Onondaga County is part of the Syracuse Metropolitan Statistical Area. Some of the major highways in the county include I-81, I-481, I-90, and I-690, as well as U.S. Route 11 and U.S. Route 20. After a car accident or another serious accident, you may be concerned about how you will pay for doctors' bills, physical therapy, and rehabilitation. Often, serious injuries require workers to take time off from their jobs to rest and recover, just when they most need the wages. If you suffer injuries in an accident in Onondaga County, you may need to retain an experienced attorney. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano, our Onondaga County personal injury lawyers may be able to provide counsel and representation.
The Process of Bringing a Personal Injury ClaimIn many situations, you must prove another individual or entity's negligence to recover damages. This means that you will need to prove that the individual or entity owed you a duty of care, the individual or entity breached this duty, causation, and actual damages. The duty owed, as well as which actions might breach it, varies from situation to situation.
When the context is driving, for example, all drivers are supposed to use reasonable care to avoid causing injuries to others. This duty may be breached in many different ways, including by texting while driving, drunk driving, speeding, weaving, failing to yield the right of way, running traffic lights, and ignoring basic traffic laws. If these types of negligent actions contribute to an accident in which you suffer serious injuries, the driver can be held responsible for the resulting damages. In the context of a car accident, you will need to turn to your own no-fault insurance first. A personal injury attorney in Onondaga County can only bring a lawsuit against the negligent driver if your economic damages exceed the $50,000 no-fault coverage, or you suffer serious injuries, as those are defined.
When a doctor's diagnosis or treatment causes you harm, you may have grounds to bring a medical malpractice lawsuit. You will not be able to recover damages unless you can establish that the doctor or other health care provider deviated from the professional standard of care and that this deviation was the proximate cause of your injuries. In most cases, you will need to establish the professional standard of care by consulting an expert in the same area of medicine as the defendant.
For example, when the issue is an oncologist's failure to diagnose breast cancer, your Onondaga County personal injury attorney will need to consult an oncologist about what the standard of care was in diagnosing breast cancer, whether this standard was not met, and whether the failure to meet the standard was the cause of the injuries. Causation can be tricky in failure to diagnose cases because you need to prove that it was the failure to diagnose, rather than the normal progression of the illness, that caused the injuries.
Other situations may call for a different analysis. For example, in construction accident cases, there are often multiple parties whose negligence combines to create the injuries. Usually, an employee's exclusive remedy against an employer is workers' compensation. It may be possible, however, to bring a third-party claim against another person or entity whose negligence (or other wrongful conduct) contributed to an accident. Additionally, there are special rules that apply to gravity-related falls. Labor Law Section 240, for example, is known as the Scaffold Law, and it protects workers who are harmed in falls or after being hit by a falling object when a contractor or owner does not supply the appropriate safety equipment or does not make sure that workers use it.
Contact an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer in Onondaga CountyIf you were injured because of someone else’s negligence, our law firm may be able to represent you in a personal injury claim or lawsuit. Call us at 833-200-2000 or contact us via our online form to set up a free appointment to discuss your legal options.