If you’ve been injured in an auto accident in Connecticut that was caused by someone else, you’re likely feeling overwhelmed and at a loss for where to turn for support. Because it is such a difficult experience, many people make the mistake of simply trying to put the accident behind them and muddling through on their own. If you’ve been injured, however, it can dramatically affect your future in terms of your finances and your physical and emotional health. Your future is important so consult with an experienced Vernon, Connecticut personal injury attorney today.
Every personal injury claim is as unique as the individual who’s been injured, and it’s critical that you find legal representation that understands your personal circumstances. The dedicated legal team at Leighton, Katz & Drapeau is here to listen and to help. We have the experience and the knowledge to help guide your case toward its best possible resolution, but we also have the compassion to focus on your needs as a client. We handle all our cases—from the biggest to the smallest—with the same level of commitment. If you’ve been injured, call our Vernon office at 860-875-7000 today.
Receiving Compensation for Your Injury or Accident
Personal injury law in Connecticut gives injured accident victims the right to seek payment from the parties that caused their accidents. Even if you know you have this right, however, it can be difficult to know how to go about getting paid for your injuries and losses. Our skilled personal injury attorneys understand how serious these accidents and injuries can be, and we’re committed to protecting your rights and always pursuing your claim’s best possible outcome. Your personal injury claim matters and you deserve quality legal support.
Because every personal injury claim is unique, the value of your claim will depend upon a variety of factors. You may be entitled to compensation for your medical expenses, your property damage, your lost wages and lowered earning capacity, and your pain and suffering. In certain situations, you may also be entitled to punitive damages that are designed to punish the other party’s intentional or malicious actions, such as driving while very drunk or causing intentional harm.
Assessing the value of a claim’s worth is complicated but at Leighton, Katz & Drapeau, we take the time to carefully examine each unique circumstance associated with your claim to make sure that the compensation you seek will cover all of your injury-related losses. This is a critical factor in every personal injury claim, and we put in the effort to get it right.
We Did Our Time Working for Insurance Companies—Now We Work for You
If someone else’s negligence has caused you to be injured, there’s likely going to be an insurance company involved in your case. You are not required to make a recorded statement to the insurance company about the accident that’s left you injured—in fact, giving a statement can hurt your case. That’s what we’re here for, and we have the direct experience, knowledge, and skill to handle all communications with an insurance company during your personal injury claim.
All the personal injury attorneys at Leighton, Katz & Drapeau spent time working for insurance companies in their pasts, and now we work for you. We have personal experience working on the insurance side of personal injury claims, and this provides us with the insight and knowledge to better defend your rights and better serve your claim. Our insurance experience only helps us represent clients during every step of the often confusing insurance process.
It’s important to understand that insurance companies—even though you purchase coverage from them—are in the business of making a profit, and they do what they need to do to maximize that profit.
In their quest to turn a profit, some insurance companies are not above underhanded dealings. In fact, the reports in “Tricks of the Trade: How Insurance Companies Deny, Delay, Confuse and Refuse” that many insurance companies resort to surprising methods for keeping their payouts low and their profits high. While they use a variety of methods to do so, a few of them stand out as most unbelievable:
- Simply denying as many claims as they can get away with (some insurance companies go so far as to generously reward those employees who are most successful at denying claims);
- Delaying claims until the policyholders simply give up hope . . . or die (yes, some long-term care insurance providers take advantage of their policyholders’ advanced age and often-poor health – effectively profiting from their deaths);
- Creating incomprehensible contracts that leave policyholders confused and unsure of their rights; and
- Penalizing policyholders for even calling the company to ask questions about their policies (some go so far as to count a phone call as an actual claim).
Each of these tactics is a problem for accident victims for obvious reasons. Further, insurance companies incorporate plenty of hoops for you to jump through in the process of bringing a claim—these can include going to independent medical examinations and completing piles of paperwork. We’re here to effectively and efficiently guide you through that process. In fact, insurance companies are invested in tripping you up, so allow our experienced personal injury attorneys to handle the insurance company for you. We have decades of experience doing just that, and we’re committed to getting the most recovery possible under the law for your claim.
Our dedicated legal team is made up of highly skilled negotiators, and our track record for successfully getting compensation from insurance companies in the amounts our clients deserve is proven. We will not accept an insurance company’s offer if it isn’t fair, and if we can’t negotiate a fair offer, we’re well prepared to litigate the matter in court. Your fair compensation is our number one priority.
Damages in Your Personal Injury Case
If your claim does proceed to court, there are some points to keep in mind. Connecticut personal injury cases are based on providing you—as the injured party—with compensation, which is known as "damages," for the injuries you’ve suffered and for the negative effects those injuries have had on your life. In the end, a judge or jury will determine the extent of the damages that the defendant (the person who caused you to be injured) is responsible for.
Medical Damages
Your damages can be based on a variety of factors, including your medical expenses, which are often extensive:
- Emergency transportation from the scene of the accident;
- Emergency care;
- Care and treatment from your doctor and medical specialists, including surgeons;
- Surgery and aftercare;
- Hospitalization;
- Ongoing treatments;
- Physical therapy;
- Prescription medications; and
- Adaptive medical devices.
Because serious accidents are so traumatic, many people also experience issues with their emotional health and so also have expenses for mental health care.
Other Damages
Many personal injury claims include damages that go well beyond medical expenses:
- Lost wages due to lost hours on the job;
- Decreased earning potential due to the inability to return to work at all or to return to work at the same pay grade (if your injuries are chronic);
- Property damage (damage to your car in a car accident, for example); and
- The pain and suffering that the accident and injury have caused you to experience.
All these are considered worthy of compensation under Connecticut’s personal injury law. In fact, personal injury law strives to help you return to or regain the quality of life—to the degree that it’s possible—that you enjoyed before you were injured. Our attorneys know how to accurately calculate your losses to make sure you request the full amount of damages possible in your specific case.
Collecting Evidence in Support of Your Damages
At Leighton, Katz & Drapeau, we’ll guide and assist you in adequately collecting all the necessary documentation and evidence needed to prove the financial losses you’ve incurred. This information is critical to determining and demonstrating your medical bills and will include a variety of documents:
- Letters and medical instructions written by your medical doctors to your employer;
- Medical reports related to your sustained injuries;
- Schedules of your medical and therapy appointments; and
- A full record of your medical bills.
Our dedicated Connecticut personal injury attorneys will also work on gathering evidence that proves other aspects of your losses, which can include investigating your lost wages, your potentially diminished earning power, and the effects of any mental health issues that you may be experiencing. This evidence serves to strengthen and support your personal injury claim and to increase your ability to obtain the compensation that you deserve and that’s necessary to help you move forward with the recovery process.
Claims We Handle
At Leighton, Katz & Drapeau in Vernon, Connecticut, we cover a wide range of personal injury claims:
- Car Accidents;
- Motorcycle Accidents;
- Commercial truck accidents;
- Bike accidents;
- Pedestrian accidents;
- Premises liability (if you are injured on someone else’s property because they failed to keep it in reasonably safe condition);
- Slip and falls (if you slip and fall—or otherwise fall—on someone else’s property that they failed to keep in a reasonably safe condition);
- Traumatic brain injuries (which are among the most devastating injuries a person can sustain);
- Burns and explosions;
- Dog bites and other animal injuries; and
- Recreational accidents.
When someone else’s negligence leads to an accident that your loved one did not survive, Connecticut law has a wrongful death laws in place to protect the surviving family members and to help preserve the estate of your lost loved one. In other words, with a wrongful death claim, you can bring a lawsuit to seek payment for the following losses and more:
- Those reasonably necessary medical, hospital, and nursing expenses related to your loved one’s final illness or injury;
- The funeral and burial expenses for your loved one;
- The lost financial support of your loved one;
- The pain and suffering your lost loved one endured before dying.
Further, Connecticut law allows double or even triple damages if a driver’s deliberate or reckless violation of a traffic law was a primary cause of the accident and of your loved one’s death. Your attorney can review your case to see if this applies to you.
Consult with a Connecticut Personal Injury Attorney at Leighton, Katz & Drapeau
Leighton, Katz & Drapeau has been serving the citizens of Connecticut since 1989, and it is our honor and privilege to do so. We are highly selective of the cases we take, which translates into highly personalized legal services for our clients. You will never feel like just another case because that’s not how we run our firm. Every case that we take on gets our complete attention, and we’ll be there for you to the end.
We take the time to get to know our clients and the unique circumstances of their lives and their claims. We’ve been in the business a long time, and we understand how difficult it is to be injured because of someone else’s negligence. We have the compassion to care and will always use our extensive experience to fight to help guide your claim toward just compensation.
At Leighton, Katz & Drapeau, we handle every manner of personal injury claims, and we’re dedicated to each and every case. Personal injury claims drive our firm, and because their outcomes are so important in the lives of our clients, we take them very seriously from start to finish. Our fees are contingency based, so we don’t get paid unless you’ve been compensated for your injuries. We’re proud to serve the people of Connecticut, and if you’ve been injured in an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, we encourage you to or call our Vernon office at 860-875-7000 today.
