Reno Personal Injury Lawyer

Why hire our Reno personal injury lawyer at Leverty & Associates Law

At Leverty & Associates Law, we have a team of experienced personal injury lawyers in Reno who are always ready to fight in your favor when you want to file your personal injury claim.

We fearlessly confront insurance providers, ensuring we stand up for your rights and secure a victory.

Our personal injury attorneys know how to approach cases like this and are always ready to provide you with the legal support and guidance you need. Contact us in Reno at (775)322-6636 and let us know how we can better help you. We offer free initial consultations.

What are the different types of personal injury cases?

If you suffer an injury due to someone else’s actions, you may have grounds to file a lawsuit. In some cases, like claims for injuries caused by defective products, Nevada law imposes strict liability on another party.

Some injuries, like sexual assault, are intentional. Criminal courts often punish these offenders. However, only your Reno personal injury attorney can obtain compensation for the victims of such incidents.

Negligence, or a lack of care, causes the most personal injury cases. Some common types of personal injury cases are:

• Motorcycle accidents
• Commercial truck accidents
• Pedestrian accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Boat accidents
• Slip-and-fall accidents
• Premises liability
• Car accidents
• Dog bites
• Product liability
• Medical malpractice
• Assault and battery
• Sexual assault or abuse.

Most of the claims we handle are settled out of court. However, the exact injury compensation process varies from case to case.

When should I file a personal injury claim?

You should file a personal injury claim immediately after determining the following:

• You have a valid claim.
• You can give an accurate estimate of your claim’s worth.
• Your attorney says it’s time.

It would be unfair for you to bear the burden of paying medical bills or to suffer a loss of income after an accident that was not your fault. Instead, these burdens should fall on the person or entity that caused your injuries. You should have the freedom to focus on your recovery rather than rushing back to work or skipping medical treatment because of a mounting pile of bills. Skimping on treatment could leave you with permanent disabilities that cause pain and limit your abilities for the rest of your life.

Many victims hesitate to file legal claims, especially if they believe health insurance or MedPay will cover most or all of their medical bills and other economic losses. These hoped-for payments often do not materialize. Limitations on using health insurance and MedPay for your injuries include:

• Health insurance may require you to meet a deductible or pay a copay for treatment.
• MedPay may not cover ongoing or long-term medical expenses.
• Healthcare providers might not accept MedPay coverage.
• If you pay out of pocket, your insurer could reject reimbursement.

If you choose to pursue an injury claim, you can seek compensation for all your relevant medical expenses, including any copays or deductibles you paid upfront. If you win or settle your case, you can use some of the funds to pay your medical providers. Additionally, no insurance company willingly compensates victims for emotional distress and other non-economic losses. No victim should ever have to settle for less.

Your compensation should adequately cover your present and future expenses for injuries related to your accident. An adequate settlement offer or award should be enough to cover your expenses for ongoing treatment, therapy, or long-term care if needed.

What you need to prove to get injury compensation

To recover injury compensation, you and your Reno personal injury attorney must prove liability for your injuries.

• Intentional torts (injuries) usually require proof of intent and causation. Intent means that the person who caused your injury intended to perform the detrimental action. In accident claims, the law does not require you to prove that the person intended to injure you. Meanwhile, causation means that the person’s actions were a step in the sequence of events that caused your injury.
• In a strict liability case, victims must prove that the person or company involved caused the injury. In a product liability case, for example, you must show that the manufacturer, designer, or seller put a defective product into the stream of commerce and that you suffered an injury as a result.

The insurance company also has quite a lot of work to do, even though it is less complicated than yours. Defendants are not required to prove that another account of the events is true, as they can comfortably claim that they lack knowledge of what happened. All they have to do is convince the court that your account of the events isn’t true. If they succeed, they won’t have to pay what you have asked for. Some insurance companies even go so far as to present multiple possible accounts of what could have transpired.

As mentioned, negligence causes most personal injuries in the Silver State. Negligence in Nevada requires proof of four elements: duty, breach, cause, and damages.

Duty

The person or business you want to sue must have a duty of care. This duty varies in different situations. Some examples of legal duties are:

• Non-commercial drivers usually have a duty of reasonable care to avoid accidents and drive defensively.
• Commercial drivers must go the extra mile to avoid accidents because they usually have a higher duty of care; they must adhere to special regulations regarding licensing, maintenance, and hours on the road.
• Doctors and many other professionals have a fiduciary duty to set aside all other priorities and do only what is best for their patients or clients.
• Property owners usually have a duty of care toward any social or business guests whom they directly or indirectly invite onto the premises.

A person or business satisfies its duty by acting in a reasonably prudent manner. In other words, the person or business must act with good judgment and common sense in the given circumstances.

Breach

To have acted negligently, the person or business must have breached the applicable duty of care. The breach might happen in a number of ways, depending on the nature of your accident. For example, people and businesses can breach their duties by:

• Driving in an unreasonably dangerous way
• Failing to provide a level of medical care recognized as reasonable by other healthcare providers
• Failing to discover or repair hazards on the premises in a reasonable time and manner.

Bear in mind that not all injuries support an injury claim. If the person or business acted reasonably and you were still injured, negligence would be difficult to prove.

Cause

For a negligence case, the breach of duty must have caused you damages. Under Nevada law, causation has two parts: cause-in-fact and proximate cause.

• Cause-in-fact means that the breach was an event in the series of events that led to your injury. Suppose that someone threw a brick at your car. Even if the brick did not hit you directly, if you swerved and hit a light pole, the person who threw the brick was still the cause-in-fact of your crash and your injuries.
• Proximate cause means that your injuries were a reasonably foreseeable result of the breach. You do not need to prove that the person or business knew that your exact injuries would occur. Instead, you must show that the breach was the type of act or omission that could reasonably injure someone.

For example, failing to empty the trash cans in a parking structure might be a bad business practice. However, a Nevada court might not consider that failure to be the proximate cause of a car accident when wind-blown trash from an overflowing can obscures your view and causes you to hit a parked car.

Damages

Almost any time you suffer an injury, expenses can pile up. These expenses that you would not have incurred if you weren’t involved in the accident are called “economic damages.” Economic damages are actual and direct financial losses you incurred from the accident or injury.

Examples of common economic damages include:

• Medical bills
• Prescription drug costs
• Physical or mental health therapy
• Lost salary or wages
• Diminished earning capacity
• Property damage.

Victims also may have non-economic damages. These damages result when an injury diminishes your quality of life. Examples of non-economic losses include physical pain, mental suffering, and loss of the ability to participate meaningfully in certain activities.

Our skilled personal injury attorneys in Reno have knowledge and experience in insurance law that is unmatched by other Reno law firms.

Why you need a Reno personal injury lawyer at Leverty & Associates Law

After suffering a personal injury, especially one that you don’t think is too complicated, you might be tempted to believe that the insurance company will easily agree with your claim. For this reason, many personal injury victims are shocked when their claims are denied or downplayed.

Insurance companies usually won’t support you when you make a claim, even if you’re going through a lot of pain and suffering. This treatment might seem unfair, but it’s because they want to make as much money as possible. They often use tactics to pay you less than the compensation you should get, or sometimes they won’t pay you at all. They might even delay the process to make you give up on your claim, even if it’s entirely valid. This is why you need our Reno personal injury lawyer.

Thankfully, Nevada law sees every insurance policy as an agreement whose terms shouldn’t be violated by any party. Our lawyers can spot, with high accuracy, the aspect of the law the insurance company could be violating. These breaches of contract could be:

• Offering less than the claim’s worth or value
• Delaying to make payment
• Refusal to own up to obvious liability
• Failure to provide good reasons why the claim was denied
• Refusing to respond to the claimant
• Demanding an unreasonable amount of paperwork
• Lying to the insurance policyholder about their privileges as contained in the policy
• Making unclear interpretations of the content of the policy.

Besides spotting insurance policy breaches, we will also let you know how best to approach the matter. We have been dealing successfully with insurance companies for decades, proving that our clients have been wronged and should get the required compensation to repair damage and live comfortable lives afterward.

Our experienced Reno personal injury lawyer will help you navigate the complex legal process after your insurer acts in bad faith. We have the knowledge and experience to assess your case, gather evidence, negotiate with insurance companies, and advocate for your rights in court when necessary. With our Reno personal injury lawyer at Leverty & Assistance Law on your side, you can maximize your chances of receiving fair compensation for your injuries, medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering without the unfair interference of your insurer.

How do I pursue compensation in a personal injury case?

Our Reno personal injury attorney will identify all possible sources of compensation, including the at-fault party’s assets and insurance policies. Insurance policies are contracts between the insurer and the insured. When the insured incurs a liability listed in the policy, the insurer should pay the claimant.

Every owner of a registered vehicle in Nevada is required to carry liability insurance. When a driver causes an accident, their insurer has a contractual duty to investigate the claims that are filed and negotiate with the claimant in good faith. If it fails to do so, the insurer can become liable for its bad-faith actions on top of the actions of the insured party.

Most people and businesses have insurance coverage. Homeowner’s insurance, business liability insurance, property insurance, and other policies might be used to cover damages suffered when an insured person or business causes an injury. For example, Nevada does not require boat owners to carry liability insurance. However, in some cases, our creative personal injury lawyers can find a way to claim coverage under the boater’s auto or home insurance policy.

We have massive experience in personal injury law and have dedicated over 50 years of combined experience to our clients.

Reno Personal Injury Lawyer FAQs

There might be areas in your case that you find unclear; you can reach out to us, and we will respond as soon as possible. Tthe following are the questions that our clients often ask:

When should I contact a personal injury lawyer?

It’s best to contact our personal injury lawyer as soon as possible after an accident or injury. We can provide guidance on what steps to take, including preserving evidence, communicating with insurance companies, and filing a claim within the statute of limitations.

What types of cases do personal injury lawyers handle?

Our personal injury lawyers in Reno handle a wide range of cases, including car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, slip and fall accidents, medical malpractice, product liability, wrongful death, and more.

How much does it cost to hire a personal injury lawyer?

Our personal injury lawyers in Reno work on a contingency fee basis, which means they only get paid when they win your case. Their fee is typically a percentage of the settlement or verdict, so you don’t have to pay anything upfront.

Do I have a  case if I only have minor injuries?

Even a minor accident often causes serious injuries. For example, whiplash, a head-neck injury, is very common in low-speed car crashes, like parking lot fender benders. If not treated promptly and properly, this injury could cause permanent paralysis. Victims should always see a doctor. Only a medical professional can properly evaluate your medical condition. Likewise, victims should always seek the help of our personal injury lawyers; they can help determine your legal options.

How much is my case worth?

Determining how much your case is worth is a process. This process usually starts with the settlement value. Much like a new car’s sticker price, a personal injury claim’s settlement value serves as the starting point for settlement negotiations. The settlement value must account for all past and future medical expenses. Therefore, meaningful negotiations cannot start until medical treatment is substantially complete. The settlement value also includes compensation for emotional distress and other non-economic losses. Settlement negotiations involve some give and take. Only our Reno personal injury lawyer knows when to give and when to take during these negotiations.

How long will my case take?

No one can say how long your case will last. Although many cases get settled without going to court, it can still take a while because the legal processes before getting to the point of negotiation can take a long time. If other personal injury lawyers in Reno give you a specific time, they might just be telling you what you want to hear. When we work for you, no matter how long, we will support, guide, and represent you.

How our Reno personal injury lawyers at Leverty & Associates Law can help you

At Leverty & Associate Law., our personal injury lawyers are always ready to help you with your legal needs. When you choose us to represent you, we’ll dig deep into the details of what caused your injury and make sure the party that caused it is held responsible. Our lawyers will also negotiate with the other side to try to settle your case, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll represent you in court.

You can expect us to update you regularly and answer your questions as quickly as possible. You can trust us to fight hard for you while giving you the support and legal help you need.

Get the help you need from our Leverty & Associates Law team

At Leverty & Associates Law, we have reliable personal injury lawyers in Reno who are committed to offering our clients thorough legal support and guidance. We have the skills and expertise needed to assist you in getting compensation. Instead of handling everything yourself, consider reaching out to us for assistance. You can schedule a free meeting to discuss your case by calling us in Reno at (775) 322-6636.