Kingwood Personal Injury Lawyer

When your quiet wooded community is part of a busy metropolitan area, you risk accidental injuries every time you leave home. You encounter fast-moving truckers and distracted commuters on IH-69.

Perhaps you share a job site with negligent dump truck drivers and careless heavy equipment operators. Maybe you work all day in an unsafe industrial environment with electrical and mechanical hazards. When most of these situations occur, you avoid serious injuries, but what happens when you don’t?

You need a knowledgeable Kingwood personal injury lawyer working on your behalf.

We are a national law firm based in Texas with multiple offices around the country. We also work with affiliate law firms in most states that share our focus and dedication to excellence. No matter where you are located, we may be able to help you, so call or contact us now. We are open, for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 800-898-4877, or you may contact us now by clicking here to submit your case for review.

Personal Injury Guide

Negligent People Must Pay

Whether someone crashes into your car or leaves a dangerous spot for you to slip and fall on, they usually leave you to handle the consequences. Sometimes that means a long day in an emergency room and a one-time bill. When you sustain serious or catastrophic injuries, you often endure continuous medical treatment, lost income, and disabilities that disrupt your life.

When you contact Stewart J. Guss, Injury Accident Lawyers, our legal professionals answer your questions and help you understand your legal rights.

Our personal injury Lawyers believe that negligent people must take responsibility for the injuries they cause. As they rarely step up and accept the consequences of their actions, we rely on our legal insight, dedication, and tenacity as we devise a strategy to make them pay.

Our legal team works most effectively when we establish a working relationship as soon as possible after an accident. We investigate accident circumstances before critical evidence goes missing. We identify responsible individuals, businesses, or organizations who share liability. When appropriate, we place them on notice of our intentions and take steps to enforce our client’s legal rights.

Our Law Firm’s Results

We demonstrate our commitment to accident victims by discussing client testimonials and law firm results. We share what our law firm has done for our injured clients instead of speculating about what we might do.

Our legal team has handled catastrophic injury cases for over 20 years. We have worked on behalf of numerous victims, recovering compensation for their injuries. Our lawyers have resolved claims for injured clients in Kingwood, throughout Texas, across the country, and worldwide.

We have always understood the importance of investigating cases as soon as possible after an accident. This step allowed us to evaluate the evidence and develop winning strategies for dealing with responsible parties, their insurers, or their legal representatives.

When adverse parties cooperated, we resolved our clients’ cases through aggressive negotiation. If negotiations stalled, we worked through mediation and other Alternative Dispute Resolution programs. If cooperation wavered, our trial lawyers presented our evidence in court, and we let a judge or jury decide.

We can’t guarantee a specific outcome for any case, but we invite you to learn more about our commitment to our injured clients. You’ll hear their stories on our testimonials page and learn more about their personal experiences with our law firm.

Personal Injury Cases in Kingwood, Texas

A personal injury occurs when someone physically harms another person, usually in a preventable accident. This happens every day in Kingwood and the Metro area. When someone causes an accident, you can’t always avoid injuries, no matter how careful you are.

You can’t stop a drunk driver from rear-ending your car on a busy street.

When you see a trucker lose control on the highway, you have few options for avoiding a serious crash. As a construction worker, you’re at the mercy of contractors who save costs by ignoring safety guidelines.

In most cases, state and federal agencies document these dangerous encounters and the injuries they cause:

• The most recent annual report from the Division of Workers’ Compensation documents 13,700 construction worker injuries and 127 fatalities.
• Harrison County’s most recent annual statistics show that 21 people died in motor vehicle accidents: 2,927 people sustained serious injuries, and 12,258 sustained minor injuries.
• The Texas Department of Transportation’s most recent Traffic Crash Facts reports the state’s annual casualty data.
• Every hour and 57 minutes, one person died in an accident.
• Head-on crashes caused 613 fatalities.
• Distracted driving was a factor in 433 fatal crashes.
• Vehicle crashes killed 824 pedestrians.
• Intoxication contributed to 1,077 motor vehicle fatalities.

Physical and Financial Trauma

When a negligent person seriously or catastrophically injures someone in an accident, treatment and recovery expenses often continue indefinitely. The financial impact begins when an injured person receives bills for emergency room treatment, doctors, and inpatient hospitalization. It continues when their injuries prevent gainful employment.

Long after the visible injuries heal, treatment often continues with rehabilitation expenses, physical therapy, and psychological management. Even when victims have healthcare insurance, copayments, deductibles, and other costs become a long-term financial burden.

Types of Personal Injury Cases We Handle

When you’re managing personal injuries, you need a compassionate, knowledgeable legal advocate working on your behalf. We have always dedicated our practice to meeting this challenge on our client’s behalf. Our lawyers have successfully resolved many types of personal injury claims.

We currently focus on these types of accidents.

• Car accidents
• Truck accidents
• 18-wheeler crashes
• Motorcycle accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Bus accidents
• Pedestrian injuries
• Slip and fall and other premises liability accidents
• Wrongful death

Types of Personal Injuries We Handle

Serious trauma often occurs due to someone’s negligent actions or omissions. The National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center documented vehicle accidents as a factor in 49 percent of the 34,130 spinal cord patients they track. Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems shows as the primary cause of 29 percent of the 18,557 TBI patients they follow.

At Stewart J Guss, Injury Accident Lawyers, our legal team has resolved all types of personal injury claims involving a broad spectrum of preventable injuries:

• Traumatic brain injury: Trauma-induced damage to the brain’s surface and interior tissue
• Anoxic brain damage: Brain trauma following oxygen deprivation
• Multiple fractures: Often occur with motorcyclists, pedestrians, and seriously injured vehicle occupants
• Spinal cord trauma: Causes varying degrees of paralysis
• Severe sprains and strains: Soft tissue injuries, often deceptively complex
• Traumatic amputations: Limb, hand, and digit loss most common in motorcyclists and pedestrians
• Dislocated and herniated discs: Traumatic damage to sections of the spine
• Severe Fire and chemical burns: Sometimes cause underlying tissue, muscles, and bone damage
• Electrocution injuries: Often related to construction or industrial accidents
• Organ damage: Trauma to eyes, internal organs, and reproductive systems
• Wrongful death: From catastrophic injuries or severe physical trauma

Some Injured People Never Recover

The same types of preventable accidents and injuries happen over and over, but the severity varies. Some injured victims sustain only minor personal injuries. Those with catastrophic injuries often endure endless pain and live with lifetime impairments.

No injury is minor when it affects the injured person’s family or forces them to change their daily life. Our attorneys understand this, so we listen to our clients when they talk about their accidents and injuries. We track their recoveries and learn how their injuries changed the way they live. We conduct research to learn current injury and case values. We move forward with the knowledge necessary to successfully evaluate, negotiate, mediate, or try their cases.

Who Is at Fault When an Injury Occurs?

When our law firm accepts a Kingwood personal injury case, we must do more than prove that a negligent party caused our client’s damage. We must also present a theory that explains how the negligent party caused the accident. We must also show why they should pay our client’s damages.

Proving the case requires preparation during the early post-accident stages. This process is often complicated, especially in cases involving commercial vehicles, transport companies, or construction contractors. As we get deeper into an accident investigation, we sometimes determine that more than one person or entity shares liability.

Private Passenger Vehicle Operators & Owners

When a vehicle operator crashes into a car, we usually focus on proving the driver’s negligence. If someone else owns the car, the state’s Motor Vehicle Safety Responsibility Act also holds them responsible. Owners sometimes have a separate liability exposure if they knowingly let bad drivers use their cars.

Tractor-Trailer, Buses, and Other Commercial Vehicle Operators & Employers

A transport company/employer shares liability for the trucker’s negligence if the trucker operates a vehicle within the scope of their employment. Employers have a negligent entrustment exposure if they knew or should have known that the driver had a bad record. Recent changes in Texas law made it more difficult for an injured party to recover from a transport company based on their driver’s actions.

Vehicle and Equipment Manufacturers

When a vehicle or equipment defect causes an accident, the manufacturer shares liability for the injured victim’s damages. Both the injured and the negligent parties have an interest in proving a defect. It provides more recovery resources for the injured victim and sometimes lets negligent parties shift responsibility for some of the damages.

Loaders and Shippers

A shipper or loading contractors share responsibility if they load a trailer improperly and it causes an accident. Loaders must comply with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Cargo Securement guidelines.

Maintenance and Repair Contractors

If someone improperly repairs or maintains a vehicle and their failure causes an accident, they share responsibility for the injured person’s damages. Involved parties deal with similar issues when equipment causes a workplace injury.

Recoverable Damages for an Injury

When our lawyers negotiate a settlement for an injured person in Kingwood, we seek recovery for economic and non-economic damage. A jury may also consider an exemplary damage award.

Economic Damages

Economic damages consist of costs paid for treatment, recovery, and rehabilitation.

Damages often include these costs:

• Income losses
• Hospital and physician bills
• Medication
• Prosthetics and mobility devices
• Physical and psychological therapy
• Scar revision surgery
• Rehabilitation services
• Medical transportation
• Household services
• Funeral and burial expenses

Non-Economic Damages

Non-economic damages often require aggressive negotiation. Our Kingwood personal injury lawyer must establish a dollar figure for the injured person’s non-visible damages, personal experiences, and subjective considerations.

Non-economic damages often include:

• Physical and emotional pain
• Mental anguish
• Disfigurement
• Physical impairment
• Loss of earning capacity
• Loss of consortium (spousal relationship)
• Loss of services

Exemplary Damages

The Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code gives a jury authority to award exemplary damages. To receive them, our legal team must produce clear and convincing evidence that a responsible party caused harm because of fraud, malice, or gross negligence.

Negligent People Avoid Paying Damages

When someone injures you, you anticipate that they will take responsibility for their actions. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. Negligent people sometimes do whatever they can to avoid the consequences of their bad behavior. It often begins with a simple misunderstanding about who is at fault.

When people don’t believe they caused an accident, they usually stick with that version. If they report an accident to their insurance carriers, they continue their liability denial. An initial claim report often influences a liability insurer’s investigation. If the evidence isn’t clear and convincing, they declare the claim questionable liability or no liability.

This usually determines an insurer’s case-handling strategy until they close the claim.

• Negotiation: When an insurance company sees a claim as questionable, they sometimes make a low offer or no offer at all. They often force an injured party to file suit when the injured person prefers to settle.
• Litigation: Insurers have deep pockets to defend injury claims. They often hire staff attorneys, so legal fees aren’t an issue. They realize that some law firms don’t have the resources to manage litigation costs. When the injured victim weighs the potential timing and defense costs against the potential for gain, they often accept a low settlement amount.
• Evidence: Defendants sometimes withhold information if it helps an injured person prove their case. This often occurs when a vehicle or equipment defect causes an accident and injuries. A manufacturer’s admission of a critical defect often paves the way for a flood of claims.
• Affirmative Defenses: Defendants often mount an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink defense. They answer lawsuit allegations with affirmative defenses that deny fault and often make the injured party seem responsible for their injuries. This sometimes works in a defendant’s favor, convincing a jury to rule against an injured plaintiff.

Our law firm prepares for these types of defense strategies ahead of time. We investigate our clients’ cases as soon as possible after an accident. We evaluate the evidence and develop a strategy of our own. We use our firm’s resources to prepare and present a comprehensive case for our injured clients.

Contact the Kingwood Personal Injury Attorneys at Stewart J Guss, Injury Accident Lawyers

When you’re hurt in an accident, you need time to heal. You shouldn’t spend your time and energy arguing with an insurance company. When you contact our legal team, we listen to you and help you understand your legal options. When we establish a working relationship, we intervene with insurance companies and their representatives and take steps to protect your legal rights.

The legal team of Stewart J. Guss, Injury Accident Lawyers, is nationally recognized for protecting the rights of injured victims for more than 20 years. If a Kingwood accident injured you, call our office right now for a free consultation! Because we take all of our personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis, you will not owe us a dime unless we win your case. We are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so call us today at 800-898-4877 or contact us now by clicking here. You may also click a chat box to begin an immediate live conversation with one of our representatives. We look forward to helping you!