WASHINGTON, DC PERSONAL INJURY LAWYERS

Washington, DC Personal Injury Attorneys

If you have been injured due to someone else's negligence, recklessness, or carelessness, then you may be entitled to a claim for compensation for those injuries. But you need an experienced team of caring and dedicated DC personal injury lawyers fight to get you every bit of justice that you can! Attorney Joseph Blaszkow and the team at Blaszkow Legal will analyze your case, and guide you towards the best recovery possible. Let us help you hold the negligent person or parties accountable for their actions or in-actions. Get Justice with Joe and call us today at 703-879-5910.

Blaszkow Legal provides free consultations for all Washington DC personal injury cases, as well as for personal injury claims in Maryland and Virginia, as well. We work on a contingency fee basis, which means we don't get paid unless you collect money.

You should always speak to an experienced personal injury lawyer before speaking to any insurance company. They have a lot of tricks and tactics that they use every time, because their primary goal is to minimize your claim. We have even heard of insurance companies suggesting that someone without a legal immigration status cannot file a claim. This is not the case! Whether or not you are in the United States legally, whatever your immigration status, if you have been hurt in a car accident, bus accident, or other personal injury matter, you have the right to speak to an attorney!

Call us now and let us help you on the road to recovery, and get to work on maximizing the compensation that you deserve. Hablamos Espanol!

What is a personal injury claim?

Personal injury means that you have been hurt or injured during an incident where someone's negligence directly led to your injuries. One of the most common personal injury incidents that we help clients with are car accidents. After a car accident, most clients will go to a hospital, some will go to an urgent care clinic, and some will simply get in to see their Primary Care doctor, depending on the nature of the injuries. But if your injuries are directly caused by that car accident, then you have the right to file a claim against the negligent driver.

Some other examples of personal injury accidents include:

• Truck accidents

• Bus accidents

• Car Accidents

• Uber and Lyft Accidents

• Taxi Accidents

• Pedestrian accidents

• Bicycle accidents

• Motorcycle Accidents

• Burn Injuries

• Metro Accidents

• Traumatic Brain Injuries

• Accidents at work caused by third parties

• Slip and Falls

• Wrongful Death Claims

• Negligent Security

Because DC is such a transient city, where people and companies are always coming and going, there are a lot of deadlines that have to be watched out for. An experienced DC personal injury lawyer is going to be able to assist you, help process your claim, and fight for you when the insurance companies tries to deny it.

DC personal injury claims and contributory negligence

Washington DC, just like Virginia and Maryland, practice is a legal doctrine known as "contributory negligence." This means that the person bringing the claim, or the claimant, can only be successful on that claim if the claimant is not in any way responsible for the accident. This is sometimes referred to as the "1% rule." In simple terms, it means that if the insurance company and their adjusters, can develop evidence that you were in some way responsible for an accident, then you may not recover.

Here is an extreme example: You approach a stop sign, and instead of stopping, you just slow down and proceed past the stop sign. When you are in the intersection, someone crossing the intersection in a car, driving under the influence and fleeing a bank robbery, hits your vehicle and seriously injures you.

In this fact pattern, despite the absolutely heinous and reckless actions of the other person, because you failed to stop at the stop sign, the argument is going to be that you are contributorily negligent, and this your claim is barred.

What we have to prove in a personal injury claim

When you are asserting a claim for personal injury, we have to prove both 1) that the other side is liable, and 2) that your injuries are a direct and proximate cause of their negligent acts. Let's explore that a little bit.

The first point that needs to be proven is the negligence and liability of the at fault parties. In the slip and fall realm, for example, if you slip and fall on soda that was spilled right before you slipped on it, the property owner may not have had a reasonable chance to address the spill, or they may not have even known that the dangerous condition existed. In this fact pattern, even though it happened on someone's property, they may not be liable for that injury.

Now, in a different fact pattern, if someone spilled that soda at 10:00 in the morning, and you slipped at 2:00 in the afternoon, because no one from that store noticed it and cleaned it up, that is a different set of facts! We may be able to prove constructive notice, in that kind of situation - that through the exercise of reasonable due diligence, they would have noticed!

The next issue that we have to prove is that your injuries are directly related to the negligent act. For example, after a car accident where you have gone to the hospital, the hospitalization is for evaluation of the car accident. There is almost no argument that the defense can make to say that that hospital visit is not related. But, if you go to the hospital complaining of pain in your neck, and then 3-months later you go to a podiatrist complaining of pain in your foot, if you have not made any complaints about your foot before, and that podiatrist does not opine that the foot injury is related to the accident, you may not be able to claim that foot treatment. Your injuries that make up part of your DC personal injury claim have to be causally linked (caused by) to the negligent act.

DC personal injury claims and damages

Many people ask how much money they will be awarded for a personal injury claim. The amount of compensation is generally referred to as a person's "damages." Damages fall into two types: economic damages and a non economic damages.

Economic damages refer to things that can be documented in black and white. Things such as hospital visits and other medical treatment, prescription costs, and time lost from work are economic damages. They can be easily quantified for an insurance company, or later, for the Court.

Non-economic damages do not have a bright line test. Things such as pain and suffering, inconvenience, loss of enjoyment of life, and things of that nature have to be proven through witness testimony, such as friends and family. There is no law book that says a broken arm is worth X, and neck pain is worth Y. What one person was able to recover in a car accident, is not a guide for what everyone will recover or similar accidents. Every case stands and falls on its own merits, and its own evidence.

In certain circumstances, we may also be able to file a claim for punitive damages. Punitive damages are additional monies that are assessed against the negligent or at fault parties to punish them for their conduct, and also to deter other people in similar situations in the future from committing that same negligence. However, punitive damages have to be expressly authorized by statute, or by case law.

Why you need to call an experienced DC Personal Injury Attorney right away

After you have been injured as the result of someone's negligence, you need to call an attorney immediately! An experienced DC personal injury lawyer is going to get to work on investigating your claim as soon as you walk into the office. As soon as you come to see Blaszkow Legal, we set our paralegals, attorneys, and investigators to work try to prove your claims. Time is of the essence!

After an accident, we want to be able to develop the evidence that will prove your case. One of the best pieces of evidence that we can obtain is video camera footage. This camera footage comes from any number of sources, such as dash cameras, street cameras, and surveillance cameras from local businesses. This camera footage is an excellent and objective way for us to help prove your case. But the footage does not stay around forever. Top of the line systems will retain the footage for 30 days, while some systems with Less storage may keep that footage for only 72 hours! If we do not identify it, and preserve it in time, it will be overwritten and lost forever.

Do you remember what you did 28 days ago? Chances are you don't. That is why it is so important for us to interview witnesses right away! As your life goes on, so do the lives of witnesses. We need to identify the witnesses and interview them, to lock down their recollections while they are fresh in their minds.

The insurance companies are betting on the fact that most people won't see a personal injury lawyer until it's too late.

DC personal injury claims and going to court

A common question that we get asked is: will my personal injury case go to court? There is no way for us to look into the future and tell you with certainty whether or not your case is going to wind up in trial. However, we can tell you that statistically, 85% of the personal injury claims that we work in our office will settle before we have to file a lawsuit.

However, just because we file a lawsuit, doesn't mean that there is no chance for settlement. Of the cases where we initiate litigation, over half of those will settle before we actually go to trial.

It is very important to remember that every case is different.

Why choose Blaszkow Legal?

Attorney Joseph Blaszkow got his start as an lawyer in Washington DC. After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center, one of the most prestigious law schools in the country, he practiced for many years in downtown DC with a large law firm that focused on personal injury work. After he went out on his own, Mr. Blaszkow had an office on Massachusetts Avenue NW, then moved his office on H Street, to help people throughout the District of Columbia.

As a Member of the Bar in Washington DC, as well as the Bars in Maryland and Virginia, he is able to fight for clients all over the DMV! As the office expanded and we moved to bigger and bigger offices, we never lost our DC mentality, in that we wanted to fight for everyone, everywhere.

Our office now is home to multiple attorneys and multiple staff members, so that we can serve clients inside the Capital Beltway as well as outside. With virtual communication software, and e-signature capabilities, we can help people even if they can't make it into our office!

Call an experienced Washington DC personal injury lawyer today!

If you have been injured as the results of the negligence of someone else, or some company, then you should not try to deal with their insurance companies on an uneven basis. The at-fault person has already spoken to their insurance company, and has already consulted a team of Defense lawyers. Make no mistake, that the insurance companies are not on your side! Their job is not to pay planes, but to attack them. Their job is to minimize your claim as much as possible, or to deny it outright.

Talk to a DC personal injury lawyer who is ready willing and able to fight these insurance companies every step of the way, and who is dedicated to maximizing your recovery.

Contact us today for a free consultation!

703-879-5910