Serious Injury Attorneys
There are a multitude of items that separate outstanding serious injury attorneys from the “run-of-the-mill” attorneys in handling serious injury cases:
- One: recognizing all of the serious injuries and ensuring they are documented.
- Two: demonstrating the lifelong effects of the serious injuries on the injured parties.
- Three: finding insurance coverage to cover the full measure of damages.
- And four: closing down all avenues of defense of the claim.
At Willis, Willis & Rizzi we have handled a wide variety of serious injury claims and specialize in covering all four items mentioned above to get the best outcome for our clients.
One – Recognizing the Serious Injury
Many serious injuries are obvious, but many injuries are not as obvious or cannot be seen. So sometimes we have to delve into the medical information to uncover and show all of the serious injuries. Sometimes one of the serious injuries is limitation in movement or in strength or stamina. Sometimes it is abnormal wear and tear on the body. Sometimes it is a brain injury or other organ injury.
Two – Demonstrating the Effect
What are the effects these injuries will have through the remainder of one’s life? You only get one chance to make your claim and get compensated, so you have to look into the crystal ball so to speak and imagine the future. Sometimes that is where the more serious damages are, what is coming down the road in terms of your health? At Willis, Willis & Rizzi we look for those damages and will work with your physicians to bring those damages to light, and to get treatment and medical opinions on what the future holds for you regarding your injuries.
Three – Finding Insurance Coverages for Serious Injuries
When dealing with a serious injury case the personal injury attorney has to be very creative in finding insurance coverage. Serious injuries can leave people with permanent injuries, huge medical bills, loss of work and income, and being unable to return to their occupation. The question becomes, where are you going to find enough insurance coverage to cover all these damages?
Consider that in the State of Ohio the minimum auto insurance coverage is $25,000 and furthermore 20% of Ohio drivers have no insurance at all! Beyond that, many people have $50,000 or $100,000 of auto insurance coverage and feel that is enough. When your medical bills are hundreds of thousands of dollars, and if you are permanently disabled from the serious injury and are unable to work in the future, that coverage will be exhausted very quickly. (Be sure to read are article “Insuring yourself for what you are worth”).
So, your serious injury attorney will need to be creative in finding additional insurance coverages to help you.
At Willis, Willis & Rizzi getting creative in finding additional insurance coverages to help our clients is something for which we have really excelled. We have generated insurance coverages in many cases where the insurance company has said there is no coverage available. But we have been able to show based upon wording in the insurance contract or policy or in the facts of a case we have been able to convince the courts that coverage should apply in that case. We have won these cases at trial courts, at the court of appeals, and even at the Ohio Supreme Court!
Four – Closing down defenses.
Often in serious injury claims the defense is also being creative and looking for ways to shift the blame for the injury onto someone else, which is often the injury victim. Many insurers have a rapid response team that will descend upon an incident within hours of an event. We see this often in truck accidents. Sometimes the truck and trailer are gone – even out of the country before the injured victim is out of surgery. There can be a race to collect evidence and the other team is on the field and the injured victim hasn’t even put together a team. So, what evidence gets “lost” or “changed” is unknown.
Serious Injuries Require an Attorney
If you have a serious injury it is critical to get an attorney involved who has the background and experience to approach your case to cover the four items mentioned at the beginning of this article: Recognizing all of the injuries; Recognizing the life-long effects of the serious injuries; Finding that additional insurance coverage, to even know where to look for that coverage and have the willingness to commit their resources and the fortitude to go fight for that coverage; Closing down all avenues of the defense of the claim. You need to hire an attorney early on in the injury case. You can’t wait because sometimes your case will hinge on a piece of evidence, and while you are recuperating evidence such as video footage can disappear.
Additionally, at Willis, Willis & Rizzi we have a team of experts across many fields to do crash or incident analysis and investigation that we can bring in to support your case. We have utilized these experts many times and these people can be invaluable to show what went wrong that resulted in your injury.
When you are in a serious injury situation it is important to understand that you need a law firm that is willing to commit their resources on your behalf, to find those additional insurance coverages, to have the connections with forensic experts to bring in to support your case. It’s important to understand that not all law firms will do this. Some law firms’ business model is one of mass market, assembly line cases. They bring in hundreds or thousands of cases and there is tremendous urgency on their part to resolve each case to keep the assembly line moving. These firms, in their urgency to settle cases, may not always have your best interests in mind.
At Willis, Willis & Rizzi, we take a different approach. If we take on your case, we will commit our resources to not only finding the insurance coverages you will need and bringing in experts to help support your case, but also to helping our clients make as full a recovery as possible.
Contact us today at 330-535-2000 or fill in the request form on this page to speak to a serious injury attorney today.
