Surprise Personal Injury Attorneys

After an injury, you face uncertainty. You may worry about your long-term well-being. Your injuries might require medical attention that you cannot afford. If your injuries prevent you from working, you will also have financial concerns.

You have rights when your injury resulted from someone else’s negligent or wrongful actions. A personal injury claim can provide a path to compensation for the losses resulting from your injuries. But to succeed with your claim, you will need to stand up to powerful insurance companies and their lawyers.

A Surprise personal injury lawyer from Gerber Injury Law fights for you whether you were injured in a car accident or a work accident. Our firm is committed to providing the highest level of client service.

Why Choose Gerber Injury Law for Your Injury Claim?

The injury lawyer you choose for your claim could affect your outcome. You need someone with knowledge and experience to represent you as your personal injury lawyer. Surprise Superior Court rules can be complex, and fighting insurance companies requires experience.

Ken Gerber, the Founder of Gerber Injury Law, has over 25 years of legal experience. Most of his career has been spent in the courtroom. For over 19 years, he has handled all types of personal injury claims for clients like you. Using these experiences, Gerber Injury Law can provide knowledgeable representation and develop a customized legal strategy for the facts of your case.

Gerber Injury Law is a family-run law firm that treats you like family. We understand what you face and want to help. We have recovered over $100 million in injury compensation to help our clients rebuild their lives.

How Will an Attorney Help With a Surprise Personal Injury Claim?

When you hire a Surprise personal injury attorney for your injury claim, you have someone in your corner fighting for you. A lawyer does more than stand up in court to advocate for your position. Your attorney will provide many legal services tailored to pursue a fair outcome for your claim, including:

• Analyzing your situation
• Advising you about your legal rights and options
• Counseling you as you decide how to handle your claim

The lawyer will shoulder the burdens of your claim by dealing with the at-fault parties, insurance companies, and defense lawyers. In doing so, your attorney will free you up to focus on your health.

At the same time, you will remain in charge of your case. You will make all of the decisions, including whether to accept a settlement and when to file a lawsuit.

Assessing Your Claim

Your lawyer’s job starts before filing any paperwork. During your initial consultation, your attorney will listen to your story to learn how you were injured and what you want to accomplish. Based on that discussion, we can assess the strength and value of your claims.

To win an injury case, we must prove liability. Injury claims fall into three broad categories based on the elements that we need to prove to establish liability.

Claims for intentional harm happen when the other party intends to make harmful contact with you. In nursing home abuse cases, for example, the abuser often acts intentionally when harming residents.

Negligence forms the basis of most injury claims. In a negligence claim, we do not need to prove the other party’s intent. Instead, we only need to prove that they knew or should have known that their actions exposed you to an unreasonable risk of injury or death.

To prove negligence, we must show four elements:

• Duty of care
• Breach of duty
• Damages
• Causation

The third theory of liability is called strict liability. This theory applies to inherently dangerous activities. The two most common claims that use strict liability in Arizona are product liability and dog bites. Under strict liability, the other party is liable for all injuries regardless of whether they knew of the dangerous condition.

After determining liability, we must assess the value of your claim. This assessment will help you understand when you have received a fair settlement offer from the other side.

You can pursue compensation for economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses encompass your financial costs, such as medical bills, lost income, diminished earning capacity, and out-of-pocket expenses. Non-economic losses cover the diminishment in your quality of life. Pain, suffering, disability, dismemberment, and disfigurement all qualify as non-economic losses.

Common Personal Injury Claims We Handle

Gerber Injury Law has extensive experience handling all types of personal injury claims. When you face any of these situations, you could benefit from a personal injury lawyer in Surprise. Some injury claims we handle include the following:

Car Accidents

Motor vehicle collisions are the second-leading cause of trauma injuries in Arizona. Most of these injuries are preventable. Although road and weather conditions play a role in a small percentage of crashes, most collisions result from dangerous driving behaviors such as:

• Speeding
• Distracted driving
• Following too closely
• Failing to yield to a driver with the right of way
• Changing lanes unsafely

When a driver violates traffic laws or does something legal but unreasonably dangerous, they will usually bear the liability for any resulting crashes.

Car accidents can cause serious injuries such as broken bones, concussions, and whiplash. These injuries might require medical care and prevent you from working while you recover. We can seek compensation for these losses by proving the other driver’s negligent actions caused the crash.

Commercial Truck Accidents

Heavy trucks can cause injuries, property damage, and environmental damage during a crash. The trucking company that operates the vehicle bears the vicarious liability for crashes when an employed driver acts negligently. Thus, the company bears the liability when its employee falls asleep at the wheel while driving its truck.

In addition to vicarious liability for its employee’s actions, a trucking company also bears liability for its own actions, such as negligence in:

• Screening and hiring drivers
• Administering drug and alcohol tests
• Retaining drivers with poor safety records
• Maintaining and repairing equipment
• Loading and securing cargo

Truck accidents can cause serious or even catastrophic injuries due to the massive crash energies involved. Fortunately, federal laws require trucking companies to carry at least $750,000 in insurance and surety bonds.

Pedestrian and Bicycle Accidents

Vulnerable road users like pedestrians and cyclists have nothing to protect them in a collision. As a result, they can suffer serious injuries such as broken bones, brain injuries, and spinal cord injuries when they get hit by cars.

Drivers who cause pedestrian and bicycle accidents may be liable for the resulting injuries. A common cause of pedestrian accidents includes failing to yield to people in crosswalks when making right turns. Bicycle accidents often happen when drivers crowd them while passing.

Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcycle operators and passengers are exposed to serious injuries even when they wear helmets. Motorcyclists are 24 times more likely to die and four times more likely to suffer an injury in a crash than vehicle passengers.

These crashes often result from inattentional blindness. This happens when drivers fail to spot motorcycles in plain view simply because they do not look for them. The liability for crashes caused by inattention falls on the inattentive driver.

Dog Bites

The liability for unprovoked dog bites falls on the dog owner. Arizona applies strict liability to dog attacks. This means the owner bears the liability for your dog bite injuries even if the dog has no history of viciousness and the owner has taken reasonable steps to restrain it.

Construction and Other Workplace Accidents

Almost all workers in Arizona are covered by workers’ compensation. But in many cases, injured workers may also have third-party claims against parties other than their employers.

For example, a worker electrocuted on a construction site due to a utility company’s negligence in marking underground lines might have a claim against the electric company.

Premises Liability

Arizona property owners, managers, and tenants are responsible for the safety of guests on their premises. They must exercise reasonable care in keeping their premises reasonably free from hazardous conditions that might injure or kill visitors.

Medical Malpractice

Doctors, dentists, nurses, hospitals, and other healthcare providers must meet the professional standard of care when treating patients. This means you can expect the level of care that a reasonably prudent professional in the same situation would provide. When providers make unreasonable mistakes, you may have a claim for medical malpractice.

Malpractice insurers and healthcare providers often fight hard against malpractice claims because an admission of liability can ruin a provider’s reputation. We stand up to powerful insurers to fight for fair compensation.

Product Liability

Manufacturers are strictly liable for injuries caused by defective products. We can prove liability by showing the product had a defect in its design, manufacture, or instructions. Under strict liability principles, the manufacturer is liable regardless of the care it exercised to avoid defects.

Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

Nursing home abuse and neglect represent the ultimate betrayal of trust. When you move your loved one to a nursing home, you expect the staff to care for them, not abuse and neglect them.

The abused patient has many possible claims arising from abuse and neglect. They may have a claim for intentional harm against an abusive worker. They may also have a negligence claim against the facility for negligently hiring, supervising, and retaining a dangerous person on its staff.

Wrongful Death

Family members of victims of fatal incidents can pursue a wrongful death claim against those responsible for the death. This claim gives families a path for pursuing justice and financial compensation for the loss of their loved ones.

To win this claim, we must prove the other party caused the death through negligent or otherwise wrongful conduct.

For example, if your loved one died in a car crash, we must prove the other driver was at fault for the accident. You can also pursue wrongful death claims against businesses, such as the manufacturer of a dangerously defective product that killed your family member.

Call a Surprise Personal Injury Attorney Today

An injury can have a profound effect on your life. It may inflict temporary or permanent disabilities. It could erode your long-term health. You might even need to change your job or quit working altogether due to your injuries. As a result, your health difficulties might turn into financial problems.

Contact Gerber Injury Law for a free consultation to discuss your injuries and how we can help you fight for fair compensation under Arizona law.