Columbia Personal Injury Attorneys
If you have suffered a serious injury or illness as a result of someone else’s negligence, you have a difficult road ahead. Even obviously negligent parties will almost always be unwilling to provide adequate compensation to a plaintiff without a fight. Moreover, this fight will often require negotiating with an insurance company. It takes an experienced, dedicated legal team to help you obtain full and fair compensation for the lost wages, the medical bills, and the pain and suffering you have endured.
At Simmons Law Firm, we have represented individuals in Columbia and throughout South Carolina in a wide variety of personal injury matters. Our Columbia personal injury attorneys have a wealth of experience in helping individuals and families recover compensation for injuries caused by another’s negligence in cases involving:
- Car Accidents
- Medical Malpractice
- Nursing Home Abuse & Neglect
- Premises Liability
- Products Liability
- Workplace Accidents
- Wrongful Death
Call our office for a free consultation if you or a loved one has been harmed by another’s negligence in Columbia or South Carolina. Below are some of the ways we can help.
Prove the Negligent Party’s Liability to You
Even though you are the one who has been wronged and hurt by another’s conduct, the burden falls on you to prove that the other party was negligent and that their negligence caused your injuries. You have to be able to prove they breached a duty of care they owed to you under the law and connect that breach to your injury. Doing this requires you to know the law of negligence and to apply the law to the facts of the case. The insurance company on the other side has lawyers who handle injury cases every day, and they will argue that their insured was not negligent. They might even claim you were the negligent one or that you were at least partly at fault. Every percentage of negligence assigned to you reduces the amount you can recover, and if you are considered more than 50% at fault, you can’t recover at all. We’ll work to prove their liability while defending you from unfounded accusations of comparative fault.
Prove the Damages They Owe You
Insurance company adjustors are trained to investigate accidents and “adjust” your claim by assigning it a dollar value. Guess what? The way they value your claim is always less than it is worth. Unless you are in the business of accident claims investigations, you really have no way of knowing if you are being treated fairly or not. We have just as much experience in accident claims as the attorneys on the other side. We know what your claim is worth and how to prove it. We’ll build a strong case for the full amount of your damages and strive to recover a full and fair amount through a negotiated settlement or a jury verdict at trial.
Stay on Top of Your Claim
Under South Carolina law, you have three years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit for damages. This is the general rule, but it can be shorter or longer depending on the type of claim, the nature of the plaintiff and defendant, and other factors. With Simmons Law Firm on your case, you can be assured that you have a legal team diligently working on your case from day one to get you a recovery efficiently and effectively. We go to work right away ensuring you get proper medical care while building a case for recovery. When your case is ready to settle, we’ll settle it, or we’ll move forward toward trial if that’s in your best interests.
Fight for Full and Fair Compensation
In a personal injury claim, you should be entitled to recover both economic and noneconomic damages that apply to your case. Economic damages include:
- Medical expenses and medical care
- Rehabilitation services
- Costs associated with education
- Custodial care
- Loss of earnings and earning capacity
- Loss of income
- Burial costs
- Loss of use of property
- Costs of repair or replacement of property
- Costs of obtaining substitute domestic services
- A claim for loss of spousal services
- Loss of employment
- Loss of business or employment opportunities
- Loss of retirement income
- Other monetary losses
In contrast, noneconomic damages include compensation for:
- Pain
- Suffering
- Inconvenience
- Physical impairment
- Disfigurement
- Mental anguish
- Emotional distress
- Loss of society and companionship
- Loss of consortium
- Injury to reputation
- Humiliation
- Other nonpecuniary damages
- Any other theory of damages including, but not limited to, fear of loss, illness, or injury
In some cases, punitive damages may be appropriate as well. Punitive damages are available when the defendant’s conduct was willful, wanton or reckless, if this can be proven by “clear and convincing evidence,” which is a higher standard than is required to prove economic and noneconomic damages.
At Simmons Law Firm, we put in the time and effort to build a case that includes all applicable damages so that you can recover the maximum amount of compensation due to you. Our attorneys are skilled and experienced negotiators and litigators ready to settle your case outside of court or try it in the courtroom to get you the best result. Count on our team to use our experience to get you results that matter.
Our Team Is Here for You After a Personal Injury in Columbia or South Carolina
We take a personalized approach to our cases by taking time to understand our clients’ situations and their individualized legal objectives. We will fight for your compensation and walk you through every step of your legal matter from beginning to end. If you or a loved one has suffered an injury due to another’s negligence, contact our personal injury attorneys for a free, no-obligation review by calling us in Columbia at 803-779-4600 or toll-free throughout South Carolina at 888-715-8818, or by contacting us online.
