Riverside Personal Injury Attorneys

An injury sustained in an accident can be even more expensive than it first appears, resulting in costly medical bills today and in the future. A skilled Riverside personal injury lawyer will be able to help you get all of the compensation you are due.

Are My Injuries Someone Else’s Fault?

Personal injury law is a branch of civil law known as “tort law.” In tort law, if someone causes your injury, then they are legally liable.

Negligence: Negligence is a word that has a common, everyday meaning as well as a special legal definition. Normally, negligence just means carelessness. The legal definition is different. Negligence means a violation of a duty to take reasonable care. In the United States, everyone has a duty of reasonable care towards other people. That duty varies based on the situation and the parties.For example, a doctor owes a higher duty to a patient on his operating table than to another doctor’s patient in the waiting room. However, the doctor does owe that waiting patient a duty of reasonable care. If the doctor negligently set the hospital on fire, that would be considered a violation of the doctor’s duty of reasonable care to everyone in that hospital. But, he has to take special precautions to keep his patient safe.
Intentional torts: It makes sense that if someone can be liable for accidentally injuring you, then they can be liable if they injure you on purpose. If someone assaults you, purposefully damages your property, or kills a loved one on purpose, then you have a claim against them for compensation. Contact a Riverside personal injury lawyer if this happens to you or a loved one.
Strict liability: In California, there are some injuries that are always a certain person’s fault, no matter how careful they were in trying to prevent that accident. If these injuries happen, someone is strictly liable. For example, if a dog bites someone, then the owner is strictly liable, even if the dog was properly restrained.

In order to prove that you are owed compensation, you have to prove the following four elements:

The defendant had a duty of reasonable care;
The defendant breached that duty of reasonable care;
That breach caused you an injury; and,
Your injury caused you some kind of loss, otherwise known as “damages.”

In California, you can get compensation for your injuries even if you are partially at fault for your injury. If someone else is partially at fault, then you can get partial compensation. There are a lot of nuances to personal injury law, which is why it is vital to have an experienced and skilled personal injury lawyer on your side if you suffer an accidental injury.

Handling Serious Injury Cases

If you have been hurt in an accident, The Reeves Law Group may be able to help you. Our dedicated team of Riverside personal injury attorneys has achieved favorable results for numerous seriously injured individuals and their families. Our lawyers’ focus is to obtain compensation for victims of many types of accidents, including vehicle accidents, faulty products, and wrongful death cases. After regaining stability, the focus of injured individuals is to rebuild their lives. We are committed to helping them receive fair compensation for their losses.

What Is Personal Injury Law?

Personal injury law is a part of our legal system that allows individuals involved in accidents to address their problems with other people or companies in court. This way, they can be compensated for their injuries with the force of the law behind them. The word “Injuries” does not just mean physical injuries. It can also mean:

Diminished quality of life
Property damage
Emotional suffering

Mental anguish
Loss of earning potential

Common Accidents in Riverside

As California’s fastest growing community, Riverside County has a growth rate of 41.7% and is one of the top five biggest counties in the state. With such a rapidly growing population, accidents are frequent. If you have been in an accident that was someone else’s fault, personal injury law likely covers your case. Your Riverside personal injury attorney will be able to advise you about possible compensation. Two very common personal injury accidents are car crashes and pedestrian accidents.

Car accidents

Riverside has a population of nearly 314,000 people and is less than 60 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Riverside’s size and proximity to California’s largest city make it one of the state’s most highly traveled areas. Even a minor fender bender can be a huge life disruption. If your crash was caused by another party’s carelessness, you deserve to be compensated. For this reason, it is important to have a skilled personal injury lawyer on your side.
Riverside accounted for 7% of all California car accident deaths in 2011. It also accounted for 4.6% of all injuries. Sadly, nearly 14% of the state’s alcohol and drug-related accident deaths and about 7% of all drunk or impaired-driving related injuries happened in Riverside. Driving while drunk or high demonstrates reckless behavior. If you are injured by someone who is operating any kind of motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or if a loved one is killed in an accident contact a Riverside car accident lawyer without delay.

Pedestrian Accidents

Pedestrian accidents are quite common, especially among children and the elderly. Walking on the sidewalk, jogging along the road, or crossing the street are all common activities that can result in accidents. Pedestrians are obviously the most vulnerable parties on or near the roads. They are slower, less protected, and harder to see than motor vehicles and bicycles. Unfortunately, it is quite easy for a pedestrian to be seriously injured by a car, truck, motorcycle, or bicycle.
A qualified pedestrian accident lawyer knows that many accidents occur after dark. Accidents frequently involve motorists who are impaired or intoxicated by alcohol. Also, with distracted driving becoming a bigger problem each year, fewer drivers are paying full attention to pedestrians on and near the roads.
These incidents can happen anywhere, and regularly occur in Riverside County. In 2012, the California Department of Public Health reported 50 deaths due to pedestrian accidents in this area. That same year, 794 non-fatal injuries were reported.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), pedestrians should always:

Avoid walking on the road if possible
Stay visible with bright clothing
Remain alert
Use crosswalks at the appropriate crossing times
If walking in the road, face traffic at all times

Other Common Accidents

Our attorneys have experience handling many different types of injury claims. Here are a few of the common cases that we take on a regular basis:

Truck Accidents: Tractor trailers frequent the roads in Southern California and, due to their sheer weight and size, can cause severe and life-threatening injuries when they are involved in accidents. Statistics collected by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) show that truck accidents and injuries declined in California between 2007-2010, but rose sharply in 2011, with more than 5,000 injuries and 245 fatalities reported.
Slip and Fall Accidents: No one expects a slip and fall to occur, but these incidents happen with frequency. In 2011, the California Department of Public Health identified 145 fatalities resulting from injuries sustained in a fall.
Work Injuries: Press Enterprise, one of Riverside’s main news publications reported that the State Compensation Insurance Fund recently held a workshop to help prevent employee injuries on the job. Despite efforts like this, workers keep getting hurt. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012, there were more than 40 occupational injuries in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario area. Work accidents can occur at any place of employment, and injuries can be serious and life threatening.
Motorcycle Accidents: The CHP identified one fatality and nearly 100 injuries involving motorcycles in Riverside in 2011.
Dog Bites: Many Californians have dogs as family pets, but a recent article in Time magazine suggested that the Southern California area is actually one of the worst in the country for dog bite injuries. In fact, according to statistics collected by DogsBite.org, more than 30 dog bite fatalities have been recorded each year over the last decade.

What to Do After You Are Injured

If you are injured, there are a lot of steps that need to be taken. Some are immediate and some will happen days, weeks, or even months after you are hurt.

Get medical attention right away: Your health is your best asset. Always seek immediate medical attention, even if you feel like your injury is minor. You cannot know the severity of your injury. Additionally, it is important that you have documentation of the harm caused by the accident.
Gather evidence from the scene of your injury: If possible, take down the information of witnesses, license plate numbers, important details, etc. You can also call nearby businesses or the city to see if they have surveillance cameras in the area where your accident happened.
Do not talk to an insurance company without an attorney: The insurance company’s job is to pay you off as cheaply as possible. A personal injury lawyer will not let them get away with that.
Contact an attorney as soon as possible: An experienced accident lawyer will know exactly how to get you the compensation you deserve.

A Law Firm Ready to Protect You

The Reeves Law Group has extensive economic resources needed to fund claims and lawsuits against well-financed insurance companies and large corporate defendants. Underfinanced law firms are often unable to cover the significant costs of litigation, and may settle your case prematurely to reduce expenses. Our firm has the financial backing to conduct a thorough investigation of your claim, hire necessary experts, and advance all of the costs of your litigation.
To make our services available to everyone, we take personal injury cases on a contingency basis. This means that you pay legal fees only if we win your case. We will meet with you at our office or at a location that is best for you if you are unable to travel because of your injuries. We want to make sure that our clients receive the prompt and personal attention that they need.

Source: http://www.robertreeveslaw.com