If you or a family member have experienced a serious injury in a preventable accident, you may be eligible for financial compensation from the responsible person or party. At Haque Legal, our proven Southfield personal injury lawyers can help fight for your rights. Our personal injury law firm focuses exclusively on representing injured clients throughout the state of Michigan and can help you understand the full extent of your injuries and guide you through the insurance claim and legal process. Even if your injury is minor and you were partially at fault, there is still an opportunity to prove another party or several parties were negligent. Contact our Southfield personal injury lawyers for a free case evaluation today.

Why Hire A Southfield Personal Injury Attorney From Haque Legal?

Our personal injury legal counsel will analyze all evidence relevant to your case and use their experience to your benefit. We embrace the challenge of all personal injury cases in the Southfield area ranging from slip and fall accidents to auto accidents, truck accidents, bicycle accidents, dog bites, etc. Our Southfield injury law attorneys will fiercely advocate on your behalf in court if necessary. You can rest easy knowing that Haque Legal uses a time-effective and team-oriented approach to seek justice, meaning our experienced personal injury lawyers collaborate together on your case, providing you with the legal help your particular case needs.

How Can Our Personal Injury Attorneys Help?

You have enough to worry about in the aftermath of an injury, and many questions that need answering regarding your legal options. Instead of attempting to understand the complexities of the state’s personal injury laws, negotiate with an insurance company, or handle anything other than your recuperation, let our team do the heavy lifting on your behalf. Our Southfield accident attorneys will use our time to ensure that you have the best legal representation and legal advice you could ask for to make the process less daunting.

We Know How To Find Key Details

Haque Legal’s Southfield personal injury lawyers will gather evidence related to your case, review that evidence in-depth, and discuss a potential settlement offer with the insurer or opposing counsel. If they refuse to deal with you fairly, we will not hesitate to pursue justice through a personal injury lawsuit. This means we will represent you in and out of court so you and your loved ones can focus on rebuilding your health, and receiving fair compensation during this difficult chapter of your life.

How Do We Stand Up Against Insurance Companies?

Every injured person in Southfield should know insurance companies are out to take advantage of victims in personal injury cases. Instead of trying to obtain a sizable settlement when discussing the injury with the insurance company, let our Southfield office handle that important conversation. In some cases, merely providing a letterhead with one of our Southfield personal injury attorney’s names on it is enough to shake our opponents. Often, by doing this, an insurer or opposing counsel is likely to increase their settlement value offer by thousands or tens of thousands of dollars.

What Types Of Personal Injury Claims Do We Handle?

Personal injuries can happen at any time and at any place. Therefore, our attorneys are skilled in all kinds of personal injury lawsuits. However, some of the most common ones we see are:

• Bicycle accidents
• Medical malpractice 
• Slip and fall accidents
• Premises liability 
• Motorcycle accidents 
• Dog bites
• Truck accidents
• Brain injuries
• Pedestrian accidents
• And more

In some instances, personal injuries may even result in the direct death of a loved one. If this is the case, please visit our Southfield wrongful death lawyer page for more information.

What Are Michigan’s Comparative Fault Laws?

In Michigan, it is important to note that your damage award at trial can be reduced by the percentage attributed to your fault in the accident. The defense will attempt to attribute as much fault to you as possible in order to save their client money.

Michigan follows the 51% rule; meaning that if you are more than 51% liable then you cannot collect non-economic damages. However, you can still collect non-economic damages even if you were 99% at fault for the accident.

What Are Economic Damages From An Injury?

Economic and non-economic damages are damages that a jury can award you at trial. Economic damages are damages that have a monetary value. These damages can include payment for:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Rehabilitative care
• Caregiving expenses

What Are Non-Economic Damages From An Injury?

Non-economic damages are damages that you cannot place a monetary value on like emotional pain and suffering. Michigan does not cap non-economic damages except in special cases like medical malpractice. Michigan does have two caps for medical malpractice non-economic damages, which are called the higher cap and lower cap.

Higher Non-Economic Damages Cap

The higher non-economic damage cap applies for:

• Brain or spinal cord injuries that left you hemiplegic, paraplegic, or quadriplegic with total or permanent function loss.
• Permanent brain injuries that prevent you from making life decisions and performing activities independently
• Permanent loss or damage to reproductive organs.

In these cases, the non-economic damage cap is set at $851,000. For any other injuries that result from medical malpractice, the damage cap is set at $476,600.

What Do Our Southfield Personal Injury Lawyers Do After An Accident?

The litigation process is difficult to manage on your own, especially when you’re going to need to defend against the opposing party’s comparative fault defense. Luckily, our highly skilled and knowledgeable personal injury lawyers can help to:

• Gather evidence to present at trial
• Collect witness testimony
• Hire and interview expert witnesses
• Conduct an injury scene reconstruction to illustrate the opposing party’s fault to the jury
• Cross-examine opposing party witnesses
• Draft and file complaints and documents in anticipation of litigation
• Respond to discovery requests
• Manage filing deadlines and court hearing schedules

Don’t go at a personal injury claim alone when you can have a knowledgeable legal team on your side. We can help you or a loved one receive the compensation that you deserve, with personal injury law being one of our specialty practice areas.

What Is A Settlement? 

The vast majority of personal injury claims in Southfield, Michigan, are resolved through settlements with insurance carriers. Settlements are different from compensation amounts handed down by a jury or a judge. When a settlement occurs, this is an agreement between the injury victim and the at-fault party or their insurance carrier.

A personal injury settlement is an agreement to pay compensation to the injury victim for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering damages, and any other expenses included in the settlement negotiations. After a settlement occurs, the injury victim will sign an agreement stating that they understand they will no longer be able to try and secure compensation from the at-fault party for the same incident and injuries.

In the event a claim is not settled with an insurance carrier, perhaps because the carrier refuses to offer a fair settlement or denies the claim altogether, then it may be necessary to file a personal injury lawsuit in civil court. Even after a lawsuit is filed, it is still very likely that a personal injury claim will be settled before it reaches a jury. The two parties, or their legal teams, will continue to negotiate in an attempt to reach a settlement before hey jury trial becomes necessary. Jury trials can take some time to occur, and they often result in significant costs.

Will My Claim Go To Trial?

The vast majority of personal injury claims in Southfield are resolved through settlements with the insurance carriers involved. This may include auto insurance carriers, homeowners insurance carriers, business insurance carriers, and more. When a claim gets made, the insurance carriers will conduct an investigation and make efforts to pay if the evidence points to their policyholder is at fault. However, that does not mean that they will go about paying a legitimate claim quickly. There are times when insurance carriers put up a fight from having to pay out a reasonable amount of compensation, and in some cases, the insurance carrier may deny the claim altogether.

In the event that the insurance carrier denies the claim or refuses to pay a fair amount, it may be necessary for the injury victim to file a personal injury lawsuit in civil court. Once a lawsuit gets filed, this will extend the timeframe for how long it takes a case to resolve. The case will enter the discovery process where attorneys for both sides will exchange information, and they will also continue their investigation into the incident. It is not uncommon for negotiations to continue at this point, but it could take many months or even more than a year for a claim to resolve. It is not uncommon for both sides to try to resolve a claim before a trial becomes necessary because jury trials can be unpredictable and costly.

In the event the at-fault party still refuses to offer a fair settlement, it may be necessary to take the case in front of a jury. It is not uncommon for jury trials to occur years after the original incident. We strongly encourage you to work with a skilled Southfield personal injury lawyer who has experience handling these claims and can guide you through an acceptable and expected time frame.

What Are Michigan’s No-Fault Rules?

Many personal injury claims are the result of car accidents. However, Michigan is a no-fault state, which changes the way that car accident cases are handled legally. In most states, you would seek financial recovery from the at-fault party’s insurance. Yet, Michigan requires you to recover payment for medical bills and other out-of-pocket expenses from your personal insurance.

You cannot go to court in Michigan for auto accident injuries unless you suffered the most severe injuries such as:

• Wrongful death
• Disfigurement
• Bodily function impairment

In order to take these severe injury cases to court, you must seek a medical declaration from medical experts. Michigan law requires the presentation of tangible medical records in order to pursue an injury claim that resulted from a car accident, in court. Our Southfield personal injury law experts at Haque Legal can help you accomplish this.

What Are The Statute Of Limitations For Michigan Personal Injury Claims?

In Michigan, there is a statute of limitations for personal injury claims in which you must file your claim within three years of the date of injury. And, if you are suing the state or city government for your injury, you must file a formal claim within six months of the date of injury or property damage if your injury was the result of defective highways or roads. You also have six months to file a formal claim against the state, and you have two years to file a lawsuit against the state government if the government denies your claim.

If you miss these deadlines, the court is not likely to extend them. So, don’t miss your opportunity, and call one of our attorneys today to make sure not a single deadline is missed and you can recover compensation.

Can You Pursue A Personal Injury Claim Against The City Or State Government?

If you are injured because of government negligence, you can pursue a personal injury claim against the city. The types of injuries you can suffer include:

• Accidents with government-owned vehicles
• A government employee’s gross negligence
• Slips falls, and injuries inside government buildings
• Defective roadways

Most city agencies and state governments will attempt to claim qualified immunity, leaving you stuck with hospital bills. There are exceptions to the qualified immunity rule, and our attorneys can help. City and state government employees are exempt from tort liabilities under the Governmental Tort Liability Act if they are engaged in the exercise or discharge of a government function.

However, there are exceptions to the Governmental Tort Liability Act. A city or state government employee can be held liable in a personal injury claim for the following:

• Defective or unmaintained highways
• Negligent operation of a government-owned vehicle
• Dangerous or defective government property
• Defective sewage systems

How Do You Pursue A Personal Injury Claim Against The Government?

In order to pursue a claim against a Michigan city or state government, you need to follow a deliberate process. Before filing a lawsuit, you need to give the city or state government notice of your intent to file a lawsuit.

If your claim is against the state then you must file your claim with the Michigan State Administrative Board or with the Michigan Court of Claims.

If your claim is against the city government, every city has different rules for determining how you file a claim against the city government. A personal injury attorney can help you determine the exact steps to file in order to start the claims process.

What Are The Risks Of Filing A Personal Injury Claim Against The Government?

The city or state government will work overtime to bully you into dropping your suit or taking a lower settlement amount than you deserve. Nevertheless, a personal injury attorney will know how to combat the city or state government’s underhanded attempts.

When pursuing a claim against the city or state government, it is crucial to keep detailed accounts of the event. Our trial attorneys can help you gather copies of your medical documents and build a file to submit with your claim to make your case that much more legitimate.

Who Is Liable In A Personal Injury Case?

All sorts of different parties can be found guilty of negligence in personal injury cases. From homeowners to business owners, city government, defective product sellers, and even auto mechanics, the number of potential defendants is seemingly endless. Furthermore, multiple parties might share legal liability for the pain, suffering, and additional damages stemming from the injury.

Contact A Southfield Personal Injury Lawyer From Haque Legal Today

If you have suffered a serious injury, the first call to make after reaching out to the emergency medical services providers and the police is to our law firm. Contact us or call the firm today at (248) 996-9954 to coordinate an initial consultation with our personal injury specialists. We will closely review all the unique facts of your personal injury case in Southfield and tailor our legal defense strategy to those facts. Our aim is to maximize your financial compensation following this painful event. Contact us today to schedule a no-cost, no-obligation consultation with our friendly Southfield personal injury attorneys. We work on a contingency fee basis, meaning there is everything to gain and nothing to lose by letting our attorneys zealously advocate to protect your legal rights on your behalf.