Consult Attorneys in Alaska for Your Personal Injury Case
It should be simple—somebody acts negligently and you are injured. You bring a lawsuit and you get money for your injuries. Unfortunately, however, the process of recovering monies following a personal injury accident is not simple. There are so many rules with which you must comply. Whether these rules and regulations are obvious or not, you must follow them. If you fail to do so, your strong set of facts may result in no recovery. A competent law firm such as Crowson Law Group not only knows these rules and regulations but is able to abide by them and use them in a victim’s favor to yield the best possible result in your case. So whether you are hurt in Anchorage, Wasilla or another area nearby, these attorneys are the ones you want to prosecute your personal injury claims.
Some of these rules and regulations that are mandatory to follow include the fact that you have only two years from the date of the accident to file your lawsuit. Although this “statute of limitations” cannot be extended, the attorneys at Crowson Law Group know that, if you are not within the two years, you can argue that you did not discover your injuries until a later date, a factor that may allow your case to move forward.
Quality attorneys will also strategize so that Alaska’s “comparative fault” statute does not take away from your award. This comes into play where it is determined that you, the victim, are somehow at fault. If so, your award will be reduced by an amount equivalent to the amount you are at fault. For example, if you receive an award of $200,000, but it is determined that you rolled through a stop sign, something that contributed to 20% of the happening of the accident, your award will be reduced by 20% to $160,000.
Top attorneys know about damage caps in Alaska personal injury cases. Although you are able to recover every nickel spent on economic damages such as medical bills, lost wages and the like, the non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, loss of consortium, etc. is limited. For example, in medical malpractice cases, the cap is set at the greater of $400,000.00 or $8,000.00 for each year of life expected to remain. However, in cases where the injured party suffers severe disfigurement or physical impairment, the cap is raised to $1,000,000.00. If a lawyer promises you $50,000,000 on your basic medical malpractice case, you should seek another attorney because this person obviously does not know the relevant laws.
Crowson has attorneys that can recover monies for you in cases such as (a) car accidents, (b) other types of negligence, (c) intentional torts (such as assault or battery), (d) defamation, (e) strict liability, (f) products liability, and (g) wrongful death.
And their attorney know that compensation can be recovered for (a) reimbursement of medical treatment, (b) reimbursement of lost wages, (c) reimbursement for damage to or loss of use of property, (d) loss of consortium (loss of services, income, companionship of spouse or child), (e) emotional distress and/or pain and suffering, (f) injury to reputation, and (g) punitive damages (in certain limited circumstances).
What about your attorney’s continuing knowledge? Alaska has Bar Rules 65 and 66 that require attorneys admitted to practice in Alaska to sit for not less than least three hours of mandatory Ethics Continuing Legal Education, as well as not less than nine hours of Voluntary Continuing Legal Education Credits annually. A prospective client should ensure that the attorney has in fact completed these requirements. The laws constantly change, sometimes in subtle ways that may have not-so-subtle results. If your attorney is not aware of these changes, you could have a devastating result.
Every personal injury attorney must know what is written above. Many do but are not competent to apply them to all sorts of situations. If you are in a car accident or slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall, the basic rules of personal injury law apply. If you are bitten by a dog, negligently treated at a nursing home, are the victim of an aircraft accident, subject to defamations through libel or slander, brutalized by a police officer, sexually harassed, assaulted or battered, etc., your attorneys must be able to handle the nuances of the laws relevant to such claims.
So if you believe you have a claim arising out of a personal injury, you must quickly contact an attorney to make sure your claim is timely filed, provide all relevant information to the attorney, and follow his advice. Once the complaint is filed and served, you will exchange information with the other party, all leading to a trial. Hopefully, your case will settle, but if not, it is important to have an attorney capable of handling your claim from start to finish.
