What should I do if I am injured in an accident?

The first priority is always your health. If you are injured in an accident, the first thing you should do is seek appropriate medical attention for any injuries, including calling an ambulance if necessary.

When you speak to any medical providers about your injuries, be thorough and honest, to ensure they fully understand and appreciate all injuries and symptoms you may be suffering. It may also be useful to let all of your medical providers know there may have been a negligent or wrongful cause of your injuries. Not only does this help document the legal basis for any future claim you may bring, but the details of how you were injured can sometimes assist your medical providers in diagnosing and treating you.

In no case should you try to exaggerate or be dishonest with respect to any injuries or symptoms you may be suffering. Not only does this risk that you will not receive the medical care you truly need, but it also could later impair your credibility which can often the cornerstone of a strong personal injury case. At all stages of your case, from when you are first injured until settlement, HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY.
Apart from obtaining appropriate medical care, what is my next step?

There are basically two steps you should take next.

One steps is to preserve any evidence related to your case. This may mean writing down a list of names and contact information for any witnesses. This also may mean keeping any documents related to your case. This also may mean taking photographs, videos or otherwise making some sort of record of facts relevant to your case.

The other step is to speak to a qualified attorney about your case. In most cases, you can obtain a free consultation with a personal injury attorney (we provide such a free consultation to potential clients). These steps are somewhat related because if you speak to any attorney, and that attorney takes your case, that attorney may then help you to maintain and collect evidence related to your case, and may be able to suggest steps you may not have thought of, or may be able to take action on your behalf, to better ensure that evidence related to your case is being collected and preserved. For this reason, we encourage all accident victims to consult with an attorney promptly after an accident or injury.How much time do I have to file my claim?

California law limits the amount of time that accident victims, or their families, have to file a lawsuit, or in some cases to initiate arbitration or take other steps to formally present their legal claim. However, the amount of time you have to formally present your claim, initiate arbitration, or file a lawsuit varies depending on numerous factors. This is one reason you should promptly consult with an attorney if you feel you have a personal injury or wrongful death case.

Please note that, in almost all cases, the soonest you could possibly need to formally present your claim may be six months from the date of the accident. This six month limitation in general applies, with some exception, to claims against a governmental entity. For claims against private people or private companies, you generally have 1 to 2 years to advance a personal injury claim. There are various factors that can sometimes extend the time you have to formally present your claim, initiate arbitration or file a lawsuit, but the factors are too complex to summarize here, and you should consult with an attorney to be fully informed about the time limitations that might apply to your case.

Will my case go to trial or will it settle?

Contrary to what many people believe, whether a case goes to trial or settles does not depend on the strength of the case. On the contrary, it generally depends on whether the parties can generally agree on how strong the case is. Generally it is when the party suing, and the party being sued, have very different views on the strength of a case that it goes to trial.

For this reason, the better prepared that a case is, the more likely it is to settle. The more clear we can make the evidence supporting your case, and showing that the amount of compensation we are seeking is supported by appropriate testimony, medical records, or other documents, the more likely it is that the opposing party will pay a reasonable sum to settle the case. In most cases, we recommend that clients accept a reasonable settlement figure – assuming one is offered – rather than accept the risks and delays inherent in taking a case to trial. However, ultimately, we are fully prepared to take any case to trial if we feel the opposing party is not offering to pay a fair and reasonable amount to settle the case.

Ultimately, the question of whether to settle or go to trial is complex, and depends on the unique facts of each case. While we give clients advice concerning this issue, the decision on whether to accept a particular settlement figure rests with the client.

How long will it take to resolve my case?

Every case is different and there is no set time frame on how long it takes to resolve a case. We generally find that the quicker we move, the quicker a case gets to the point of either resolving by way of settlement or trial. Thus, part of our commitment to our clients is to move quickly so that our own conduct does not needlessly delay resolution of the case.

That said, you should be aware that while some cases can settle within a matter of days, it generally takes over a year to take a case to trial. Thus, your own position and desire to settle may impact how quickly we can resolve your case. We generally do not counsel clients to accept what we feel is a low settlement offer simply for the sake of resolving a case sooner rather than later; however, on the other hand, we are aware that any case can take an emotional toll on the client and minimizing that toll may very well be a valid reason to settle promptly rather than dragging out a case in the hopes of obtaining a better result.Please note all of the above answers are very general, and may not apply to your particular case. To get specific answers to these or other questions, tailored to your particular case and circumstances, you should call us and arrange to speak to an attorney. Our personal injury attorneys can meet with you for a free initial consultation to answer your questions.

For a free consultation with our personal injury lawyer, contact us by calling today at 818-906-1441 or 805-560-6918. Most of our cases are handled on a contingency basis, which means that you will not owe us attorneys’ fees unless you get a recovery for your injury. We have two locations to best serve you in Woodland Hills and Santa Barbara. If required, a home or hospital visit is also possible.

What are your contingency fees?

We take cases on both an hourly basis and on contingency. Almost all of our personal injury cases and wrongful death cases are taken on contingency because that is what the clients prefer.

In both contingency cases, as well as cases where we charge an hourly rate, our rates are negotiable and are NOT set by law. We do have some standard rates we generally charge, but they do vary in part on the type of personal injury or wrongful death case. Also, some laws place a ceiling, or maximum, on what an attorney can charge in certain types of cases (such as medical malpractice cases). Except where otherwise required by law – and subject to our rates being negotiable – our contingency rates generally start at 33% of the amount recovered. If you retain us as your attorneys, we will discuss our rates with you in more detail and we will prepare a written fee agreement that will spell out precisely what we will charge as our contingency fee if you get a recovery in your case.

Can you help me get medical care for my injuries?

Often, personal injury victims may be unable to locate or afford the kind of specialized medical care they require for their injuries. In certain cases, we can refer clients to appropriate specialists who we feel are well-credentialed and with whom we have worked in the past. Also, in certain cases we can either advance medical expenses for a client, or we can negotiate with the medical provider so that the medical expenses will not be due until or unless a recovery is obtained for the client. Finally, in certain cases, we can also refer clients to certain financing companies that specialize in advancing medical expenses for personal injury victims in return for a lien on the victim’s legal claims.

In all of these circumstances, our ability to help you obtain medical services without you having to bear any up front costs may depend, in part, on how strong your case appears. This is an unfortunate consequence of the reality that neither we nor the medical providers to whom we refer patients can stay in business if we are regularly paying for medical expenses for clients for whom we are not ultimately able to obtain any recovery, such that we or the medical providers must bear those expenses as a loss. We apologize if this seems harsh, but rest assured that if you do contact us for a free consultation, we will do our best to help you establish that you DO have a strong case, such that you CAN qualify for assistance with respect to obtaining medical care, if you happen to need such assistance.

Why should I contact you instead of any of the other attorneys who offer similar services?

We pride ourselves on doing our best to represent our clients aggressively and ethically, so that we earn their trust both in our competence and in our integrity. However, the truth is that there are other skilled attorneys in Los Angeles as well, and we do not claim to be the best or only attorneys who can assist you. If you feel you have a personal injury or wrongful death claim, it is best if you speak promptly to SOME qualified attorney, even if it is not us, about your rights and any steps you may need to take to preserve your rights.
Also, if for any reason you have a personal injury or wrongful death case that we do not feel we are best suited to handle, we can and do refer potential clients to other attorneys who we feel can better serve their particular needs.

Thus, part of the advantage we offer our clients, and our potential clients, is that we strive to put your own legal interests above our own. We firmly believe that doing our best for our clients, even if that results in less profit in the short run, pays dividend in helping to maintain and build our reputation in the community, and we value our reputation more than any fee on any case.

From what geographic areas do you take cases?

We are based in Woodland Hills and Santa Barbara. However, we take cases anywhere within California. Occasionally, we even take cases in other states. For example, we have successfully recovered the maximum policy limit on a personal injury case in Oregon, wherein we appeared “pro hac vice.” A “pro hac vice” admission allows an attorney in one state to handle a case in another state even if the attorney is not licensed in that other state. Thus, the potential for “pro hac vice” admission may allow us to handle cases outside of California.

Though we can handle cases anywhere in California or even outside of California, there are some economic realities that come into play. Because of the expense of travel to interview witnesses or appear in court, it is generally not financially worthwhile for us to handle a case that arises in a distant locale unless the potential recovery is very large.

We are happy to consult with you about your case, even if it is does arise in a distant locale. If necessary, we can do this consultation by telephone. If for any reason we feel it does not make sense for us to handle your case because of the geographic distance, we are happy to do our best to refer you to attorneys we believe are competent and who are better situated, geographically, to handle your case.
The bottom line is, when you contact us for a free initial consultation, that does NOT mean you have to use us as your attorneys, and we will do our best to give you useful answers and advice during that consultation, even if we do NOT take your case.