What are the Grounds for a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Wisconsin?

If you’ve recently suffered an injury in a car accident or through some other event and believe your personal injury case may be strong enough to bring a favorable outcome with a lawsuit, it’s important to look at the details of the case with a skilled attorney to determine if filing a personal injury lawsuit in Wisconsin is in your best interest.

The first thing all personal injury victims should understand before moving forward with a lawsuit is that each case is different. Just because some indicators might line up with your circumstances, that doesn’t automatically mean your have a case strong enough to win.

If you're wondering what indicators typically suggest your case may be strong enough to proceed with a personal injury lawsuit, keep reading to learn five common things Madison personal injury attorneys look for when assessing a case’s potential to hold up in court.

5 Ways to Assess the Value of Filing a Personal Injury Suit in Wisconsin

1. You Have a Viable Claim for Compensation

In other words, your claim needs to be held to the legal standards of negligence and proximate cause. The legal standards of negligence can get very complicated, but an experienced personal injury attorney can help you work through the details of your claim to determine whether or not you deserve compensation.

2. The Damages Are Worth More Than Costs You’ll Incur to Recover Them

This is a straightforward dollar calculation. Make sure the damages you intend to receive from a suit or settlement are greater than the costs you’ll incur during the recovery process.

3. All Related Expenses Are Accounted for in the Suit or Settlement

Depending on your injuries, you may be facing long-term medical issues, a list of medical bills, rehabilitative care costs, or other related expenses. It’s important to keep in mind that any future claims for injuries or damages need to be included in the suit or settlement agreement since the defendant’s liability will almost certainly be erased after a settlement.

4. Your Injuries Prevent You from Essential Physical Activities

If your personal injury resulted in huge medical expenses, a loss of income, long-term pain, or somehow prevented you from physical activities that you could perform before the injury, you should seriously consider filing suit.

5. The Injuries You Sustained Will Only Continue to Get Worse

If the injures are such that your pain and suffering may get worse as time goes on, there is likely a good reason to go ahead and file. The above factors are only part of what a skilled attorney will consider before offering you personal injury claims advice. You must also have the basic grounds for a personal injury claim.

Basic Grounds for a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Wisconsin

The above indicators are important, but before you consider filing an injury lawsuit, you should carefully review and consider the two basic grounds that constitute a viable lawsuit.

1. Clearly Defined Harm

This is usually the first thing considered when the question of a personal injury lawsuit arises. With only a few exceptions, personal injury lawsuits require an element of harm done onto the victim.

In addition to this, the harm almost always must be provable, which means things like “emotional distress” are typically extremely hard to prove in court. The better you can show proof of the harm you’ve encountered, the stronger your claim can be.

2. A Definable Duty

No matter how you were harmed, the person you are suing must have owed a duty to you. In other words, that person should have done something or avoided doing something because of the relationship you had with them.

The duty does not have to be agreed upon. When you get behind the wheel, for example, you have a duty to all other drivers and pedestrians to take reasonable care when driving.

Defining duty in a Wisconsin personal injury case isn’t enough on its own. You must also show how that person breached that duty one way or another.

If a driver hit you because a freak storm blew his or her car off the side of the road, he or she would generally not be held liable.

If you or someone you know is dealing with a personal injury and believes a personal injury lawsuit in Madison may be in order, contact an experienced personal injury attorney in Madison, Wisconsin to explore your options.

Free Personal Injury Case Evaluation

Wisconsin Personal Injury Attorney Pat Stangl has over 30 years of experience helping clients with their personal injury cases. Click the link below to request your free consultation with Attorney Stangl, at no obligation, to explore options for your personal injury claim.