Brockton Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal Injury Overview

Many accidents result from negligence by one or more people. Lawsuits based on negligence require the plaintiff to prove that they were harmed because of careless actions by someone else. The context surrounding the injuries will determine the type of duty that was owed and whether it was breached. If you are able to establish liability with the assistance of a personal injury attorney in the Brockton area, you can recover compensatory damages, including medical bills, pain and suffering, lost wages, loss of enjoyment of life, and mental anguish. Even if you were partly at fault, you can recover some of your damages as long as you were less than 51 percent responsible for the accident.

Car Accidents

Massachusetts follows a no-fault insurance system. This means that after a car accident, you must first turn to your own personal injury protection (PIP) car insurance coverage. PIP should pay for medical care and certain out-of-pocket costs. You will not be able to get compensated for your non-economic damages from the car accident, such as pain and suffering, unless you meet a threshold for serious injuries set by Massachusetts law. If you meet the threshold, you can file a personal injury lawsuit against a negligent driver. Common types of behaviors that cause car accidents include failing to obey traffic signals or signs, ignoring crosswalks, texting or talking on the phone while driving, failing to check blind spots, and drunk driving.

Motorcycle Accidents

There is no buffer between a motorcyclist and the road or another vehicle. Many motorcyclists suffer catastrophic or even fatal injuries while riding. A Brockton personal injury attorney can help victims sue at-fault drivers in these situations. Motorcycle accidents may be caused by another driver’s failure to yield, tailgating, swerving, speeding, cutting off the motorcyclist, driving under the influence, or driving while distracted. Insurers sometimes take an aggressive approach in arguing that a motorcyclist was partially or fully to blame for an accident. Getting an attorney on your side can make a big difference in fending off an insurer’s tactics.

Bicycle Accidents

Bicyclists suffer catastrophic or even fatal injuries all too often. Drivers may not be looking for bicyclists or understand that they must share the road with bicyclists. There are a number of laws that bicyclists must follow, such as M.G.L. c. 85 section 11B. A bicycle accident still can happen even if you are following all of the applicable rules, though. Your attorney would need to show that you likely would not have been injured if not for the driver’s careless conduct.

Pedestrian Accidents

Pedestrian accidents often happen when a pedestrian is crossing the street, but they can also happen in parking lots, on the side of the street, in recreational areas, and when a car drives up onto a sidewalk. A pedestrian crossing in a crosswalk or at an intersection with a green light or walk signal has the right of way. Under M.G.L. ch. 89 § 11, when there are no traffic signals in place or working, a driver is still supposed to slow or stop to yield to a pedestrian crossing at a crosswalk when the pedestrian is on the same half of the road or within 10 feet of it. In Massachusetts, pedestrian victims may have insurance coverage available to them under their own motor vehicle insurance policies. A personal injury lawyer can advise Brockton residents on the options that may be available to them.

Premises Liability

When you visit a store or someone else’s property, you do not expect to leave injured. Massachusetts property owners owe a duty to keep their property safe for visitors. A property owner that knows or should know of a dangerous condition may be held responsible for compensatory damages under a traditional approach to premises liability cases. Surveillance footage may show how long a dangerous condition was present, and thus it may establish whether a property owner should have known about the dangerous condition. Under the mode of operation theory that is sometimes used in Massachusetts premises liability cases, you can establish notice by showing that your injuries were attributable to a reasonably foreseeable dangerous condition on a store’s property that was related to how the store is operated.

Dog Bites

Dog bites can result in serious injuries, especially to children. Chapter 140, Section 155 of the Massachusetts General Laws covers liability for dog bites. A dog’s owner or keeper can be held responsible with the assistance of a Brockton personal injury lawyer for damages suffered by the person bitten by the dog. However, if the victim was trespassing or committing another tort on the dog owner’s property, the dog owner will not be liable. Moreover, the dog’s owner may not be held liable if a dog bite victim incurred the bite in connection with teasing the dog. Your attorney can investigate the incident and gather evidence to defeat these types of defenses.

Medical Malpractice

A health care provider can be held liable for medical malpractice when the provider owes a professional standard of care to a patient, breaches the duty, and causes injuries to the patient. A breach of the professional standard of care can be a result of a failure to accurately and promptly diagnose an illness, improper treatment, surgical errors, medication errors, or complications with anesthesia, among other examples. The professional standard of care involves the accepted procedures and practices used by medical professionals in a certain geographic area when treating patients suffering from a disorder or disease. Usually, it is necessary for a personal injury attorney in Brockton or elsewhere in Massachusetts to retain experts to establish a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Defective Products

Consumers do not expect to be injured by the products that they buy. However, various types of prescription drugs, food, bedding, baby toys, cars, electronic equipment, and chemicals have all caused injuries to consumers at various points in time. If you are injured by a defective product, you can bring a product liability lawsuit to recover damages. Products can be defective in terms of design, manufacturing, or marketing. Under Massachusetts law, a consumer can recover damages based on strict liability, negligence, or breach of warranty.

Construction Accidents

Serious accidents can occur on construction sites. Often, medical bills are quite expensive, and most people do not have enough saved in case of catastrophic injuries. You may need to bring a workers’ compensation claim with regard to your employer, and you may also need to bring a third-party construction accident claim under another theory, such as negligence. Workers’ compensation does not provide compensation for pain and suffering, or full replacement for lost wages, which is why pursuing a third-party claim can be crucial. It may be necessary to retain an expert who understands the safety regulations at issue under Massachusetts law and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act.

Workers’ Compensation

If you are injured on the job or if you suffer from an occupational disease, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation. Workers’ compensation benefits include medical benefits, medical equipment, prescription drugs, disability in the form of wage replacement, rehabilitation, and vocational rehabilitation. The amount of disability payments that you can recover depends on the severity of your injuries. For a total and permanent disability, you can recover two-thirds of your average weekly wage. For a partial disability, you can recover 60% of the difference between your weekly wage before and after your workplace accident or occupational disease.

Retain a Tenacious Personal Injury Attorney in the Brockton Area

At the Law Offices of Sousa & Sousa, we have established a reputation for excellence by focusing our services on injured people in the Brockton-Taunton area since 1960. We give each client our undivided attention. We also have offices in Easton and Taunton, and we represent people throughout Plymouth, Bristol, and Norfolk Counties. Call us at (508) 230-5300 or contact us through our online form.