Houston Personal Injury Lawyer
At Gilde Law Firm, we help people who get hurt or killed because of the negligence of others. We make sure they get the medical care they need, and we make sure they get the financial compensation they need to pay for that care, as well as to make up for their lost income, pain and suffering, and the myriad other ways the other person’s negligence has damaged them and negatively impacted their lives. Our Houston personal injury lawyers take on negligent individuals, employers, property owners, corporations and their insurance companies, and we work to see that our clients are fully compensated for the harm done to them. We do this because we believe in our clients and care about their well-being. We Believe, We Fight, We Win.
Proving Negligence in a Personal Injury Case
Whether you are hurt in an auto accident, trucking accident, or other accident on the road, or if you are injured on somebody’s dangerous property or by a third-party in the workplace, the burden falls on you as the injury victim to prove the other party’s negligence and fault in causing your injury. You’ll also be required to prove the extent of your injury and damages in order to recover a full and fair settlement or convince a jury to award an appropriate amount.
Proving negligence requires proving the other party owed you a duty of care, proving they breached that duty, and proving that the breach caused the accident or injury you suffered. This requires gathering facts about the accident and collecting all relevant evidence, and applying the applicable law to the facts in the case.
All of this requires knowledge, skill, and experience litigating cases, settling out of court, and trying cases to a jury verdict. As a trial law firm, we are heavily experienced in taking cases through litigation to trial and jury verdict. While we are known for our trial work, this doesn’t mean we don’t settle cases when it is in our clients’ best interests to do so. In fact, our reputation for taking cases to trial helps us to achieve better settlements more often than other firms that don’t go to trial. When the insurance companies know we are prepared to go to trial, they think twice before stonewalling or making unreasonably low settlement offers.
Fighting Comparative Negligence in Houston Personal Injury Matters
At the same time you are busy proving the other party’s negligence and fault, you’ll need to be aware of the Texas law of proportionate responsibility, also known as comparative negligence or comparative fault. This law says that you cannot recover damages if your percentage of responsibility is greater than 50 percent. Insurance companies know this and press hard to shift as much of the fault for the accident as they can onto you. Even if your amount of responsibility is less than 50%, it will reduce the amount you can recover proportionately; if you are found to be 40% at fault, for example, the amount of your damages award will be reduced by 40%.
At Gilde Law Firm, we work just as hard defending you against unfounded allegations of comparative fault as we do proving the other party’s liability. The insurance company doesn’t get to decide who was at fault; that job is for the jury if the case goes to trial. We spend our time building your case so we are ready to settle for an appropriate amount that vindicates your rights or put the matter before a jury if necessary.
Experienced in the Most Serious Injury Cases
Our firm takes on cases involving catastrophic personal injury or wrongful death. Some of the cases we handle involve the following types of injuries:
- Traumatic Brain Injuries
- Spinal Cord Injuries
- Burn Injuries
- Amputation Injuries
- Fractures
- Internal Injuries
The more serious the injury, typically the more complex the case and the more damages are involved. Damages is the legal term used to refer to the categories of compensation available to a plaintiff in a civil case. In personal injury matters, damages often include the following:
- Medical expenses
- Lost income
- Pain and suffering
- Scarring or disfigurement
- Loss of enjoyment in life
- Derivative claims by family members for “loss of consortium,” which means compensation for the loss of love, support, companionship, comfort, parental guidance, or marital relations which can accompany a catastrophic injury or wrongful death.
Of course, it is difficult to deal with the aftermath of an accident from a purely physical point of view, not to mention the emotional trauma and disruption to your life. While you focus on your physical recovery and getting your life back in order, we focus on recovering financial compensation that can help you accomplish those things and regain as much quality of life and make you whole again as much as possible.
Call Gilde Law Firm for Help With a Houston & National Personal Injury Negligence Claim
For help after a personal injury caused by another’s negligence in Houston or anywhere in the U.S, call Gilde Law Firm at 281-973-2772 for a free consultation. Our Houston personal injury lawyers advance all costs of your case, and we only charge a fee after we are successful in getting compensation for you.
