It feels like accidents only happen to other people – until they happen to you. We know that anyone can become the victim of someone else’s negligence. That’s why our personal injury lawyers give you the means to fight for the post-accident financial support you need to recover.
Zanes Law’s personal injury lawyers in Phoenix have represented victims in thousands of cases. When you schedule a consultation with us, you benefit from years of practical experience and a team that cares about your well-being.
Our Team Does Not Add to Your Financial Burdens
Many victims who are injured think that hiring the Phoenix, AZ, personal injury lawyers at Zanes Law is too expensive. However, each injury accident attorney in our firm takes cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that we are only paid a fee if we win your case. If we do not get you compensated for your injuries, you will not owe us a fee.
For a free legal consultation with a personal injury lawyer serving Phoenix, call 866-499-8989
We Tackle All Kinds of Personal Injury Claims
What qualifies as a personal injury accident? Any incident that sees you suffer a loss due to someone else’s negligence. Our law firm helps you address cases involving:
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Premises liability
- Slip and fall accidents
- Workers’ compensation
- Burn injuries
- Swimming pool accidents
- Dog bites
- Pedestrian accidents
- Wrongful death
Defining negligence in any of these cases can be tricky. That’s why you don’t have to do it alone. Bring your losses to one of our attorneys. During an initial case consultation, we can discuss the circumstances that led to your injury. By assessing video footage and eye witness reports, we can determine if you have a personal injury case on your hands.
Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyer Near Me 866-499-8989
Our Team Makes the Legal Process More Accessible
The legalities of a personal injury accident can seem complicated at first. They become more understandable when you have a Phoenix, AZ, personal injury attorney on hand. When you work with our team, you can count on us to:
- Investigate evidence related to your accident
- Represent your best interests in negotiations and trial proceedings
- Stay on top of updates relating to case-relevant laws
- Protect you from intimidation attempts
- Deal with insurance adjusters
It’s our goal to give you the space you need to recover from your injury while also advocating for your right to compensation. You can count on our team to manage awkward communications with the defense while holding firm on the compensation we calculated in your case consultation.
Click to contact our Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyers today
The Ins and Outs of Drafting a Personal Injury Claim
We guide you through the process of both categorizing your accident and filing a related claim. This process begins with us identifying a liable party. These parties can include:
- Other drivers
- Small businesses
- Corporations and manufacturers
- Delivery companies
- Landlords
- Pet owners
When considering who to hold liable for your personal injury, consider who bore you a duty of care at the scene of your accident. All the aforementioned parties – and more – must behave reasonably when out and about. This means that both deliberate recklessness and accidental slips of attention can lead to a civil court case.
To prove liability, both you and an attorney must establish a duty of care between yourself and the allegedly-liable party. From there, you must use evidence to indicate that the breach of that duty of care contributed to your injuries. You may only request compensation for your losses if you can tie them back to that original duty.
Complete a Free Case Evaluation form now
Filing Your Phoenix Personal Injury Claim
You are free to file a personal injury case if you believe someone else’s negligence contributed to your injuries. There are certain circumstances under which your right to file may be different, though. For example, the death of a loved one can see you want to file a civil claim against the person you believe to be at fault.
However, only certain relatives can file a personal injury claim on behalf of a deceased individual. In these cases, you must be either the parent, spouse, or child of the deceased individuals to pursue legal action on their behalf. You can discuss your right to file with Phoenix, AZ, personal injury lawyers.
You are also working against a time limit when filing your personal injury claim. According to A.R.S. §12-542, Arizona allows its residents to take up to two years to file their personal injury complaints. Any attempt to file a complaint outside of this deadline may be rejected. That said, you can work with an attorney to discuss alternative statutes that may apply to your case.
Let’s Predict Your Personal Injury Case’s Worth
There’s no way to predict exactly how much financial support you could walk away from a case with. That said, our team has served the Phoenix area since 2003. We can look at precedent as well as your specific losses and develop an estimate related to your case.
Compensation estimates serve two purposes in personal injury cases. When you have an estimate to refer back to, you can enter negotiations with a firmer idea of what financial support you deserve. Compensation estimates also require you to assess each of your losses, thereby giving you more avenues through which to prove liability in court.
When requesting compensation for a personal injury case, you can include all of the following losses in your initial complaint:
- Medical bills related to your losses
- Upcoming medical treatments related to essential care
- Property damage and replacements
- Lost wages or opportunities for work
- Long-term or short-term disability
- Emotional distress, including PTSD
- Pain and suffering
- Wrongful death and funeral expenses
For more information about the losses that may apply to your case, you can schedule a case consultation with the personal injury lawyers in Phoenix, AZ.
We’re With You for the Long Haul
It’s difficult to predict how long a personal injury case may last. If you choose to negotiate with a liable party for compensation, you may receive compensation within weeks of your injury. Alternatively, cases that go to trial tend to take longer.
That said, you shouldn’t choose a path to compensation based on the amount of time it takes for you to receive financial support. Instead, talk to our attorneys about your immediate needs. Because we operate on contingency, you won’t have to worry about legal bills stacking up over time.
Instead, we’ll lay out a rough schedule depicting what you should expect from negotiations, a trial, or some combination thereof. While the schedule may not be exact, we’ll update you as to when circumstances change.
Doug Zanes: Phoenix’s Auto Accident Lawyer
Doug Zanes has served Phoenix, AZ, as a personal injury and accident attorney since 1997. He operates the Phoenix office on N 42nd Street and E Thomas Road, which is centrally located in the Phoenix/Scottsdale/Tempe area, ensuring that locals can access expert personal injury services at the drop of a hat.
Zanes is joined by a team of personal injury lawyers with over 80 years of combined experience. Each accident attorney strives to help clients achieve full compensation for their pain, suffering, and related losses.
Are you ready to bring a personal injury case to court? Contact us to learn more about the services that our personal injury attorneys in Phoenix, AZ, at Zanes Law Injury Lawyers provide.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I Recover Compensation if I Was Partially to Blame for My Injuries?
- Should I Accept an Insurance Company’s Settlement Offer?
- Can I Sue My Employer in a Personal Injury Case?
- Are There Caps on the Compensation I Can Get From a Personal Injury Case?
- How Do Courts Establish Liability?
- What Are Examples of Negligence in Phoenix Personal Injury Cases?
- Will My Case Automatically Go to Trial?
- Can I Receive Punitive Damages for My Losses?
- What Happens After I Receive a Settlement?
- Is My Personal Injury Settlement Taxable?
Can I Recover Compensation if I Was Partially to Blame for My Injuries?
Arizona addresses its civil cases through the lens of comparative negligence. This means that you retain the right to financial compensation after an accident regardless of whether or not you contributed to your own injuries.
That said, comparative negligence does impact how much compensation you can walk away from a case with. If you receive a settlement offer via a trial, that settlement will be reduced by the percentage which you contributed to your accident. For example, if you are ten percent responsible for a car accident, you’ll be denied ten percent of your total possible compensation.
That said, we can contest accusations of fault in your case. If the defense tries to argue that your contributions to an accident outweigh your losses, we’ll bring forward evidence and witnesses to help you get the financial support you need.
Should I Accept an Insurance Company’s Settlement Offer?
If you have insurance at the time of a personal injury accident, you need to file a claim with your provider. Depending on allegations of fault, you may then receive a settlement offer. While these offers aren’t always made in bad faith, they can represent a company’s desire to avoid time in court.
With that in mind, do not accept a settlement offer without consulting an attorney first. We can calculate the full worth of your accident and make sure that an insurance provider hasn’t shorted you.
Can I Sue My Employer in a Personal Injury Case?
If your employer pays for workers’ compensation insurance, that coverage protects them from any lawsuits that might cite negligence as the cause of your injuries. In turn, it’s difficult to bring a personal injury lawsuit against your employer.
Should you have concerns about your treatment in the workplace, you can file a complaint with Arizona’s workers’ compensation system. Alternatively, you can work with a personal injury lawyer to see whether a manufacturer, delivery team, or other third party may have contributed to your workplace losses.
While you can’t bring a personal injury suit against your employer, you can bring one against a subcontractor. With that in mind, don’t hesitate to sit down with our team. We can help you determine what your legal rights look like after a workplace accident.
Are There Caps on the Compensation I Can Get From a Personal Injury Case?
Arizona does not place damage caps on the compensation you can receive if you win your personal injury case. With that in mind, the Zanes Law team fights for the maximum possible compensation related to your injury.
How Do Courts Establish Liability?
To establish liability in a personal injury case, your personal injury attorney in Phoenix needs to elaborate on a concept known as “duty of care.” You must prove that an allegedly-liable party owed you a duty of care if you want to hold them accountable for your personal injury.
What does this process look like, though? In most cases, you can use a complaint to elaborate on the:
- Relationship you had with the allegedly-liable party
- Responsibility that liable party owed you
- Way in which that party breached their duty via unreasonable behavior or neglect
- Nature of the injury you suffered
- Direct evidence of a correlation between the aforementioned negligence and your losses
What Are Examples of Negligence in Phoenix Personal Injury Cases?
Negligence can be deliberate or accidental. Either way, unchecked negligence that results in your personal injury can land a manufacturer, company, or similar institution in court. You’ll need to bring forward evidence of negligence in your complaint, negotiations, and trial if you want to fight for financial support.
Evidence of negligence can include:
- A defective product
- Video footage of the accident
- Bystander reports regarding your losses
- Medical bill related to your post-accident care
- Professional witness statements from parties who cared for you after an accident
Precedent can also help you establish your case. If the party you want to hold liable for your losses has been brought to court before, we can explore their history. We can then reference cases similar to yours when both elaborating on their negligence and establishing your possible compensation.
Will My Case Automatically Go to Trial?
A personal injury case does not automatically go to trial. Instead, you need to submit your complaint and wait for a county clerk to move it forward. If a judge determines that you have the grounds for a case, you can then move either to negotiations or a trial.
In either case, you’ll receive the right to summon a liable party with legal backing. If you opt to participate in negotiations, our attorneys can arrange meetings with the liable party out of court. We can then discuss your optimal compensation based on our established estimates.
We can move personal injury negotiations to trial if it appears that the liable party is uncooperative. Alternatively, you can take your case straight to trial. Either way, the decision of whether or not to go before a judge is up to you.
Can I Receive Punitive Damages for My Losses?
You can receive punitive damages for personal injury losses. Judges tend to assign punitive damages to cases involving gross negligence or excessive recklessness. In turn, these damages are designed to prevent both the defendant and other parties from engaging in similar behavior in the future.
That said, you may not request punitive damages in your initial complaint. These damages are only awarded at a judge’s discretion. With that in mind, do not include them in your estimate or request them in court.
What Happens After I Receive a Settlement?
After receiving a settlement from the defendant, you must sign a release agreement. This agreement states that your damages have been paid. In turn, the defendant and their insurance company will no longer owe you for your losses.
From there, you can look to your contingency fee agreement. Our office will take an agreed-upon percentage of your settlement. That said, you do not need to write our Phoenix, AZ, personal injury attorneys a check. Instead, you are free to use the funds you won as you wish!
Is My Personal Injury Settlement Taxable?
A significant percentage of your Arizona personal injury settlement, including lost wages, is not taxable. Punitive damages are taxable, but it’s rare for you to receive them. With that in mind, you can enjoy your settlement without having to worry about what next tax season looks like.
That said, there are some exceptions that may modify your settlement come the next fiscal year. If you’re not sure if your settlement falls under these exceptions, you can meet with a tax attorney and discuss what percentage of your support you may want to put aside.
Call or text 866-499-8989 or complete a
Free Case Evaluation form
Phoenix Personal Injury Blog Posts:
Need Personal Injury Legal Advice? Listen to Our NEW Podcast by Doug Zanes! We are excited to announce that we have officially launched the Zanes Law Personal Injury Legal Tips podcast, featuring advice from Zanes Law owner and responsible attorney Doug Zanes. When
Infographic: Bitten by a Dog in Arizona? What You Need to Know It’s hard to think that a cute and cuddly dog could cause harm to anyone—but it happens. So, what is the best way to handle a dog bite incident? Be sure to find an attorney who is licensed
Gorgeous Weather Calls for Some Hiking! Top Hiking Trails In Phoenix It’s that time of the year again where the weather is absolutely perfect! The sky is blue without a cloud in the sky, the breeze is just right with the warming sun and
‘Mickey’ the Pitbull Released From Penitentiary If you didn’t know, Zanes law handles many dog bite claims in Arizona every year… And the incidents only seem to be increasing. Recently in Phoenix, a pitbull by the name of Mickey has