessarily catastrophic. However, the most severe of these injuries, known as 3rd-degree burns, can require extensive medical care or even necessitate amputation of the affected areas. If these burns cover a substantial part of a person’s body, it is fair to classify these injuries as catastrophic. An Indianapolis catastrophic injury attorney could help determine the next steps following a severe accident.
2. What damages can I recover after a catastrophic injury in Indiana?
Just like in most personal injury cases, Indiana law allows you to recover the following damages:
In some situations, your catastrophic injury attorney in Indianapolis could take your case to court to request punitive damages if the defendant caused your injuries because of gross negligence or malicious intent. For example, punitive damages are sometimes awarded in big defective product lawsuits and other similar situations.
Your catastrophic injury lawyer in Indianapolis will assign a monetary value to your case and begin negotiations with the opposing party’s insurers and attorneys to get you the settlement you deserve.
If someone dies because of catastrophic injuries, the victim’s family or estate representatives can file a wrongful death action against the responsible party or parties. Indiana has a few specific laws, acts, doctrines, and caps for wrongful death lawsuits, so it is best to contact our attorneys for case evaluation and advice.
3. Are there damage caps in Indiana that can affect my catastrophic injury case?
Indiana juries can award plaintiffs compensation of millions and tens of millions in catastrophic injury cases. However, Indiana courts operate with several caps concerning the following:
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