Lancaster County, Virginia Personal Injury Lawyers

If you have been hurt through no fault of your own, you have the right to hold a negligent party accountable.  But what does that mean?  What is negligence? 

Negligence is, simply, when a person or company either 1) doesn’t do something it was supposed to do, or 2) does something it wasn’t supposed to do.  Once someone has been injured due to that negligence, the injured person has a personal injury claim. 

If you have a personal injury claim, then you need a personal injury lawyer!  That’s Blaszkow Legal.  Blaszkow Legal has opened up an office in Lancaster County, Va to serve the whole of the Northern Neck and fight for the rights of the injured.  We’ve been battling big corporations, big insurance companies, and negligent people for over 40 years.  If you have been hurt due to someone else’s negligence, then call today for a free consultation – 804-917-5799

What is a Personal Injury Claim?

A personal injury claim is a legal claim for the damages that you have sustained as a result of the other person’s negligence. There are many different kinds of personal injury claims, that we help people with not only in Lancaster County, but throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, and DC and Maryland as well! Some common examples of personal injury claims include:

• Car Accidents
• Slip & Falls (also called Trip and Falls)
• Wrongful Death claims
• Truck Accidents
• Pedestrian Accidents
• Boating Accidents
• Negligent Security
• Insurance Claims
• Medpay Claims
• And more

It is important to remember that in order to have a personal injury claim, a person has to have been injured, which means they have gone to (or require) medical attention. 

What is Contributory Negligence?

All personal injury claims not just in Lancaster County, VA, but throughout Virginia are governed by very unique legal concept Known as contributory negligence. If you haven’t heard of this before, it is an incredibly arcane legal principal, but one that causes most personal injury claims to fail!  It is sometimes referred to as the 1% rule. 

The rule of contributory negligence for Virginia personal injury claims means that a person who has contributed to the injury, cannot recover.  In most jurisdictions, Courts apportion negligence, but not Virginia.  If you are responsible, say, for a car accident, even just a little, the insurance companies can defeat your claim entirely!

This rule governs all person injury claims, so it is extremely important that you never speak to an insurance company until you have spoken to a lawyer. You see, insurance companies work for their stockholders. There business model is to pay you as little money as possible. If they can pay you nothing at all, they are very happy with this outcome. An insurance companies representatives, called claims adjusters, are very happy to talk to you as much as you want, because they know that the more that you talk, the more likely you are to tell them something that they can use to deny your claim!

How do Personal Injury Claims Work in Virginia? 

The claims process generally works the same, no matter where you are in the Commonwealth, from Northern Neck to Fredericksburg and beyond. There are, however, a lot of moving parts, that can make the entire process seem overwhelming and frustrating. This is not entirely an accident – in many ways, the insurance companies trying to frustrate you. They want you to want it over with, so you’ll take a smaller amount of money, and go away.

The claims process consists of several steps

Property damage – inspection, evaluation, repair, and or replacement of your vehicle, in a car accident case.  In a premises case, this generally means a site/scene inspection
Medical treatment –  after you have gone to a hospital, you need to get into a doctor who can oversee your treatment, and prescribe next steps. This could be physical therapy, this could be more imaging, neurology evaluations, and more. Everything depends on you, and the symptoms that you are experiencing. 
Demand/settlement evaluation – once your medical treatment is completed, a comprehensive package of all of your damages, including your medical records and bills, is analyzed and sent to the insurance company for review. Insurance companies use extremely advanced computer software, nowadays forms of AI, to review documents.
Negotiations – after the insurance company’s review is complete, they make an offer to settle your case, but it is often quite low. Offer then begets revised demand, until a settlement is reached – or next steps have to be taken
Litigation – it is sometimes necessary to file a lawsuit, because an insurance company denies liability, or because an insurance company does not want to pay our client the fair value of their case

The outline above is the standard case process once you have obtained a lawyer who knows what they’re doing. Unfortunately, the insurance companies will use every trick in the book to convince you that you should not hire an attorney, and just settle a case.

What tricks do the insurance companies use?

Insurance companies in personal injuries cases will try every trick they can, to make you to go away.  This doesn’t mean just denying your claim.  Of course, they do that, but often times their tricks are more subtle, but all designed with the same goal in mind: to minimize your payout.  Here are some the common tricks insurance companies will use:

Offering you an early settlement! This is as old as the insurance industry itself. Insurance companies will open your claim, and offer you a small amount of money, which may even seem big to you. Often times, it’s not. Insurance companies want you to settle early, so that you end your claim. Once you have accepted their money, and signed on the proverbial dotted line, the case is over.
They will undervalue your case! Insurance companies have no obligation to tell you what your claim is worth, or whether you are making a mistake. Indeed, it is in their interest to offer you as little money as possible. If they can make you go away for $10,000, even when they know your cases worth $50,000, they will. Only an attorney will tell you what the realistic possibilities of your case are.
They will lull you into a false sense of security! How? The insurance companies have adjusters who are well-trained to sound friendly, empathetic, and even helpful, when dealing with unrepresented parties. They will make you believe that they are there to help you, and will only do what is best for you. However, they can and will use everything that you say against you. Insurance adjusters get their bonuses by settling cases under the reserve amounts that are set on each case.

How can you avoid all of these tricks and tactics? The easiest way to protect yourself is not to deal with them at all. Call an experienced car accident lawyer right away, who can take your case, evaluate it, and deal with the insurance companies for you.

Proving liability in Lancaster County, Virginia Personal Injury Cases

In any Personal injury claim, the claimant and their attorneys have the burden to prove liability. This means that the other person was at fault, and you were not. Every claim needs proof. Proof means evidence. The more evidence we have, the easier it is to overwhelm the insurance companies.

In dealing with insurance claims, time is always a factor! Evidence that is not preserved, is often lost. Far too many personal injury attorneys do not take a case seriously until an insurance company has denied liability, and they realize they have to file a lawsuit. We don’t do that! We use the Blaszkow Legal Method, instead.  The Blaszkow Legal Method Means that we are investigating cases as soon as they come into the office, as soon as possible, and close in time to the incident itself. This means that we have a better chance of success at finding evidence, and using it against the negligence parties.

Our investigation includes:

1. Evaluating a scene, in person, as well as remotely. We are looking for every piece of evidence that we can find
2. Locating and preserving camera footage. In today’s world, camera footage remains some of the best evidence that we have in almost every case. However, camera footage doesn’t last forever! Surveillance cameras, for example, work on a loop. Some systems are on a 30-day  loop, while others can be much shorter, sometimes as little as 7 days. If we don’t get the footage in time, it is overwritten and lost forever.
3. Talking to witnesses directly. Witnesses are also incredible determining factors improving liability. But people’s memories fade over time. So it’s important that we can speak to them soon, and go over the incident while it is fresh in their mind. Sometimes this even takes the form of a recorded interview, that can be produced later on.
4. Can sometimes be necessary, and is done by retained experts. This is expensive, and often only done in the most serious cases. But it sometimes can be absolutely necessary!

Call an Experienced Lancaster County, Va Personal Injury Lawyer Today!

If you have been hurt in any kind of personal injury incident, anywhere in the Northern Neck, you need to speak to a lawyer right away. The sooner the better, because everyone who isn’t you, has an interest in your case. Insurance companies want to make your case go away, companies want you to disappear, and hospitals and medical providers just want to get paid. The only person who is looking out for your best interest, and making sure that you get the most money that you are entitled to, is your lawyer!

Blaszkow Legal Fighting for the rights of injured Virginians for over 40 years. We have a mast over 500 Google reviews at our various offices, and we are ready to fight for you, to make your case wherever it needs to be made. Call today for a free consultation, and Get Justice with Joe!

Lancaster County/Northern Neck Office

410 Youcomico Dr, Lancaster, VA 22503

804-917-5977

CEO Joseph Blaszkow is a Georgetown Law graduate, and has been fighting against insurance companies his whole career.  His results speak for themselves, and his team has been trained up to his standard: to do what is best for the client!