Why Choose Us?

What Sets Our Washoe County Personal Injury Lawyers Apart from The Rest

Usually, within hours of a personal injury, insurance companies hire teams of legal professionals who care nothing about what is fair. Instead, these lawyers look for ways to reduce or deny compensation to victims. A victim needs an equally dedicated Reno personal injury lawyer to level the playing field.

At Leverty & Associates, we focus on injury-related legal matters. To us, nothing is more important than obtaining the compensation victims need to put their lives back together and move forward to tomorrow.

Dedication is necessary, but it is not enough. A Reno personal injury lawyer must also be experienced and accessible.

Experienced lawyers quickly and thoroughly evaluate your case. A fast start does not always guarantee a successful result, but a fast start helps immensely. A thorough case evaluation means our legal team looks for all your legal options, and not just the path of least resistance.

Accessible lawyers have more than one office location. Moreover, the attorneys in these offices are directly responsible for the cases the firm handles. Many Reno personal injury attorneys quickly refer cases to other lawyers or over-delegate the work to inexperienced associates or even non-lawyer assistants.

At Leverty & Associates, we check both these boxes. Our team members have decades of combined experience in areas like Nevada personal injury and bad faith insurance law. We have offices in Las Vegas and Reno, and unlike some other lawyers, we are happy to do after hours, home, hospital, and virtual meetings.

What Are the Different Types of Personal Injury Cases?

Looking for A Reno Personal Injury Lawyer with Relevant Experience?

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. But only a Reno personal injury attorney obtains compensation for the victims of such incidents.

Negligence, or a lack of care, causes most personal injuries. 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 settle out of court. However, the exact injury compensation process varies in different cases.

When Should I File a Personal Injury Claim?

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 compensates victims for emotional distress and other noneconomic 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

Our Reno Personal Injury Lawyers Explain the Compensation Process

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 injurious action. The law does not require you to prove that the person intended to injure you. Instead, 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.

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 sue must have a duty of care. This duty varies in different situations. Some examples of legal duties include:

• Noncommercial 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.
• Doctors and many other professionals have a fiduciary duty to set aside all other priorities and only do what is best for their patients or clients.
• Property owners usually have a duty of care towards 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 be negligent, 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.
• Neglecting 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 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 a 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. But 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 obscured your view and caused you to hit a parked car.

Damages

Almost any time you suffer an injury, expenses can pile up. Examples of common economic damages include:

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

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

How Do I Pursue Compensation in A Personal Injury Case?

We Know What It Takes to Battle Uncooperative Insurance Companies

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 own 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. But in some cases, creative personal injury lawyers can find a way to claim coverage under the boater’s auto or home insurance policy.

Our skilled personal injury attorneys in Reno have knowledge and experience in insurance law that is unmatched by other Reno law firms. Gene Leverty represented insurance companies for over ten years. He is also a former Nevada deputy insurance commissioner. Patrick Leverty earned a Master of Laws (LLM) degree in insurance law and is listed on The National Trial Lawyers list of Top 10 Insurance Bad Faith Trial Lawyers – Nevada.

A high level of understanding of insurance law helps our firm’s lawyers to identify all sources of insurance coverage that might be able to cover a client’s injuries. Aggregating policies in this way can help our attorneys to fight for the full compensation a client may be entitled to.

Frequently Asked Questions about Personal Injury Law

Get Answers from Our Reno Personal Injury Attorneys

Personal injury law varies from state to state. When you need answers about your personal injury case, look for someone with experience and knowledge in the relevant area of law. Our lawyers at Leverty & Associates Law include a Nevada Justice Association-certified Personal Injury Specialist.

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 doctors. Only a medical professional can properly evaluate your medical condition. Likewise, victims should always see a Washoe County personal injury lawyer. Only an attorney can 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 at least substantially complete. The settlement value also includes compensation for emotional distress and other noneconomic losses.

Settlement negotiations involve some give and take. Only a good Washoe County personal injury lawyer knows when to give and when to take during these negotiations.

How Long Do I Have to Start My Case?

The statute of limitations in a Nevada personal injury case is usually two years. However, this two-year statute of limitations does not apply in all cases, mostly because of the discovery rule.

Dangerous drug claims are a good example. Assume Victor took Drug X in 2000. In 2015, his doctor tells him he has cancer. In 2025, Victor sees a TV documentary about the link between Drug X and cancer.

According to the discovery rule, the statute of limitations countdown usually begins when victims are fully aware of their injuries, and they connect those injuries to another person’s or entity’s wrongful conduct. So, in this example, Victor probably has until 2027 to file a claim (two years after he “discovered” his injuries).

How Long Will My Case Take?

It is impossible to tell. Any Reno personal injury lawyer who says something different is probably telling you what you want to hear.

Eventually, most cases settle out of court. However, “eventually” is often a long time because the litigation process is long.

Informal negotiations between a Washoe County personal injury attorney and an insurance company often bear fruit. If these talks stall or break down, most judges appoint professional mediators who jumpstart the settlement process. Professional mediation is about 90 percent successful in Nevada.

What If I Share Blame for My Accident?

Shared blame is extremely common. The comparative fault rule, in one form or another, usually applies in these situations.

For example, in a car crash, one driver might have changed lanes illegally and another driver was speeding. Or, in a dog bite claim, the owner might have put up a “Beware of Dog” sign.

Nevada is a modified comparative fault state with a 51 percent threshold. Victims are entitled to compensation if they were no more than 49 percent responsible for an injury.

Reno personal injury lawyers use evidence and arguments to maximize compensation in these situations. For example, the speeding driver in the car crash case might have been traveling 5mph above the limit. That is not significant enough to affect fault in an accident. Or the victim in a dog bite case might have been a young child who was unable to read the sign or unable to understand what that sign meant.

Do I Need a Reno Personal Injury Lawyer for My Case?

Absolutely. Insurance companies always have lawyers working for them. Taking on experienced lawyers without one of your own is like the Las Vegas Raiders playing the Las Vegas High School Wildcats. It is not a fair fight.

A Washoe County personal injury attorney does more than advocate for you. An attorney also gives a victim solid guidance throughout the complicated legal process. Victims without lawyers must feel their way in the dark.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire Personal Injury Lawyers in Reno?

At Leverty & Associates, our Reno personal injury lawyers work on a contingent fee basis. So, instead of changing high hourly or other fees, we take a small percentage of a judgment or settlement as payment for our professional services.

On a similar note, we have professional relationships with doctors, mechanics, and other such providers. These providers usually charge nothing upfront for their services.

These may not be your only questions; our attorneys will discuss your specific concerns in your initial consultation.