Our attorneys have been assisting the Orange County and Southern California communities for over 40 years.
Personal injury law is a massive practice area that includes all types of accidents and injuries. At its core, the practice allows those who are injured to hold negligent individuals or companies legally and financially accountable for their actions. The personal injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo in San Bernardino are committed to helping individuals through personal injury cases of all types.
In the state of California, injured individuals typically have two years from the time of injury to file a lawsuit; however, there are certain exceptions to this two-year statute of limitations. Your attorney can help you determine if your case falls within the approved limits.
California is a comparative fault state, meaning the court may reduce any damages in keeping with an individual’s degree of liability. For instance, if you are involved in a car accident and you were 10% responsible for an incident, then the courts may decrease your total award amount by 10%.
At DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo in San Bernardino, we handle every type of personal injury case that you may experience. Some of the most common types of personal injury accidents include:
We also specialize in a variety of injury cases including:
To hold someone liable for an accident/injury, the plaintiff needs to prove:
These components are present in every civil liability case from unsafe premises claims to car accidents. A good rule of thumb for determining negligence is to ask yourself if a reasonable person would have acted differently than the defendant. If so and you suffered an injury, you may want to contact a San Bernardino personal injury lawyer about your ability to take legal action against those responsible.
When clients come to us for help, they often have questions about how they will pay their medical bills, make up for lost wages, and start to move forward again in life. Facing an injury often causes relationship strains and psychological distress in addition to physical symptoms. Our firm takes an aggressive approach to claim settlements so we can secure the best possible financial compensation for our clients. Damages may include reparations for:
Any person who sustains an injury caused by the negligent or intentional actions of another individual or entity in San Bernardino needs to be aware that they have a limited amount of time to file their claim. The California personal injury statute of limitations is two years from the date an injury occurs.
There are very few exceptions to this two-year timeframe, and failing to file a claim within the time specified by law will result in the case being dismissed. This means that you will be unable to recover the compensation you are entitled to. It is crucial to work with a skilled San Bernardino accident attorney who can get your case filed correctly and on time so you can recover the compensation you need.
In many cases, there are allegations of shared fault after an injury occurs. Sometimes, these allegations are made by the at-fault party or their insurance carrier in order to limit how much money they pay in compensation to a victim.
In California, this state operates under what is called a “pure comparative negligence” system. This means that individuals can recover compensation even if they are up to 99% at fault for their own injury. There is a caveat to this, however. The total amount of compensation a person receives will be reduced depending on their percentage of fault. For example, if a person is ultimately awarded $100,000 as a result of a vehicle accident, but a jury finds that the crash victim was 30% responsible because they were operating their vehicle too fast for conditions, they would receive $70,000 instead of the complete $100,000.
The vast majority of personal injury claims in San Bernardino and throughout California will be resolved through settlement with insurance carriers. The insurance settlement process usually ensures that individuals can recover compensation faster than if they go through an entire civil court trial. However, there are times when insurance carriers refuse to offer a fair settlement or when they deny a claim altogether.
In the event an insurance carrier does deny a claim or refuses to offer a fair settlement, it will become necessary to file a civil personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault party. This does put the case into the court system, but that is not necessarily mean you will have to go all the way to court. There or many things that happen after a case is filed, including the discovery process where attorneys for both sides will exchange information with one another period typically, negotiations will continue, especially if one or both sides receive information that pushes them toward a settlement. Most cases are settled before they go all the way to a jury. In the event the other side still refuses to offer a fair settlement after a lawsuit is filed and throughout the discovery process, it may be necessary to take the case to a jury, in which case you will have to go to court.
If you or somebody you love has sustained an injury caused by the negligence of another individual or entity, there are steps you can take right after the injury occurs and in the days that follow to help move your claim forward in the right direction.
Affording an attorney can seem like a daunting task, but it does not have to be. At DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo, we handle San Bernardino personal injury claims on a contingency fee basis. For injury victims, this means a few things. First, we pay all upfront costs related to the case. Clients do not have to pay anything out-of-pocket. The only time we collect legal fees is if we successfully recover compensation for the claim. The final legal fees will be an agreed-upon percentage of the total settlement or jury verdict. In the event our team does not win a case, we charge no legal fees at all. Clients do not have to pay back anything.
After an incident, you may wonder if contacting a San Bernardino personal injury lawyer is the right idea. We highly recommend talking to an attorney as soon as possible after you experience an injury. Your personal injury lawyer will play an instrumental role in helping you find qualified medical support, negotiate with insurers and bill collectors, and help you pursue a personal injury claim.
All initial case evaluations with attorneys from DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo are free, and we won’t accept payment until we secure compensation on your behalf. Our personal injury attorneys in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Orange County believe that injured individuals should only have to focus on one thing – healing. Our firm is known for our commitment to ethics. Reach out to our office today at (909) 436-4610 to learn more about how we can help you.