North Corktown, MI Personal Injury Lawyers

If you want to file a civil suit, finding a lawyer in your area is essential. Fortunately, North Corktown is home to reputable law firms. This Detroit neighborhood can trace its roots all the way back to the 1830s, making it the oldest neighborhood in the city. Today, it’s a vibrant mix of urban and suburban living spaces. It offers residents plenty of dining options, a short commute to the University of Detroit Mercy Corktown Campus and access to public green spaces.

When is it necessary to seek a personal injury lawyer in North Corktown, MI? If you’ve sustained an injury through a third party’s negligence, you may be due compensation through the legal system.

Reasons To Seek a Personal Injury Lawyer

If you sustain an injury, the responsible party may have insurance to cover your medical treatment and other costs. However, it’s in insurers’ best interest to pay as little as possible. As a result, they may offer less than you deserve or deny the claim.

The negligent third party may not have insurance at all. In this scenario, you must seek compensation directly from the entity.

In either case, a personal injury lawyer can effectively argue your case, ensuring you have a fighting chance. The defendant will likely have a lawyer as well, so you’ll need legal representation for a fair shot.

An attorney can also tell you whether it’s worth bringing a court case. It’s possible for judges to dismiss cases or to lose a suit due to weak evidence. Lawyers are familiar with past rulings and can save you the hassle (and cost) of filing a lawsuit doomed to fail.

If it’s worth moving forward with the case, the law firm will handle the details:

• Determining and documenting applicable evidence
• Filling out paperwork
• Tracking deadlines

Your attorney should also keep regular contact to communicate progress and discuss your options. Trusting these complicated matters to a team of professionals provides peace of mind, allowing you to focus on recovery.

Chances are, you won’t have to go to court. Research shows 95% of personal injury cases settle out of court. This process takes some time as each party tries to argue for an amount that benefits their client. You may end up “haggling” for months before you settle.

Your attorney’s skill plays a significant role in this process. Experienced lawyers know if an offer is fair based on past rulings, the severity of the third party’s negligence and the seriousness of your injuries. The quality and quantity of evidence can also be a powerful negotiation tool.

Cases a Personal Injury Lawyer Can Handle

To claim monetary compensation for an injury, you must prove that the liable third party had a duty of care toward you. For example, retail businesses have a duty to provide customers with a safe area to shop. However, proving a legal duty of care can be more difficult than you think.

In addition to establishing a duty of care, you must also prove the following:

• The liable party breached its duty of care.
• You sustained injuries.
• The breach of care directly caused your injuries.

The position of the defendant and the circumstances surrounding your injury impact how challenging it is to prove these points.

Laws also vary by the type of case. For instance, Michigan is a no-fault auto insurance state. When two people get in a vehicle collision, their respective insurers must cover their medical and repair costs, regardless of who caused the accident. Previously, this barred individuals from civil action against the other driver. However, a 2019 amendment now allows lawsuits in cases of extreme injury, such as permanent disfigurement.

What are the most common personal injury-related cases? The following scenarios have precedence for civil action.

Vehicle-Related Accidents

In 2022, Wayne County recorded 11,248 car accidents that resulted in injury. While most instances didn’t lead to a lawsuit, this statistic illustrates how common car accident injuries are.

Additionally, technology has complicated cases. Beyond the typical collisions, drivers have to worry about the following:

• Accidents involving self-driving cars
• Getting hit by an on-the-clock rideshare driver
• Colliding with individuals on electric scooters

You may even have a case if you were on a public bus involved in an accident. Other vehicle types can also result in liability cases:

• Boats
• Snowmobiles
• Electric bicycles

What if a car struck you as you crossed the street? You can seek compensation as a pedestrian.

Drivers have a duty of care toward others on the roadway. Failure to adhere to traffic laws can support your negligence claim, but other situations may not be so cut and dry. For instance, poorly designed intersections and foliage overgrowth can create dangerous conditions, increasing the chance of collisions. In these instances, the negligent party may not be the other driver but the entity responsible for these conditions — typically municipalities.

In Michigan, towns and cities have protection against liability claims. To bring a suit against a municipality, your injuries must be severe, and evidence of negligence must be strong. Due to the difficulty of arguing these cases, having an experienced attorney is imperative.

Premises Liability

Property owners have a responsibility to maintain a safe environment for visitors. The legal system recognizes several forms of negligence in this regard:

• Failure to maintain buildings, amusement park rides and outdoor areas
• Not training pets or not keeping them away from guests, resulting in a bite
• Allowing ice, snow, water or other slippery elements to accrue, causing falls

A common defense is that the property owner didn’t know about the dangerous conditions or couldn’t reasonably fix them. For instance, if it snowed after a customer entered a store, and the customer slipped and fell upon exiting the store, the property owner couldn’t have identified and corrected the issue in such a short space of time.

Defendants can also argue that the hazards were “open and obvious.” For example, suppose you fall into an open ditch despite several warning signs. In that case, the defendant can argue that it performed its duty by putting up the warnings; therefore, your injuries are your own fault.

Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice is one of the most complex types of personal injury liability, as the legal system recognizes that doctors can accidentally harm patients even when striving to deliver top-quality care. Missed symptoms or extremely rare conditions can delay treatment, resulting in harm that is no one’s fault.

To draw the line between misfortunate and negligence, the law recognizes that the medical field has strict standards of care. These standards ensure every patient receives the appropriate tests and treatment, regardless of their demographics or circumstances. If you can prove that your physician deviated from these standards of care, resulting in injury, you can claim compensation.

One of the most devastating forms of medical malpractice is a birth injury. These occur during delivery and affect the infant. Since signs of birth injuries don’t appear right away, parents may not immediately know that something is wrong. The gap between the inflection of the injury and the appearance of symptoms may also make it more difficult to prove medical malpractice as the cause.

Attorneys Can Fight for Compensation

Mike Morse Law Firm can fight for the compensation you deserve. We take on a variety of personal injury cases, resulting in over $1.5 billion in remuneration. Contact us today to schedule a consultation.