Our San Antonio personal injury lawyers can help you seek compensation for any type of accident that you’ve suffered due to someone else’s fault or negligent action.
Through this legal process, you’ll be able to get compensation to recover from your injuries without worrying about your financial situation.
- How much will hiring a lawyer cost me?
- What happens to me and my family if the accident leaves me unable to work?
- Can I sue if I’m undocumented?
We’ll address all these questions on this page. To start, you should know that:
- There is a payment method (called contingency fees), which doesn’t require you to pay anything out of pocket.
- Compensation benefits include loss of work capacity and also the pain, suffering, anguish and depression that the accident caused you and your loved ones.
- You’re entitled to compensation for the accident you suffered regardless of your immigration status.
How can our San Antonio accident lawyers help you?
The most important thing after an accident is the recovery of you and your loved ones.
If your accident was caused by the negligence of another person, company or government agency, you have the right to claim compensation.
Many clients ask whether victims can file such a lawsuit on their own. To be honest, this is almost impossible to do.
Why?
- Accident victims are injured and therefore have little mental and physical energy to deal with a lawsuit.
- These cases usually involve powerful insurance companies that will either seek to dismiss your claims or offer you insufficient compensation in exchange for not pursuing the lawsuit.
- Winning personal injury lawsuits for accidents caused by negligence requires specialized legal knowledge.
For these reasons, any accident-related claim should be made through a law firm with experienced personal injury lawyers, such as our team at George Salinas Accident Lawyers.
While you’re recovering from your injuries, our team of professionals will take all the necessary actions to win your case. Some key tasks include:
- Gather all the information and evidence that will allow us to present the necessary proof to win the case.
- Investigate (as many times as necessary) the circumstances of the accident to identify who may be liable.
- Work with a variety of specialists (such as doctors, investigators, architects, or accident experts) to assess the damages suffered and prove negligence.
- Make important decisions about your case with your best interests at heart.
- Seek fair compensation for the accident you suffered, either through a settlement agreement made directly with an insurance company or by filing a civil lawsuit to be heard by the courts.
If you or a loved one suffered a personal injury accident due to someone else’s fault or negligent action, contact us. At George Salinas Accident Lawyers, we’re ready to help you, no matter your immigration status. We speak Spanish and English, so call us at 210-225-0909 or by filling out this online form. The consultation is free
Common causes of personal injury accidents in San Antonio
Any type of accident can cause personal injury. If that accident was caused by someone else’s fault or negligent action, you have the right to seek compensation.
Here are the most common causes of personal injury accidents.
Car accidents
When you’re involved in a car (or motorcycle) accident, insurance companies (both yours and the other driver’s) will want you to sign a quick settlement so that they pay you as little as possible. In fact, you’re entitled to much more – from comprehensive coverage for your medical expenses to full reimbursement for wages lost because of your injuries. For this reason, you should seek medical attention immediately and contact a San Antonio personal injury accident lawyer.
Truck accidents
Due to their size, truck accidents (like bus, train or 18-wheeler accidents) are often very difficult to resolve because they involve multiple victims (and insurance companies). Therefore, the financial resources of the at-fault party are quickly depleted.
In addition, there’s often damage to private property, such as stores, buildings or homes. If you’ve been involved in such an accident (whether as a pedestrian, driver, passenger or vehicle owner), only an experienced truck accident attorney can ensure that you receive fair compensation.
Pedestrian accidents
Being a pedestrian in San Antonio can be dangerous, especially at certain crosswalks. People on foot (often children and people over 65 years of age) are completely unprotected from reckless drivers. These types of accidents can drastically change the lives of the victims or be fatal.
At George Salinas Accident Lawyers, we’re specialists in fighting to get you and your loved ones compensation that allows you to focus on recovering from the tragedy without facing financial troubles.
Wrongful death
If a loved one dies due to someone else’s negligence, their family has the right to claim compensation that will allow them to cope with the tragedy without worrying about their expenses. Wrongful deaths include any type of accident that was fatal. Legally, it’s necessary to prove negligent conduct. Family members who can claim this type of compensation include spouses, children and parents.
Brain injuries
Brain injuries are especially complex, as their symptoms are often not evident until they’re already advanced. For this reason, it’s important to recognize the signs associated with traumatic brain injuries, such as: nausea/vomiting, sudden confusion, continuous headache, lack of coordination and sleep disorders. These types of injuries can produce psychological, cognitive, sensory and behavioral changes, and are caused by accidents such as falls, crashes and high-impact sports.
Workplace accidents
If you were injured doing anything related to your job responsibilities, you have suffered a workplace accident. This includes anything from falling on the office stairs to hurting your back while transporting goods. From a legal standpoint, proving negligence on the part of the company in this type of accident is difficult to prove. However, with an experienced personal injury legal team, you may be able to get financial compensation.
Slips and falls
To seek compensation for a slip and fall accident, it’s necessary to prove that the mishap occurred due to someone else’s negligence. For example: you can sue a supermarket if you slip while shopping in a freshly mopped aisle that wasn’t marked with a “wet floor” sign.
Or if you fall because of a hole in the sidewalk and break your ankle, you can sue the local government directly responsible for maintaining the area of town where you were injured. Personal injury lawyers are responsible for gathering the evidence to prove negligence.
Dog bites
Most injuries resulting from a dog bite are the direct responsibility of the owners, who are obligated to ensure the safety of others when walking their pets. If you suffer a dog attack, get away from the animal as soon as possible, go to a safe place and seek medical assistance. To seek compensation, contact a dog bite attorney.
Brain injuries
Brain injuries are especially complex, as their symptoms are often not evident until they’re already advanced. For this reason, it’s important to recognize the signs associated with traumatic brain injuries, such as: nausea/vomiting, sudden confusion, continuous headache, lack of coordination and sleep disorders. These types of injuries can produce psychological, cognitive, sensory and behavioral changes, and are caused by accidents such as falls, crashes and high-impact sports.
Spinal cord injuries
The spine is integral to the body, consisting of 33 vertebrae and nerve networks that run down the back from the base of the brain to the waist. Therefore, spinal cord injuries are frequent and some can result in catastrophic injuries, such as various types of paralysis. However, they can also lead to complications in other areas, such as the lungs and urinary tract. This type of injury can cause depression and anxiety as well.
Therefore, if you suffered a spinal cord accident due to someone else’s negligence, your lawyers can seek both financial and non-financial damages (those related to aspects such as pain, suffering, anxiety and depression)
Catastrophic injuries
The term “catastrophic injury” refers to any type of severe injury that prevents a person from continuing to work permanently or for an extended period of time. Examples of catastrophic injuries include traumatic brain injuries, electrocution or severe burns and fractures.
In these cases, a personal injury lawyer should claim, in addition to compensation for your medical expenses, that you receive daily financial compensation that will allow you and your family to live until you recover and are able to return to work.
Construction sites are hazardous worksites where accidents are quite common. Handrails, ladders and scaffolding are just some examples of potentially dangerous items that can injure workers, especially when poorly stored or defective. There’s also a risk of fires, explosions and toxic leaks (on oil rigs, for example). Construction companies are obliged to ensure the safety of their worksites. Therefore, if you have suffered a construction accident, you’re likely entitled to compensation.
Product liability
People use and consume products of all kinds on a daily basis. When buying them, consumers take for granted that those responsible for the product (from manufacturers to intermediary sellers, to installers and assemblers) guarantee their safety of use. That’s why if you or a loved one purchased a product that injured you while using it due to a design, manufacturing or marketing defect, you have the right to claim compensation.
Common types of injuries following personal injury accidents in San Antonio
- Broken bones
- Lacerations and deep wounds
- Brain injuries, ranging from mild (such as a concussion) to severe (such as hemorrhage or trauma)
- Amputations (i.e. loss of limbs)
- Spinal cord injuries (which can result in partial or general paralysis)
- Burns of various degrees and electric shock
- Allergic reactions due to contact with toxic substances
- Injuries to knees, ankles, ligaments, neck, back, thorax, pelvis and abdomen
- Eye injuries
- Animal bites
What should I do after a personal injury accident?
Here are the five steps you should take after experiencing a personal injury accident:
- Seek medical attention. Make sure you and your loved ones are ok. If necessary, go to a hospital for a check-up.
- Call a personal injury attorney.
- Don’t sign any documents, don’t issue any statements, and avoid speaking to any insurance company representative.
- Don’t declare that you’re fine (even if you feel fine, as injuries often take days to show up).
- If your injuries allow, take photographs documenting the circumstances of the accident from various angles (including your injuries). Get the names and phone numbers of others involved. If applicable, request a copy of the police report.
After an accident, especially those where negligence is suspected, powerful insurance companies will get involved and seek to pay the victim as little as possible.
In fact, insurers are often trained to approach victims right after the incident (while they’re in a state of shock) to make them sign letters of non-liability or indemnities for much lower amounts than those established by law.
Even your own insurance company’s agents will seek to quickly establish a settlement after a traffic accident that’s satisfactory to the insurer, but not to you.
That’s why it’s so important to get legal help after an accident. In order to get compensation to cover all of your medical expenses, recover lost wages and recuperate your health without financial worries, place your case in the hands of experienced San Antonio personal injury attorneys like our team at George Salinas Accident Lawyers.
How much money can I get if I win my San Antonio personal injury case?
The amounts involved in a San Antonio personal injury accident compensation vary widely. They depend on each case and its specific circumstances. Within these circumstances, the severity of the injuries are the most important aspect to consider, as well as how long it will take the victim to return to work.
However, personal injury claims aren’t limited to coverage for economic damages, but also for non-economic damages.
Below are the three most common damages in each of these categories.
Economic damages
- Reimbursement of all medical expenses incurred and coverage of all future medical expenses that will be necessary.
- Compensation for wages lost due to the inability to work as a result of the accident.
- Reimbursement of funeral expenses (if any) and compensation to loved ones who were financially dependent on the person who lost their life during an accident.
Non-economic damages
- Pain and suffering
- Anguish and depression
- Loss of companionship and/or consortium
How long do I have to claim compensation after an accident in San Antonio?
Remember that the longer it takes to claim compensation, the more difficult it will be to reconstruct the circumstances under which the accident occurred and prove both the seriousness of the injuries you suffered and the liability of the negligent party.
The rules for determining how long victims have to apply for personal injury compensation depend on state laws.
In Texas, the approximate time frame is between one and six years. Some accidents, particularly those involving buses operated by government agencies or public institutions, are governed by different rules that require claims to be filed in much shorter time periods.
However, people who suffer an accident need medical attention and financial compensation from the moment the incident happens. That’s why it’s always advisable to call a San Antonio personal injury accident lawyer immediately and not let a day go by.
How long does it take to resolve a personal injury case?
Immediately after the official filing of the application for compensation for personal injuries suffered during an accident, negotiations begin. In almost all cases, this involves insurance companies.
In an ideal scenario, the insurance company accepts the negligence of the party it represents, offers a fair settlement and within a few weeks the case is resolved to the satisfaction of all involved.
However, this rarely happens. Insurers tend to delay as long as possible and often try by various means to pay out as little as possible. In these scenarios, personal injury cases can take several years.
However, during this period victims aren’t left unprotected. There are compensation schemes where those affected can receive partial economic benefits that allow them to cover their medical expenses and lost wages while a final verdict in their case is being decided.
In order to enjoy these benefits, it’s important that victims have the help of a legal team specialized in personal injury accident cases like George Salinas Accident Attorneys
Contact our San Antonio personal injury attorneys
If you or a loved one suffered a personal injury accident due to someone else’s fault or negligent action, contact us. At George Salinas Accident Lawyers, we’re ready to help you. We speak Spanish and English, so go ahead and contact us at 210-225-0909.
You’re not alone. Our team of San Antonio personal injury lawyers will fight to get you financial compensation that helps you recover from your accident.
FAQs
To hire a personal injury lawyer in San Antonio, you won’t pay a thing! At George Salinas Accident Lawyers, our teams work on a contingency fee basis. This means that our legal team doesn’t charge you anything upfront for handling your case.
To be clear, you don’t have to pay us at any time during the legal process, no matter how long it takes. Once you win the lawsuit, you’ll get financial compensation and we’ll receive a minor percentage of the total amount to pay for our services.
Given their legally subjective nature, non-economic damages are complex to establish. To do so, experienced accident lawyers use two methods. One is known as the multiplier method and it consists of multiplying economic damages (such as medical expenses) by a figure set between 1.5 and 5 (depending on the severity of the injuries). The other involves a per diem monetary allowance for the victim during the period of their physical recovery.
In order to win an accident compensation case involving negligence, it can be helpful if there are eyewitnesses who are willing to testify. However, if you haven’t found anyone who witnessed the circumstances under which you were injured, you shouldn’t worry.
In cases like this, personal injury lawyers have specialists from different areas who look for possible witnesses and locate video cameras that may have recorded what happened, as well as study the scene to reconstruct the exact circumstances. In this way, they can clearly establish the existence of negligence in a court of law.
These specialists are experts in different fields (such as mechanics, architecture, medicine or explosions) and their work allows us to present legally sound cases regardless of the type of accident.
Absolutely! If you were injured in an accident in Texas, you’re entitled to compensation that will allow you to recover without financial worries – regardless of your immigration status.
Your employers (if you were injured on the job) or insurance company agents (if you were injured in a car accident) will probably tell you that it’s a bad idea to sue if your immigration status is unclear. However, you shouldn’t be afraid. You’re entitled to compensation and you’re not alone. At George Salinas Accident Lawyers, we guarantee the privacy of your personal information.
If the personal injuries you suffered keep you bedridden, don’t worry. We just need you or a loved one to call us and we’ll visit you at the hospital, your home or wherever you’re recovering. If your condition prevents you from moving, we’ll come to see you as many times as necessary to gather information about the accident and consult you about the different legal avenues that the case may present.
We’ve won millions of dollars in compensation for our clients and specialize in personal injury cases caused by negligent parties. George Salinas’ career as a San Antonio personal injury lawyer is impressive. He was selected in the top 100 best lawyers in the U.S. by The National Trial Lawyers (2019) and in 2020 he was named a “Texas Super Lawyer.” Our firm’s staff is fully bilingual (we speak both Spanish and English) and we offer free consultations to evaluate each case.
Based on reports, more than 31 million people are admitted annually to U.S. emergency rooms for personal injury accidents, and more than 90,000 die as a result of unintentional accidents. Of these accidents, the leading causes are traffic accidents, accidental poisonings, and slips and falls.
In many circumstances of everyday life, one person has a duty of care to another. For example, a construction employer is obligated to ensure that the facilities on his construction site are perfectly safe for his employees. A doctor is obliged to ensure that the treatment she is giving her patient will bring relief. Or a company that manufactures drills is obliged to market defect-free products with detailed instructions for use.
If a person with a duty of care breaches this responsibility, then they would be considered negligent. This means that if a worker falls because of a poorly placed scaffolding, the employer is liable for that accident. If a doctor causes new pain instead of relief, she is liable for that accident. And if a drill injures a customer because it was defective, the manufacturer is liable for that accident. In all three cases, we’re talking about negligence.