Accidents can happen. But what if an accident could’ve been avoided? What if you’re left with an injury caused by someone else’s mistake or negligence? Maybe it was a car accident or a fall at work that wasn’t your fault and should be taken up by an injury attorney. These frightening and life-altering accidents can leave you with pain and up to your neck in medical bills.
It doesn’t matter if the accident was a car crash or a wet floor that sent you flying through the air, a good personal injury lawyer will fight for the justice you rightfully deserve, which typically means monetary compensation. After all, injuries can leave you with decreased income or without any income for months or even years.
You’re already overwhelmed with everything that’s happened but that doesn’t mean you should have to stress yourself over finding a personal injury lawyer. That’s why we are going to help you learn more about the different types of personal injury cases.
We’ve detailed what you should look for when evaluating a lawyer for your specific type of personal injury case. We’ve also published our list of the best personal injury lawyers in Houston, Texas, by category.
Different Types of Personal Injury Cases
Personal injury cases can result from a mild car accident or slip and fall case, to traumatic cases such as refinery explosions, house fires, and traumatic brain injuries. There are major differences in the complexity of each type of injury case.
Accordingly, there are several different types of personal injury lawyers who specialize in certain types of injury cases. Some focus exclusively on one type of legal case, such as car accidents, while others focus on multiple areas of personal injury.
Think of it this way: if you suffered a knee injury, a general practice physician may be able to provide you medical aid; however, a specialized orthopedic doctor will have far more specific knowledge about your exact injury. Similarly, when seeking legal help for an injury, you need to evaluate your personal needs and situation to determine which Houston personal injury lawyer is the best for your injury case.
Here are the most common types of personal injury accidents:
Automobile accidents:
Automobile accidents can include cars, motorcycles, and even semi-trucks. With hundreds of millions of vehicles on the road every day, car accidents are one of the most common types of accidents in the U.S. In addition to driving while intoxicated, motor vehicle accidents are commonly caused by distracted drivers who are texting or are otherwise occupied on their mobile phone.
Because the use of mobile phones while driving has become so common, a smart personal injury attorney always demands that the opposing party produce telephone and mobile internet usage reports as part of the lawsuit. It is not uncommon for a lawsuit to be won or lost based on the data provided by phone companies in litigation that shows the mobile activity of both parties to the accident. Vehicles have also become more sophisticated and can provide information in a lawsuit such as the speed, acceleration, stopping distance and steering patterns of a driver in the seconds before a collision.
In early 2019, a truck driver caused a fatal collision when he ran into the back of another vehicle that stopped in a construction zone. Telephone records subpoenaed during the lawsuit showed that the truck driver had been watching porn on his cell phone immediately before he caused the collision.
Unfortunately vehicle accident causes such as this are not anomalies, and lawsuits around the country have shown that many drivers are distracted by Facebook, Twitter, FaceTime and e-mail as they traverse the roads and highways.
Today’s top car accident lawyers must be more than just arbitrators in the courtroom. The best lawyers now need to be knowledgeable in the technological capabilities of our cell phones and vehicles and must be able to gather all of the information that can assist in winning your case.
Assault and battery cases:
Assault and battery cases are not considered accidents but, rather, intentional injuries. These cases revolve around injuries caused by being intentionally attacked by another person, from being beaten to being shot.
Assault is commonly defined as intentionally causing a person to experience an apprehension of offensive or harmful touching.
For example, an individual who jumps out of closet to scare another individual can meet the definition of assault, even if touching never occurred.
Another example of assault is a person who robs a convenience store with a gun but never fires a shot. No harmful touching ever occurred, but the robber likely caused the apprehension of harmful touching to all patrons in the store.
Battery, on the other hand, is defined as intentionally causing a harmful or offensive contact with another person. For example, the instigator of a bar fight who punches another patron has committed the civil tort of battery, because physical contact occurred.
Daycare accidents and child abuse:
These are unfortunate cases that occur far too frequently. A person caring for your child should be safe and reliable but that’s not always the case. When a child is injured or abused in a daycare setting, a family deserves justice and compensation.
Daycares often hire unqualified or untrained individuals to attend to the needs of numerous children. Some daycare workers do not possess the maturity required to change diapers, sing songs, and build blocks daily with young children. On occasion, such daycare workers have lashed out, even beating the children they were responsible for nurturing.
Daycare administrators sometimes admit so many children or under-staff the daycare that their workers can not possibly meet the needs of every child. Both situations are perilous for the children because of the lack of adult supervision, and hence, the greater likelihood of an avoidable accident occurring.
Jurors typically seek to punish such daycare centers who value the monetary value of the child more than the child itself.
Dog or animal attacks:
Dog bites are considered a premises liability. If a dog attacks someone or their pet for no reason, the owner of that dog should owe compensation to the victim for the pain and injuries they caused.
Typically, a dog owner will not be responsible for the actions of his pet unless the dog is a specific breed, or the owner is aware that the dog has dangerous habits. This is not the case for an individual who owns a “wild animal” as a pet. In the legal sense, a “wild animal” is a non-domesticated animal such as a ferret, snake, racoons or squirrels. If a “wild animal” attacks another individual, the animal owner is liable for the injuries caused simply because of the type of animal it is.
Maritime accidents:
Maritime accidents are generally accidents involving boats or that occur in the ocean. Some lawyers specialize in and know their way in and out of maritime law, which is different than the laws we adhere to on land.
The most common legal maritime case involved a law known as the “Jones Act,” which provides recovery to a seaman who was working on the ship at the time of the incident. Recovery requires that the defendant was negligent, which can occur when the ship owner does not provide a reasonably safe place for the seaman to work. Finally, the ship owner’s negligence must have been the cause of the injury or damage to the plaintiff.
Because maritime injuries frequently occur miles away from land, and because medical care is often lacking on seaborne vessels, it is common for maritime injuries to be more severe than land-based injuries.
Some of the very best maritime injury lawyers in America are in Houston, Texas because of the highly active Houston Ship Channel and Port of Galveston.
Medical malpractice accidents:
Medical malpractice can be caused by any health care professional including dentists, doctors, and nurses. Any health care professional that’s at fault for injuries, worsen health conditions, and wrongful death, is guilty of medical malpractice. Their job is to heal and help you, never to harm you.
Unfortunately, many states have imposed burdensome requirements to individuals seeking to file a medical malpractice case. Some states require expensive experts to review the file and draft an opinion prior to the case even being filed. Other states have imposed “damage caps” on individuals seeking to file a medical malpractice case, essentially ensuring that doctors and hospitals will escape financial responsibility for actions involving gross negligence.
Nursing home accidents or elderly abuse:
Just like with your children in a daycare, you’re trusting someone with your elderly loved ones.
The same concerns apply, particularly concerning the overpopulation or understaffing of nursing homes. Health care professionals are entrusted but when a preventable accident or abuse occurs, everyone deserves compensation.
Most often nursing home cases are classified as medical-malpractice and the same restrictions can apply. However, sometimes employees at nursing homes commit terrible actions that fall outside of the medical malpractice constraints. Your nursing home case depends on the circumstances of your loved one and the facility who caused the neglect or abuse.
Product liability:
Individuals consume billions-of-dollars of consumer products every day. We wash with shampoos and soaps that are intended to beautify but can cause skin irritation and breakouts if the ingredients are of poor quality. We drive automobiles with millions of components intended to keep you safe and provide peace of mind, but which can cause more damage if the part is defectively manufactured. And we consume materials that may be defectively or deceptively advertised, such as JUUL vaping products.
Every consumer product is intended and expected to be reasonably safe, but many often fall short of the legal standard. When this occurs, the designer, manufacture or advertiser may be liable and can lead to a serious product liability case.
Product liability cases have two primary benefits: 1) they provide compensation for you for injuries caused by a defective product; and 2) they assist in the removal of a harmful product from the market, thereby saving others from the harms and injuries caused by defective manufacturing, design or advertising.
Slip and fall accidents:
Slip and fall accidents (also known as premises liability) are caused by negligent property owners or landlords. Their duties include keeping their property safe for everyone who enters the property. These accidents are usually caused by wet floors without caution signs warning the victim of danger.
Work accidents:
Every employer, like property owners, are expected to keep a work area or work site safe for every employee. Employer recklessness can lead to a worker’s injuries which require workman’s compensation for injuries that keep the victim out of work.
Caveat: An employer who provides workman’s compensation insurance to their employees can only be sued using the procedures mandated by this specialized area of law.
Non-employees or contractors who are injured at a jobsite are not restricted to the processes required by the workman’s compensation system and can proceed with a normal lawsuit.
The 4 Best Personal Injury Lawyers in Houston
1) Andrew Cobos
Phone: 713-234-5860
- Attorney Andrew Cobos from The Cobos Law Firm is a seasoned personal injury lawyer who solely practices personal injury law and has an impressive track record of success as a trial attorney.
- His firm specializes in car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, or any type of automobile accident.
- His firm also specializes in chemical plant explosions, oil rig accidents, and other Gulf of Mexico-specific industrial accidents which require special handling and knowledge for successful trial verdicts.
- He will respond to clients all day and all night for whenever you might need him.
- He doesn’t get paid unless you receive compensation from your personal injury case.
- He’s won several awards for their amazing services and have high ratings in client satisfaction.
2) Charles J. Argento
Phone: 713-766-4680
- He specializes in car accidents, defective products, drunk driving accidents, medical device lawsuits, medical malpractice, personal injury, premises liability, truck accidents, workers comp, and wrongful death.
- He offers free consultations over the phone and online.
- He’s won several awards for his services and has high ratings in client satisfaction.
3) Baumgartner Law Firm
Phone: 281-587-1111
- They specialize in ATV accidents, boat accidents, brain injuries, burn injuries, bus accidents, car accidents, catastrophic injuries, construction accidents, daycare abuse, and child injuries, drowning accidents, drunk driving accidents, maritime injuries, motorcycle accidents, spinal cord injuries, work injuries, wrongful death, and tons more.
- The offer free consultations on the phone and online.
- They don’t get paid unless you receive compensation from your personal injury case.
- They have high ratings for client satisfaction.
4) Zehl and Associates
Phone: 1-888-984-1391
- They specialize in car accidents, insurance disputes, maritime injuries, motorcycle accidents, product liability, personal injury, and truck accidents.
- They offer free consultations on the phone and online.
- They don’t get paid unless you receive compensation from your personal injury case.
- They’re undefeated in the courtroom when disputing personal injury claims.
The Bottom Line
Suffering from an accident or injury that’s a fault of another, whether intentional or unintentional, can be stressful. You’ve already suffered physical or emotional injury, so we understand it can be difficult to deal with the headache of finding the right personal injury lawyer.
If you need additional assistance finding a personal injury lawyer who specializes in your type of case, you can chat online with a Laws101.com attorney who can assist you and provide you with legal guidance.