If you’ve been injured in any kind of serious accident that was caused by the negligence of someone else, you’re no doubt overwhelmed and unsure about what your next step should be. In fact, it’s natural to want to leave the matter to the insurance company involved and to attempt to put the accident far behind you. We strongly discourage this approach. The consequences of an accident can negatively impact your future in ways that can affect your physical and mental health as well as your finances. Your future is far too important to hand the reins over to the insurance company: you need a dedicated Enfield, Connecticut, personal injury lawyer.
Every personal injury claim is unique, and it’s essential to your claim’s success that you find a personal injury firm that you feel comfortable working with and that you can trust. At Leighton, Katz & Drapeau, we take the time to hear your concerns and to get to know the circumstances that are unique to your claim. Our experienced legal team has the skill and determination necessary to help guide your claim toward its most positive outcome, but we also have the compassion to focus on you as an individual with personalized needs. We’re committed to all our cases, whether they’re large or small, and we handle each of them with the utmost dedication and fierce advocacy. If someone else’s negligence has left you injured, please don’t hesitate to contact our office at 860-749-4000 today.
Just Compensation
Personal injury law in Connecticut allows compensation for those damages that are caused by another’s negligence, recklessness, carelessness, or intentional actions. Dealing with an injury is already difficult, but dealing with an injury that was caused by someone else’s lack of concern is often much harder. Our compassionate personal injury lawyers understand the profound difficulty inherent to your situation, and we’re committed to fighting for your rights and for your rightful compensation. Your future is too important not to seek skilled legal counsel.
Your Claim’s Worth
The worth of your personal injury claim is a complex calculation, and it’s usually based upon a wide array of factors. For instance, you may be entitled to compensation for your total medical expenses, for your lost wages and the reduction of your earning potential, for your property damages, and for your pain and suffering overall. In certain distinct situations, you may also be able to recover punitive damages, which is a mechanism designed to punish the party who’s malicious or intentional actions caused you to be injured. allows punitive damages to be sought when the evidence shows a reckless indifference to the rights of others or an intentional or wanton violation of those rights.
Assessing the worth of personal injury claims is complicated, but at Leighton, Katz & Drapeau, we take the time necessary to accurately determine the full worth of your claim to help ensure that you’re adequately compensated for the totality of your damages. Accurately calculating worth is critical to every personal injury claim, and we make sure that we get it right.
Insurance Companies: We’ve Done Our Time
Insurance companies are basic to your compensation in a personal injury claim. Many of these companies can be quite aggressive once they determine that they want to get information out of you, but we strongly discourage all our clients from providing any kind of statement to a representative of the insurance company. Communicating with the insurance company is our job, and we’ve been successfully handling insurance companies involved in personal injury claims for decades. Allow the dedicated legal team at Leighton, Katz & Drapeau to deal directly with the insurance company on your behalf.
Most of the personal injury attorneys at Leighton, Katz & Drapeau have experience working in the insurance industry and have left that world to work for you and your best interests. Because of personal experience in the insurance arena, we’ve developed a deeper understanding of how best to protect your rights in a personal injury claim. Our collective personal background in insurance ensures our deep commitment to all our clients and their claims.
It’s worth noting that insurance companies—even as they charge you for their coverage—are in the business of turning a profit, and this is what guides their efforts. As difficult as it may be to understand, it’s essential to understand that your just compensation is far from the insurance company’s top priority.
In their quest for profits, some insurance companies aren’t above engaging in tactics that are less than ethical. In the “Tricks of the Trade: How Insurance Companies Deny, Delay, Confuse and Refuse,” the depths that insurance companies sometimes stoop to bolster their profits are outlined, and they’re often astounding:
- Some companies make it their policy to deny any claim that they can get away with denying—even going so far as to handsomely reward those employees who deny the most claims.
- Sometimes insurance companies simply delay processing their claims until the policyholders finally give up and go away—a simple but effective means of improving their bottom lines.
- Contracts are known for being incomprehensible, but some insurance companies write their contracts to intentionally confuse their policyholders.
- Some insurance companies even penalize their customers for daring to call the company and inquire about their policies—even going so far as counting such calls as the equivalent of a claim against the caller’s policy.
Each of these tactics is wrong, but that’s not where it ends. In processing your claim, the insurance company will provide you with plenty of hoops to jump through, including independent medical examinations and cascading paperwork. Never fear, however, we’re here to help. We’ve been down this road before, and we’ll effectively navigate you past the obstacles that the insurance company throws your way.
It is in keeping with the insurance companies financial interest to trip you up in whatever ways it can. We’re here to mitigate their efforts; we have years and years of experience protecting the rights of our clients from the tricks of the insurance trade, and we’re fully committed to your just compensation.
The dedicated personal injury lawyers at Leighton, Katz & Drapeau are all highly skilled negotiators, and our track record for effecting the compensation that our clients deserve is proven. If the insurance company makes an offer that doesn’t fairly compensate you and if they aren’t amenable to negotiating that offer to fair, we’re fully prepared to move the matter into the courtroom. Your fair compensation is always our top priority.
Your Personal Injury Damages
If your claim does go to court, it’s helpful if you understand the process, and we’ll be right there with you every step of the way. Your personal injury case will focus on obtaining compensation—known as damages—for the injuries that you’ve suffered and for the overarching negative effects those injuries have had (and will continue to have) in your life. In the end, the judge or jury will determine the amount of damages you’re owed by the defendant (the person whose recklessness caused you to be injured in the first place).
Medical Damages
The damages in your case will likely be spread across a range of factors that includes your medical expenses, which are often immense:
- Emergency transportation from the scene of the accident and initial emergency care;
- Medical services provided by your doctor, medical specialists, and surgeons;
- Surgeries and aftercare;
- Physical and other forms of therapy;
- Ongoing medical treatments and therapies;
- Prescription medicines; and
- Adaptive healthcare devices.
Further, personal injury accidents are often so distressing that many sufferers also face expenses related to their mental health.
Further Damages
There are also a variety of other damages that are closely associated with many personal injury claims:
- Lost wages associated with lost days at work;
- Decreased earning potential based on your inability to return to work on your return to work for a reduced salary (when your injuries are chronic); and
- Property damages, including damage to your car in a car accident.
All these are compensable under Connecticut’s personal injury laws, which are in place to help you and other plaintiffs (the injured parties) to pursue your pre-injury quality of life—to the greatest extent possible.
The Evidence in Support of Your Case
Every personal injury case hinges on the available evidence, and our dedicated personal injury attorneys will work hard to put together a thorough body of evidence in support of your case. This evidence is critical to your case and will include several forms of medical documents:
- The healthcare instructions provided to you by medical professionals;
- The letters written by your physician to your employer;
- Medical documentation of your sustained injuries;
- A schedule of your medical services and therapy sessions; and
- A complete collection of your comprehensive medical costs.
Our dedicated legal team will also seek evidence of other forms of loss, including the extent of your lost wages, your diminished earning potential, your emotional and psychological damages, and your overall pain and suffering. The entirety of the evidence collected will serve to support the integrity of your claim and to bolster your ability to obtain just compensation.
Personal Injury Claims that We Handle
At Leighton, Katz & Drapeau in Enfield, Connecticut, we represent a wide range of personal injury claims:
- Car accidents;
- Motorcycle accidents;
- Commercial truck accidents;
- Bike accidents;
- Pedestrian accidents;
- Premises liability (if someone else’s negligent care has caused you to be injured on either public or private property);
- Slip and fall accidents (if someone else’s negligent care has caused you to fall and be injured on either public or private property);
- Traumatic brain injuries, which can be severely debilitating;
- Dog bites and other animal injuries;
- Burns and explosions; and
- Recreational accidents.
Wrongful Death Claims
Connecticut has a legal mechanism—a wrongful death claim—for recovering in a case in which your loved one is killed in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence. A wrongful death claim can help protect you, as the victim’s survivor, and help protect your lost loved one’s estate. In other words, a wrongful death claim allows you to seek damages on your lost loved one’s behalf. A variety of factors will determine the extent of these damages:
- Those medical expenses deemed medically necessary that are associated with your loved one’s final injuries;
- The loss of your loved one’s earning potential;
- Your loved one’s funeral costs;
- The pain and suffering that your loved one had to endure before dying; and
- Your loved one’s loss of the capacity to enjoy life’s activities.
In the case of a car accident, if the driver whose negligence caused the accident that leads to your loved one’s death deliberately or recklessly violated a traffic law, Connecticut allows the damage amount to be doubled or even tripled if that deliberate or reckless behavior was a substantial factor in the death of your loved one.
Call the Enfield Personal Injury Attorneys at Leighton, Katz & Drapeau
The dedicated legal team at Leighton, Katz & Drapeau has been representing the hardworking citizens of Enfield, Connecticut since 1989, and it is our honor and our privilege to do so. We carefully select the cases we represent so that our clients are afforded the highly personalized legal support they need and deserve. You’ll never feel like just another client at our firm because that’s simply not how we operate.
Our experienced personal injury lawyers take the time and put in the effort to get to know you and your unique claim. We’ve been handling personal injury claims for decades, and we have great empathy for what you’re going through. Our team has the compassion to care about your rightful compensation, the steely determination to aggressively advocate for your legal rights, and the experience to help effectively and efficiently guide your claim toward it’s best possible resolution.
At Leighton, Katz & Drapeau we represent a wide variety of personal injury claims, and we’re deeply committed to this mission. Personal injury claims are our passion, and they drive our firm. Because the outcome of these claims is so pivotal in our clients’ lives, we always go the extra mile. We’re paid on a contingency basis, so we won’t be paid until you’ve been compensated for your personal injury claim. We’re pleased to continue serving the people of Connecticut, and if you’ve been injured in an accident that was caused by someone else’s negligence, we encourage you to or call our Enfield office at 860-749-4000 today.
