Auburn, Washington Injury Lawyers
Serious injuries often have a long-term, even life-lasting, consequences for the victim. This includes tremendous physical, emotional and financial burdens. At the Khan Injury Law, PLLC, our personal injury lawyers are dedicated to taking these burdens off of the backs of the victims and their families. If you have been injured in Auburn, we can help you hold the negligent party liable. Let us use our skills and experience to help you secure the full and fair injury compensation that you deserve.
We Have Experience Handling Many Types of Personal Injury Cases
We have helped victims recover compensation for a wide variety of different types of accidents. Some of the cases we have handled include:
- Auto accidents;
- Drunk driving accidents;
- Pedestrian and bicycle accidents;
- Semi-truck accidents;
- Boat and jet ski accidents;
- Work injuries;
- Nursing home abuse and neglect;
- Medical malpractice;
- Slip and fall accidents;
- Dog bite injuries; and
- Defective product claims.
We also have considerable experience handling cases involving catastrophic injuries. This includes traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), spinal cord injuries, loss of limbs, paralysis and death. Due to the severity of these type of injuries, these cases have many unique legal challenges that must be taken into consideration. If you have suffered a catastrophic injury, we can help.
Compensation Available For Injured Victims
In Washington, injured victims are entitled to be ‘made whole’. Essentially, this means that victims are entitled to be placed into the same position that they would have been in had no accident ever occurred. Of course, in injury cases, this is not possible in any literal sense. Therefore, victims are entitled to financial compensation, which accounts for the full extent of their damages. This includes both direct monetary damages as well as noneconomic damages. Further, it also includes both present damages and likely future damages. More specifically, injured victims may be able to obtain compensation for:
- Medical bills;
- Rehabilitation expenses;
- The cost of any necessary future long-term care;
- Lost wages;
- Diminished earning capacity;
- Long-term disability;
- Pain and suffering;
- Mental anguish or emotional distress;
- Loss of life enjoyment; and
- Wrongful death
We Are Here To Help
Our Renton Personal Injury Lawyers Will Help You Prove Liability
In Washington, liability for an injury is generally based on the legal doctrine of negligence. In order to establish liability, you will need to prove negligence. In the most simple terms, negligence is the failure to take proper care when performing an action and your lawyer will need to prove each of the four required elements.
- Duty: The defendant must have owed the victim a duty of care. Essentially this is a simply a legal obligation to look out for the victim’s safety in a given situation. The exact extent of this standard of care must be established.
- Breach: Next, the defendant must have breached that duty of care. This often the most fiercely disputed issue in a personal injury case. Though, in some cases it can be extremely clear cut. For example, if you were injured in an accident caused by a drunk driver who ran a red light, there is no doubt that the duty of care was breached.
- Causation: Proving a breach is not by itself sufficient to establish liability. There must also be a causal link between that breach and the victim’s injuries.
- Damages: Finally, a victim must have sustained real harm in order to recover compensation. This element can never be overlooked. The victim will need to thoroughly document every aspect of their damages in order to recover the full compensation that they deserve.
It is also important to note that personal injury claims are assessed under the standard of a preponderance of evidence. This is substantially lower bar than the ‘reasonable doubt’ standard that is used in criminal cases. The prepredonance of evidence standard simply requires proving that something is more likely than not to be true.
We Know How To Recover Damages
Washington is a Comparative Fault State
The state of Washington assigns liability in injury cases using the comparative fault system. This can have a dramatic impact on many injury claims. One major effect is that it allows victims to recover some compensation for their injury even if they are deemed to be partially responsible for causing their own accident. However, in these circumstances, compensation will be reduced in accordance with the victim’s percentage of fault. To better understand how this system operates, consider the following example:
- A victim trips and falls at a Auburn business. As a result of the accident, that victim sustains $20,000 in damages. However, when the case is assessed, it is determined that the victim was actually responsible for 25 percent of the accident. The business is found to be responsible for the remaining 75 percent of the accident. Under Washington law, this victim would have their compensation reduced by 25 percent. Therefore, the victim would only be able to recover $15,000 in injury compensation instead of the full $20,000.
Clearly, the apportionment of fault will have a major impact on personal injury cases. If you get stuck with even a few percentage points more of the blame than is truly fair, it could cost you thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, in personal injury cases, the defense will often try to blame the victim for their own injuries. You need an experienced lawyer by your side who can fight back and protect you from receiving an unfair share of the blame.
Contact Our Office Today
At the Khan Injury Law, PLLC, our Auburn personal injury attorneys have handled a wide variety of complex injury cases. We will comprehensively review your injury case free of charge, with no strings attached. Even better, we will never take any money out of your pocket. There are never any upfront costs and we will only collect legal fees if you we help you recover compensation. You do not have to worry about going up against big insurance companies with deep pockets. If you have been injured in Auburn, Washington, please do not hesitate to contact our team today to learn more about what we can do for you.