Knowledgeable Accident Attorney Assisting Victims in the Fairhope Area
Fairhope is a small city on Mobile Bay with a population of approximately 17,000 residents. In 2016, Fairhope was named the best small town in the South by Southern Living Magazine. U.S. Route 98 (Greeno Road) runs through the city, connecting it to I-10 and Mobile to the north and Foley to the southeast. Section Street and Scenic Highway 98 link its center to the outlying areas of Houstonville, Battle Wharf, and Point Clear. While most people live in, visit, or travel through the area without incident, Fairhope still sees its fair share of car crashes and other accidents. If you or someone close to you has been injured in an accident, you need to consult an experienced Fairhope personal injury lawyer without delay. Whit A. Thomas can evaluate your potential claim and provide you with a thorough assessment of your options.
Take Action to Seek Compensation for Your Injuries
Personal injury law is a broad area of law that covers accidents in which someone is injured due to another party’s fault, most often carelessness. Common examples of personal injury cases include car accidents, truck accidents, bicycle accidents, pedestrian accidents, slip and falls, defective product accidents, and medical malpractice.
Most personal injury lawsuits are based on the legal theory of negligence. Negligence simply means that your injury was a result of someone else’s mistake or misconduct. It is important to note that the type of accident must have been foreseeable based on the mistake or misconduct in question. For example, if a driver strikes a pedestrian because he or she was speeding excessively and could not stop in time, that driver would be deemed negligent. This is because the driver’s careless behavior (speeding) directly caused the accident, and it is foreseeable that speeding through an area near a crosswalk would cause a driver to strike a pedestrian.
One reason why you should make sure to retain a personal injury attorney in Fairhope after an accident is that Alabama is one of only a few states that still follow the “contributory negligence” rule. This means that a plaintiff who bears any amount of responsibility for the accident will be barred from recovering any compensation at all. For instance, if your car was hit by a driver running a stop sign, but you were speeding at the time, you may not be able to recover any damages if the jury determines that your speeding meant that you were partially at fault for the crash. This is a harsh rule if you consider the fact that most other states allow plaintiffs to recover some damages even if they were partially at fault; they simply reduce the plaintiff’s compensation award by his or her degree of fault. Therefore, your attorney may need to defeat an argument by the defendant that you were partially at fault for the accident. You should entrust this task to a legal professional rather than handling it on your own.
When a victim’s injuries result from someone else’s negligence, the victim and their Fairhope personal injury attorney may be able to recover a variety of damages for medical bills and other types of losses, such as lost wages, rehabilitation costs, pain and suffering, disfigurement, and more. When it comes to seeking an appropriate dollar amount for damages, there is no set formula. Instead, a judge or jury (or an insurance adjuster) will take a multitude of factors into account, including the nature of the injuries, the permanency of the injuries, and the ability of the victim to return to work in a timely manner.
Like other states, Alabama imposes a time limit in which a personal injury lawsuit can be filed in civil court. This time frame is known as the statute of limitations. Under state law, an accident victim has two years from the date of the accident to file a claim. While there are some exceptions for minors and people with mental illnesses or disabilities, these do not apply in most cases. Failing to file a claim within the appropriate statute of limitations could mean being permanently barred from seeking compensation.
Hire a Knowledgeable Personal Injury Lawyer in the Fairhope Area
If you have been injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, such as in a car crash, an incident of nursing home negligence, or a slip and fall, you may be entitled to compensation for your harm. Time is of the essence in these cases, so it is important to reach out to a diligent personal injury attorney as soon as possible after your accident. With extensive experience in this area of law, Whit A. Thomas can evaluate your case and determine a legal strategy accordingly. Call us or contact us online for a free consultation.