If you’ve been injured in a car accident in Oklahoma, you must come to a basic understanding of your essential legal rights. You must also recognize the basic benefits to be derived from retaining the professional services of a skilled, experienced Oklahoma City personal injury lawyer.
Justice and Compensation in a Personal Injury Case
Justice is achieved in an accident case to a considerable degree based on compensation awarded through an insurance claim settlement of a lawsuit. With this in mind, financial recovery in a car injury case largely depends on the facts and circumstances surrounding the accident, together with the nature and extent of injuries you may have suffered. With these parameters duly noted, an Oklahoma City personal injury attorney is likely to fight to obtain compensation for losses that include:
- Medical bills
- Pain and suffering
- Lost income
- Mental anguish and emotional distress
- Property damage or loss
- Permanent disability
A car accident lawyer will also work to ensure that you obtain comprehensive compensation for your losses. Not only are you likely entitled to money for your existing damages, losses, and injuries, but also for those that you reasonably anticipate facing in the future.
Being injured in automobile accident, you may well face the need for ongoing medical treatment. For example, you may need extensive physical therapy.
You may also be unable to return to work in the immediate future. You may endure chronic pain indefinitely.
These all represent prime examples of ongoing damages, losses, and injuries that you can face following an automobile accident. These are all types of losses for which you can seek financial compensation through an insurance settlement or a personal injury lawsuit.
Finally, when it comes to achieving justice through appropriate compensation, you may be able to seek what are known as punitive or exemplary damages. These represent additional compensation in personal injury lawsuits. Additional money may be awarded when the conduct of the party causing the accident is considered especially egregious or reckless.
Proving Negligence in a Car Accident Case
Oklahoma law requires that four elements be demonstrated in order to prove or demonstrate negligence in a car accident case. The first of these elements is demonstrating the existence of a duty of care. In a car accident case, any motorist on a public roadway has a duty of care to operate a motor vehicle in a reasonably safe manner.
The second element in a car accident case is demonstrating a breach of a duty of care. An example of a breach of a duty of car is running a red light.
The third element which must be demonstrated to prove negligence in a personal injury case is what technically is known as proximate cause. In layperson’s terms, proximate cause essentially means that the breach of the duty of care must demonstrably be the legal and actual cause of the accident and the injuries you sustained.
Finally, in order to prevail in a personal injury case, you must have sustained actual damages, losses, or injuries. Damages, losses, or injuries cannot merely be speculative, something that you think might occur at some time in the future.
Retain an Oklahoma Personal Injury Lawyer
The first step in retaining an injury lawyer lawyer in Oklahoma City after a car accident is scheduling an initial consultation. During an initial consultation, an experienced lawyer provides an evaluation of your case. You will also have the ability to ask any questions you may have relating to your case. As a general rule, there is no fee charged for an initial consultation with a car accident attorney.