Personal Injury

Accident Attorneys Representing Victims in Cleveland and Throughout Ohio

When you are injured due to another person’s negligence or carelessness, you have rights to assert. Negligence can come in many forms, including serious car crashes, truck accidents, medical malpractice, and nursing home abuse or neglect. After you begin receiving medical care for your injuries, you will likely have questions about whether you are entitled to compensation and how to go about asserting your legal rights. The Cleveland personal injury lawyers at Rubin Guttman & Associates have provided aggressive and sophisticated legal counsel to victims throughout Ohio since 1977. Our team can guide you through the entire process while ensuring that you understand your options. Although no amount of money will truly wipe away the trauma of losing a loved one due to wrongful death or coping with injuries caused by the accident or incident in which you or a loved one were hurt, monetary damages can help you cope with the financial burdens caused by the wrongdoer’s negligence and move forward with your life.

Establishing Liability in a Personal Injury Claim

Regardless of whether you were struck by a careless driver, misdiagnosed or harmed by a negligent doctor or health care provider, or even bitten by someone else’s dog, the first steps to recovering compensation from someone who caused you harm are to investigate what happened, interview witnesses, protect evidence from destruction and begin to note how your life has changed, as you cope with your losses and injuries. The personal injury attorneys at our Cleveland firm are ready to help you with each step of this process.

As the plaintiff, you will have the burden of establishing that the defendant (the party responsible) owed you a duty of care, did not meet that standard and that, as result, you were harmed. The duty of care is broadly defined as that level of care and skill that a reasonably prudent person or medical provider would exercise in a similar situation. For example, in a car accident case, the standard of care takes into consideration road and weather conditions as well as any applicable traffic laws. In a medical malpractice action, by contrast, the standard of care is based upon the generally accepted practices, protocols and procedures that other physicians in the same specialty as the defendant would consider appropriate for a similar patient.

Once you have established that the defendant breached the standard of care, you must next establish that this breach was the direct cause or proximate of your injuries. In other words, it is not enough to prove that the defendant acted carelessly. The law requires that a plaintiff and their Cleveland personal injury attorney show that the injuries would not have occurred but for the defendant’s failure to meet the standard of care. If the defendant in a car accident case is able to show that your negligence contributed to your accident and injuries, your compensation may be reduced according to Ohio’s comparative negligence law.

There are many categories of compensation that a successful personal injury plaintiff may recover, including reimbursement for past and future medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, any scarring or disfigurement, and reduced quality of life. Our firm utilizes respected medical, economic and vocational experts to can help prove the effects of an accident on your health, activities of daily living and your ability to work.

As you continue your treatment and our personal injury lawyers and professional build your case, we will begin negotiating with the wrongdoer and their insurance company. Our next step is to file a personal injury lawsuit against them to make them pay for what they have done to you.

Meet with a Compassionate Personal Injury Lawyer in Cleveland or Where You Live

While you are recovering from an accident and coping with the disruption that it caused in your life, it can be daunting to think about bringing a legal claim and ensure that you are protecting your rights. At Rubin Guttman & Associates, we can take that stress out of the process for you. We take pride in providing personalized and responsive legal counsel to Ohio residents and represent people in cities such as Beachwood, Berea, Bedford, Parma, Lakewood, Euclid, Cleveland Heights, Strongsville, Akron, Columbus, Chardon, Toledo, Youngstown, Ravenna, Lorain, and Mentor. To schedule a free consultation with a personal injury or wrongful death lawyer, call us now at (216) 696-4006 or contact us online.