Spokane Personal Injury Lawyers

Spokane Personal Injury Lawyers

When you’ve been seriously injured in an accident or incident caused by another person, it’s important to find out if you are entitled to compensation.

If you are reading this page, you’ve probably suffered a significant personal injury. It’s likely you’re still dealing with physical and emotional pain. You’ve probably had significant disruption to your work schedule, causing you to worry about paying the bills. And most likely, you’re concerned about finding someone you can trust to take on a personal injury claim for you.

Our firm is here to help. We offer free legal advice. Call our Spokane personal injury lawyers today.

Don’t put this off another day due to concerns about needing to pay ahead of time to get answers to your legal questions. Call us as soon as you’re able and schedule a free legal consultation.

When Should I Call a Personal Injury Lawyer?

The term “personal injury” encompasses numerous ways a person can be injured due to the carelessness or negligence of another. It includes motor vehicle accidents, medical malpractice, dog bites, slip and fall injuries, and many other examples. It also includes negligent security, which is when a person is injured during the commission of a crime that could have been prevented, had adequate security measures been taken.

Whatever the cause of your personal injury, read on to see how our Spokane personal injury lawyers may be of great help. There is no cost for an initial legal consultation to have your questions answered.

Reasons to call upon a personal injury attorney:

• If you were hurt by another person in an accident or incident that could have been prevented — even if you were partially at-fault — you deserve to find out if you can collect damages.
• If liability for the accident is unclear and you think you may be at-fault, you can benefit from the counsel of an experienced personal injury lawyer, as you may need to prove your innocence.
• It’s always best to let an experienced personal injury lawyer communicate with the insurance company on your behalf. If you’ve filed a claim for injuries, you can expect a call from the insurance company requesting permission to record your statement about the accident. Agreeing to this without your lawyer present is a mistake.

While the insurance company is not “out to get you,” it’s important to remember they are essentially a business. They will be on guard for people who would file false claims in the pursuit of money. The less the company has to pay out in financial awards, the stronger its bottom line, so they scrutinize the legitimacy of every claim. As a result, when you file a claim, you can expect them to put you through your paces to establish how and when you were in fact injured.

There are a number of standard practices insurance companies employ to lower the amount of money that is outgoing to customers. The tactics begin with this call to get your version of events. 

Our knowledgeable personal injury lawyers are well versed in these tactics and not vulnerable to being accidentally tripped up by them. One of the ways you can preserve the value of your claim is to defer all communications with the insurance company to your personal injury lawyer.
• To receive more in compensation than you would by going it alone. Our personal injury lawyers are adept at negotiating fair settlements for their clients. And, since they’re lawyers, they carry with them the implication that if the insurance company refuses to settle, the lawyer can and will sue on your behalf. For this reason alone, hiring a personal injury attorneys possess legal leverage that can “inspire” cooperation from resistant insurance agencies. While it is possible to attempt handling a claim on your own, the low likelihood of getting the amount of compensation a skilled attorney is capable of bringing you makes retaining a law firm a good idea.

Mistakes to Watch Out For

There are several mistakes that can significantly lower your claim’s value or even cause it to be dismissed. 

Being aware of these mistakes can help you avoid making them:

• Don’t skip the medical exam
• Follow your doctor’s treatment advice
• Make finding an attorney a priority
• Make sure your lawyer is a good fit for your claim

Don’t Skip the Medical Exam

When you experience a personal injury of any kind, the adrenaline that floods your system can make it difficult to realize just how injured you are. In fact, you may not feel the true depth of your injuries for up to eighteen hours. Protect your physical health by seeking out a doctor’s exam.

In addition, it’s crucial to remember that the official medical record generated with a doctor’s exam will provide you with irrefutable evidence that proves to the insurance company you are in fact injured. If you fail to get an exam, they may question whether you are exaggerating your injuries. Avoid this frustration and risk to your claim by going straight to the professionals.

Follow Your Doctor’s Treatment Advice

When you leave the care of the hospital after treatment for your injuries, you’ll be given instructions for continuing the healing process as an outpatient, returning for periodical rechecks while taking on the responsibility of taking medications and attending ongoing therapy appointments on your own.

There are many ways you may be asked to assist on your healing journey. Be sure to closely follow your doctor’s treatment plan. Ignoring it can hinder your recovery and damage your claim.

The insurance company will be observing your healing process. If they believe you are going against your doctor’s orders, they may feel you are getting in the way of your own recovery. In an industry that must turn to risk probability formulas and injury verification to survive, you can expect your claim’s value to plummet if you ignore doctor’s orders.

For instance, if the insurance company follows up on your recovery for a herniated disk in your back and sees photos of you on social media in a deadlifting competition, your claim is going to be in serious jeopardy. Be diligent about your treatment plan to preserve the value of your claim.

Make Finding an Attorney a Priority

When you’ve been seriously injured, checking client reviews of attorneys is likely to be the farthest thing from your mind. If you can, though, set yourself a reminder to look into personal injury attorneys in your area as soon as possible — or ask a loved one to help you with this.

The reality is, long before you’ll need to worry about missing the filing date on your personal injury claim, you’re likely to run out of available evidence. Accident scenes get cleared away and witnesses can disappear.

Even if you locate witnesses, if you’ve let too much time slip by, memories of the event are likely to have faded. Give your attorney the best chance to build you a solid claim by getting the process started as soon as you reasonably can. 

One of the biggest rewards for retaining an attorney this is that you’ll have the luxury of focusing your time and energy on your recovery, which is the best thing for your health and for your ability to collect maximum compensation.

Make Sure Your Lawyer is a Good Fit for Your Claim

There are many areas within the legal profession in which an attorney may specialize. Take the time to make sure that the person you retain for your personal injury claim is a personal injury trial attorney with experience in the type of personal injury you have.

There’s no sense in investing your time and potential compensation in an attorney who spends most of their time on divorce cases. They may be a stellar divorce lawyer, but you need to know they are skilled navigating the waters specific to personal injury claims. And, you need to know you’re hiring a trial lawyer, because if your claim fails to be resolved at the negotiating table, your only recourse is the courtroom.

Our knowledgeable Spokane personal injury lawyers are ready to fight to get you the compensation you deserve.

Personal Injury Client Story

We are sharing the story that follows to help you better understand your personal injury claim. The names and details have been edited to protect the privacy of our client, but you can still gain valuable insight from the story. Please read it through to learn more, then give us a call to discuss your personal injury claim.

On a cool, breezy Saturday in October in Spokane no so long ago, Mike Turner headed east on I-90 to pick up his girlfriend Angela at her apartment in Spokane Valley. They were celebrating the one-year anniversary of the day they met, and Mike was excited to take Angela for lunch. Despite her repeated attempts to find out where they were going, he hadn’t caved. He was determined to make it a surprise. He’d had a couple of serious girlfriends in the past — at least, he’d thought so at the time, but Angela was different. He was really thinking she was “the one.”

Mike smiled as he drove, thinking about his plan to take her for lunch at the Davenport Hotel and then tour the historic landmark. Angela loved to visit the town’s historic sites, and none more than those reputed to be haunted. He looked over at the bouquet of red roses on the passenger seat. He’d wrapped them in that clingy fake spiderweb stuff from the craft store and stuck a few plastic spiders to it. Perfect. She’d be intrigued for sure.

Traffic was moving swiftly as Mike passed North Mullan Road and he was thinking he might even arrive early, when a black Chevy Malibu merged into traffic in front of him moving at warp speed. He could tell because his cruise control was set at the speed limit, and the Malibu rocketed past his Camry as if he was parked. He shook his head, watching it zig zag between the cars ahead, igniting brake lights as it wormed its way into the left lane.

As often happens, however, karma appeared to catch up with Malibu man, and he ended up chomping at the bumper of a white hatchback that should probably have moved to the right several decades ago. The speeder’s frustration ignited a stubborn streak in the hatchback, however. It refused to budge, even when the Malibu flashed its lights, its driver waving unfriendly hand gestures at the car holding it back.

“Ha, that’s what you get, pal,” Mike laughed as he approached, about to pass them both.

Malibu Man was oblivious to Mike, however, and without warning or looking, slid laterally into the middle lane to pass on the right. Only Mike wasn’t out of the way yet, and the car collided with his driver’s side rear flank with the deafening screech of metal-on-metal.

The impact knocked Mike’s hands free of the wheel — not that it mattered. His car went into a dizzying spin, crashing its passenger side into the concrete median before it settling in the breakdown lane, facing traffic.

Witnesses would later say it was a miracle of inches that Mike’s car didn’t crash head-on into the white hatchback Mike was passing. The speeder’s own car spun safely to the right shoulder, fortunate to catch a gap in traffic. Luckily for Mike, several cars saw what happened and pulled to the shoulder to help. He would not lack witnesses.

Mike woke up in the hospital with a cracked vertebrae and a bulging disk in his back. He would have a long, slow recovery. Angela visited him every day until he was discharged and encouraged him to make an appointment for a free legal consultation at the Spokane office of Paukert and Troppmann, PLLC.

We met Mike four days after he was discharged from the hospital. As he and Angela sat down, it was clear just how carefully Mike was moving.

How much does it cost to hire a lawyer?

Mike was interested in the possibility of filing a personal injury claim but was anxious about what it might cost. It was his first question.

Personal Injury Attorney Kathleen H. Paukert explained that there would be no out-of-pocket expense. “We operate on a contingency-fee model,” she told the couple. “We cover all case expenses from start to finish; investigation, administration, research, even litigation should your case need to go to trial. In the end, we only receive compensation when we resolve your claim successfully.”

“Seriously?” Asked Mike.

“Seriously,” said Paukert.

“You must be very good at what you do,” Angela said.

“We like to think so,” Attorney Paukert smiled.

How much is my claim worth?

“So, how much is a claim like mine worth?” Mike asked.

“Well, when we answer that question, we insist on giving you a number you can count on,” said Paukert. “And the value of your claim is not something I can reliably guess at without any information. While your case is generally a car accident case within the realm of personal injury, it is your car accident case, with its own circumstances, including your specific injuries. As such, there really isn’t another ‘case like yours’ to go by.

“Thus, the value of your claim is going to depend on two things. The first is the accident investigation. We always confirm the circumstances around the accident event as well as all at-fault parties. This is necessary to avoid inaccuracies and surprises. As you can imagine, surprises in a legal case are rarely good things. Getting all the information we can from a thorough accident investigation will provide us with half the information we need to determine your claim’s value.

“The second part of the equation will depend on you, Mike. We’re going to need you to recover to the point that we call ‘maximum medical improvement.’ This means getting back to a point your doctors would consider you back to the previous level of health you enjoyed before the accident.

“If your injuries prevent you from recovering to your pre-accident level of health, then your maximum medical improvement will be reached when your doctors have determined that you’ve recovered as much as you are capable of.

“At that point, you’ll be done with procedures and operations, and the doctors will be fairly confident of what the future care of your injuries will involve,” said Attorney Paukert.

“It’s going be critical for you to be diligent in following your treatment plan throughout this process, Mike. Take your meds according to schedule, go to every follow-up and physical therapy appointment you are given. The more closely you follow the plan, the more efficiently you’ll heal. And get every ounce of rest you can. I’m sure by now you already know that back injuries are not something to take lightly,” Paukert said.

“Got that right,” said Mike, shifting carefully in his seat to get more comfortable. Angela took his hand.

“When you reach maximum medical improvement, we’ll know what your damages are. That’s the point at which I can answer your question as to the true value of your claim.

“I know it’s probably frustrating, Mike, but this is how it works. And I’m sure you want to make sure that all of your damages are factored into your request for compensation. No matter who you choose to retain for your case, I urge you not to believe any attorney who plucks a claim value out of thin air before the investigation is complete and you’ve reached maximum medical improvement. I’d have to say any attorney who does that is behaving irresponsibly.”

How long will my claim take?

“I can see how a personal injury claim can be a drawn-out process,” Mike said. “Any way to give me an idea of how long you expect the claim to take?”

“Well, you’re right about the potential for a claim to take a good while,” Attorney Paukert said. “The timeline for your claim will also depend on two factors. The first, as you may have guessed, is how long it takes you to reach maximum medical improvement. Once you’re there, we’ll send a demand letter to the insurance company based upon the value of your claim. From that point forward, the timeline of your claim will depend on the insurance company’s response.

“If they are agreeable to offering a fair settlement, we can wrap everything up ‘without further ado,’ as they say. If they refuse to offer you the compensation you deserve, however, we’ll have to put your case in suit and take them to court.

“This isn’t something to worry about, though. Our firm has a long and highly successful history of winning personal injury claims, including many car accident claims. The insurance company will almost certainly have heard of us. In fact, it’s possible they’ll decide to work out a settlement to avoid a showdown in court. I can’t guarantee that, of course, but it has happened. In either case, we’re ready to stand up for your right to full and fair compensation.”

Mike and Angela were satisfied with the information they received in the free legal consultation and retained Paukert and Troppmann. When the case was wrapped up, Attorney Paukert got Mike over six times the amount the insurance company initially offered.

Call Our Spokane Personal Injury Lawyers Today

We hope this information has given you an idea of the elements in involved in your personal injury claim. Each case is unique, of course, so please contact us as soon as possible to schedule your free legal consultation. If you’ve been injured by someone else’s negligence, you deserve justice. We’d like to make sure you are compensated to the fullest extent possible.