You may be facing expensive medical bills and lost wages after suffering an injury. Compensation from an insurance claim or lawsuit can help. 

Our team can investigate your accident and explore your options for recovery. A Vero Beach personal injury lawyer is ready to fight for what you deserve.

Potential Damages You May Recover

Damages are the costs of your injury. They include both economic and non-economic losses.  Florida allows victims to recover the following damages:

• Current medical costs, such as emergency transportation, surgeries, medication, and doctor’s visits
• Future medical needs for ongoing medical conditions
• Lost wages
• Diminished earning capacity if you cannot return to work or make your pre-injury income
• Required household renovations, such as for medical equipment 
• Daily household costs
• Property damage costs
• Loss of consortium
• Pain and suffering

Your lawyer will study your case and determine what you are eligible for. Some damages are easy to prove, like hospital bills. Others, like pain and suffering, are harder to establish, but we can use a couple of methods to do so.

Our Practice Areas in Vero Beach

At our Vero Beach office, we handle a variety of personal injury cases, including:

• Car accidents
• Uber/Lyft accidents
• Construction accidents
• Dog bites
• Medical malpractice
• Motorcycle accidents
• Pedestrian accidents
• Slip and fall accidents
• Truck accidents
• Workers’ compensation
• Wrongful death
• Depo-Provera lawsuit

During a free consultation, we can discuss your accident and give you an idea of the damages you may recover. There are no strings attached when you call us, and you may discover you have more options than you thought. 

A Lawyer from Our Firm Can Handle Your Injury Case from Start to Finish

When another party’s negligence causes or contributes to an accident, you have a right to collect compensation from that party. Our firm can determine what fair compensation looks like and fight for it. 

Whether you file a claim with the liable party’s insurer or pursue a court award, our personal injury team can complete the legal legwork for you. This way, you can focus on getting back to health. 

When you hire our firm, you work with our partners directly. 

We Can Investigate Your Accident

We have to determine who bears liability for your injuries. Insurance companies may investigate an accident and then attempt to claim their policyholder was not at fault. Local law enforcement may also investigate an accident, especially if it was a vehicle collision.

Our legal team can figure out what happened and protect you against any unfair practices. If an insurer’s determination of fault does not line up with the facts, we can step in and conduct our own investigation. 

We Can Gather Evidence of a Liable Party’s Negligence

Evidence of negligence is the backbone of a personal injury case. Our team knows what to look for and how to obtain vital information about your accident. We can collect various pieces of evidence, such as:

• The police report
• Witness statements
• Medical records
• Income statements
• Expert witness statements

Compiling these documents on your own can be time-consuming. You may not know who to contact or have access to certain information. Regardless, the burden of proof is on you. Our lawyers can step in and do the research. We will leave no stone unturned when it comes to proving your right to collect compensation. 

We Can Calculate Your Damages

You may assume your only losses after an accident are your medical bills and lost wages. You may stand to recover compensation for other types of damages, though. Every case is unique, and compensation depends on the severity of your injuries and how they affect your life. 

If you try to assess your damages on your own, you could miss out on awards that you deserve. A lawyer from our firm can calculate your damages to ensure you seek a fair settlement. For example, they can assign a dollar value to your non-economic losses, such as loss of quality of life. You can leave the math to us. 

We Can Negotiate a Fair Settlement

You may quickly receive a settlement offer from an insurer, even before you get a chance to see a doctor. Beware, though; this offer may not fairly compensate you. Once you accept a settlement offer, you cannot seek additional compensation later on. 

If a settlement offer does not fairly cover your costs, our team of Vero Beach personal injury lawyers is ready to take your case to trial. We may even recommend this course of action in lieu of filing an insurance claim. 

Our goal is to prevent you from suffering any further losses due to your accident-related injuries. We can negotiate a fair settlement on your behalf while you focus on your health.

We Can Monitor the Progress of Your Case

Settlements can take time, and trials can drag out. We understand that your bills are accruing as time passes. We can file your lawsuit or claim in a timely manner. 

We can also keep an eye on any deadlines that apply to your case. We can handle all communications with insurance companies and defense attorneys to help speed up the process. 

You Have a Personal Injury Case if You Can Prove Negligence

We must prove that you have a case before we go to the insurance company or the court. We can work to demonstrate the following four elements of negligence:

• Duty of care: We must show that the defendant held a legal duty of care to the injured party.
• Breach of duty: We must establish that the defendant breached that duty of care, whether intentionally or through negligence.
• Causation: We must also show that the breach of duty caused your injuries.
• Damages: We must also provide evidence that your injuries caused you losses. These are the costs that we can seek compensation for.

While some of these elements seem obvious, an insurer or defense attorney may try to counter them. Our team of personal injury lawyers in Vero Beach can use the evidence we collect to demonstrate these four elements. 

If You Bear Partial Fault for Your Vero Beach Accident

Florida operates under a pure comparative negligence law. This means that although you can seek compensation for an accident that you are partially to blame for, the courts may reduce the amount by your percentage of fault.

You should never discuss fault with an insurer. You may believe you know what happened, but an investigation may reveal otherwise. We can help safeguard you against unfair practices and attempts to reduce or deny your settlement. 

Florida’s Personal Injury Statute of Limitations

It is also important that we file your personal injury lawsuit within Florida’s statute of limitations, Florida Statutes § 95.11(3)(a). You typically have two or two years to file an injury lawsuit, depending on how your injury occurred.

If you wait too long to file, you risk the court dismissing your case. Also, it’s difficult to gather evidence to establish fault too long after the accident. Don’t wait until it’s too late. 

Some special circumstances, including legal incapacitation or wrongful death, could extend or shorten this time limit. However, these exceptions are often rare. Our team can determine how long you have to take legal action and protect your right to compensation. 

Our Personal Injury Lawyers in Vero Beach, FL Can Help

Working with a personal injury lawyer in Vero Beach can help you navigate the legal process and get you the compensation that you deserve. It can also allow you to focus on what is most important: your health.

It’s easy to contact Chalik & Chalik Injury Lawyers for your free consultation. Just click the contact button at the top of the page, or call us directly at (772) 360-4210. We can discuss your case during a free, no-obligation consultation. If you cannot travel to us, we can travel to you.