If you are looking for a personal injury attorney in Charleston after suffering a car accident, we can help. At our personal injury law firm in Charleston, South Carolina, we understand what you have experienced. We know how life can change in the blink of an eye, and in the wake of such trauma, you might have been left unable to work or engage in other necessary daily activities. Our car accident lawyer in Charleston SC offers free consultations to help you better understand your options as you determine the right path forward in your journey.

What is a Personal Injury Lawyer?

Personal injury law is the part of civil law designed to protect victims of negligence, recklessness, or carelessness. A personal injury attorney is an attorney who legally represents those who have been hurt or suffered a loss in an accident, which may be the result of either negligence or intentional actions.

If you have been hurt by someone else’s actions or inaction, our personal injury lawyer in South Carolina can help you pursue compensation. While recovering costs for the damages you have suffered cannot change the past or undo what happened, it can help you begin to move forward as you work to rebuild your life. We offer free consultations for you to learn more about your case and potential paths forward.

How Can a Personal Injury Attorney Help Me?

A South Carolina personal injury attorney can support clients in many ways, including:

Claim investigation
Before beginning work on your case, our South Carolina law firm will investigate your case. This helps ensure that our injury lawyer is a good fit for your team and can give us critical information about how we can most effectively serve your needs.

Evidence gathering
After taking a South Carolina personal injury case, our personal injury lawyer will begin to gather evidence to support your claim. This could involve a variety of actions and processes, including:
•Getting copies of police and incident reports
•Identifying witnesses and gathering witness statements
•Photographing the site of the accident or incident
•Gathering evidence, including camera footage, documented property damage, and other evidence
•Establishing liability via medical reports, medical records, bills, property damage reports, repair bills, employment documents and reports, and other documents

Negotiations
Our Charleston personal injury lawyer will work with the attorneys for the insurance company to achieve a fair settlement on your behalf. We prepare for this process by reviewing the details of the policy and the responsibilities of the insurance company. Our Charleston personal injury lawyers work to determine the most appropriate level of compensation and will negotiate with the insurance company until we achieve a number that meets your approval.

Continuing to Fight
Most cases are settled without going to court. However, when insurance companies won’t settle, we can continue the fight for your South Carolina personal injury case in court.

When people think of a Charleston personal injury lawyer, they might think of someone who helps in a car, truck, or motorcycle accident. However, we support victims of all kinds of accidents and can help you recover compensation if have suffered burns, disfigurement, traumatic brain injuries, scarring, or disability or if you have lost someone as a result of an accident. Our South Carolina personal injury attorney can help you fight for justice and move forward in your life. Contact us for your free consultation. 

Understanding Personal Injury Cases

Not all injuries arising from accidents are considered personal injuries. To qualify as a personal injury case, a claim typically will involve specific factors, including that:

The defendant had a legal duty of care to the victim.
Duty of care is a tort law term that can arise in many situations. For example, an employer may have a duty to take reasonable steps to keep their employees safe. Childcare providers have specific responsibilities for the children in their care, and healthcare providers have a duty of care toward their patients.

The duty was breached.
Not all accidents are associated with negligence. However, when someone has a duty of care for you or others and breaches that duty, they can be held liable for any injuries that occur as a result of that breach.

The injuries were legally and proximately caused by that breach.
The injuries or loss must be directly related to the breach of the duty of care. If the loss occurred independently of the breach, then it may not qualify as a South Carolina personal injury case.

The victim was damaged by the breach.
After an accident, people commonly suffer physical injuries, time off work, property damage, and lingering emotional trauma. The ongoing expenses associated with these experiences are considered damages.
Liability

Liability can be complicated. In some cases, there’s an obviously negligent party. A driver may have run a red light, or a restaurant owner might have failed to keep their premises safe for patrons and staff. However, in other cases, liability might not be so obvious or a third party may be partly responsible for the harm that occurred. Our Charleston personal injury lawyers can help you determine the best path forward for your case, including working to determine fault and liability.

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Common Types of Personal Injury Cases

Although many commonly associate personal injuries with car accidents, there are numerous ways that a person can suffer an injury as a result of another person’s negligence, carelessness, or recklessness.

Some of the most common types of personal injury cases include:

Motor vehicle accidents
Every day, thousands of cars, trucks, and motorcycles travel on South Carolina’s roads. Most of the motorists driving these vehicles are doing so safely and responsibly, but the few that aren’t can cause serious vehicle accidents that result in catastrophic losses.

Medical Malpractice
A healthcare provider has a duty of care toward their patients, but substandard care can lead to injuries and death. A medical malpractice case can include:
•Misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose
•Surgical error
•Improper prescription

Product liability
These claims occur when someone is injured as a result of a dangerous product. Dangers may be related to design or manufacturing defects or inadequate labeling regarding the potential dangers associated with using the product.

Workplace accidents
Although workers’ compensation covers the medical costs associated with most workplace injuries, workers may not get full compensatioin. In this case, a personal injury claim can help you get the compensation needed to recover.

Slip and fall
Property owners in South Carolina have a responsibility to ensure their premises are safe for those who have the legal right to be on that property, including guests and contractors. Dangerous conditions should be labeled and repaired as soon as possible, and if someone suffers a slip and fall as a result of their lack to do so, they could be held responsible.

Dog bites
Dog owners are legally responsible for their dogs, and in South Carolina, the strict-liability statute can hold them accountable when a person is bitten or attacked by their dog. The statute applies when the dog attacks and the injured person was legally present on the property.

Damages in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Putting a dollar amount on a loss can seem like an almost overwhelming task. In the aftermath of even a minor accident, you will face a variety of bills and expenses, but you might have non-monetary losses as well. Our personal injury law firm in Charleston SC uses careful calculations to determine the full extent of your damages.

Our South Carolina law firm might consider many factors when calculating your losses, including:
•Medical and rehabilitation expenses
•Disability and disfigurement
•Lost wages
•Pain and suffering
•Loss of enjoyment

Damages can refer to any losses that you suffered as a result of your motor vehicle or other accident, including both monetary and non-monetary losses. Monetary damages are considered compensatory, which means that they are designed to compensate you for financial losses that you experienced as a result of the injury. The goal of compensatory damages is to make you monetarily whole again. You can be repaid for any time you missed work as a result of the injury, lost earning potential, property damage, and current and future medical bills.

General damages can be more difficult to quantify. These damages are designed to compensate you for the non-monetary losses that you suffered and can include payments for the pain you suffered during the accident and your recovery period, emotional trauma, any negative effects your relationships suffered as a result of the accident, and more.

In South Carolina, most personal injury cases are settled out of court. Our attorney will negotiate on your behalf with the responsible party’s insurance company to work out the most appropriate compensation for your needs. We will fight to ensure all your accident-related bills, including past, present, and future, are covered and that your future is protected.

Other factors that can affect the final settlement amount include:
•The extent and severity of your injuries, including the effects of those injuries on your private and professional life
•The extent and amount of the responsible party’s insurance coverage
•Your case

Our law firm works with a team of legal, medical, and financial experts to determine the amount of the loss and the most appropriate strategy to achieve fair compensation for those losses.

What to Expect from a Personal Injury Case

The vast majority of personal injury cases are settled out of court here in South Carolina, but we will fight for you in court, too. Understanding how personal injury cases proceed can help you feel more confident in the courtroom.

First, our law firm will present our case for the plaintiff, or the injured party. Medical evidence will help support the severity and nature of your injuries and can demonstrate how those injuries have affected your day-to-day life. We will collect, organize, and include evidence from your medical team, medical records, and related experts who can testify on your behalf.

Because your losses are not merely monetary, your testimony might also address how your life has changed since the accident. You may need rehabilitation or physical therapy, and you may struggle with ongoing pain or scarring. Your relationships with your loved ones and family members may have been strained or negatively affected.

Our attorney, along with a team of legal, medical, and other experts, will work hard to understand the full spectrum of effects of the accident on your life. Our job is to demonstrate and present that evidence to the court to ensure you receive the compensation to which you are entitled.

Once our case has been presented, the defense will have the opportunity to present their case. Depending on their strategy, the defense might present a different version of events or attack your credibility. They may imply the extent of your injuries had less of an effect on your life than claimed. The defense team will work hard for their clients as they build a case, often to the point of gathering information from your family and friends or even performing surveillance on you.

These strategies might sound alarming or unethical, but the defense is legally allowed to gather and use any evidence they can obtain from public spaces or publicly accessible social media to refute claims. Because of this, we encourage our clients in Charleston South Carolina to move through their cases with the utmost caution and the support of our trusted attorney.

Why Is Hiring a Personal Injury Attorney in Charleston Essential?

Personal injury cases can be complex and require intensive preparation. Throughout each stage of your case, we will work tirelessly to identify, gather, and organize each piece of evidence that supports your case. Our personal injury attorney in Charleston will fight hard to support you and get you the justice you deserve. We’ll work for appropriate recovery and fair compensation.

In the case of wrongful death, the family of the decedent may be eligible to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the party or parties responsible. Our law firm can help you identify all those who bear some responsibility for the loss of your loved one, and our personal injury attorneys will work to ensure they are held accountable for that loss.

Compared to criminal cases, the standard of proof in personal injury lawsuits is low. You do not need to prove “beyond doubt” that the defendant was responsible for your injuries or loss. You simply need to prove that there is a “preponderance of evidence,” which means that you must show that a fact or event was more likely than not to have happened as you claimed. This is because, unlike criminal cases where the goal is to punish the offender, civil cases are seeking to obtain monetary compensation for a loss.
Establishing your Case

Regardless of whether you have a premises liability, car accident, or negligence case in Charleston SC, you will need to prove four points: the defendant’s duty of care, a breach of that duty of care, proximate cause and actual causation, and damages. In some cases, civil litigation involves illegal or criminal behavior. While the criminal case might not be easy to prove, civil cases have lower burdens of proof, making it easier for the plaintiffs to achieve justice.

For example, if a person drinks heavily at a holiday party, they should not drive but instead call for a ride share, taxi, or other alternative transportation. If they drive and cause an accident here in Charleston SC, they can be held liable. Their duty of care was to drive safely and legally, and by driving drunk, they breached that duty of care. Their drinking and driving may have caused another driver to suffer injuries and losses, which can be compensated in the form of damages.

Similarly, you can file a medical malpractice case against a medical professional who does not meet the professional standard of care or who does not act as a prudent doctor with similar training and expertise would act in similar circumstances. In other words, if you were ill or injured, the medical professional should order the appropriate tests for an accurate diagnosis.

In other words, the first goal is to establish negligence. In some cases, the defendant might have been reckless or negligent but their behavior was not necessarily the cause of the injury. This is more likely to happen if other events led up to the accident or injury.

It might seem impossible to unravel the threads of a complicated vehicle accident or premises liability case, and yet here at our law offices, our personal injury attorneys are proud to be serving Charleston as we untangle scenarios like these every day and determine who is legally responsible for an accident and why.

Why Choose a Personal Injury Lawyer Charleston SC

​Accidents can be traumatizing, and in the days immediately following the incident, you might be overwhelmed as you try to process all that has happened. You might also be left with physical and emotional injuries, uncertainty about the future, and questions about what it will take to move forward.

You don’t have to face these worries and fears alone. Our personal injury lawyer in Charleston SC will work with you to build your case and fight for your future. We’ll help you understand the various legal terms and issues involved. We work closely with your medical professionals, insurance agencies, and others to build your case. Our goal is to help you achieve the maximum recovery possible.
Personal Injury Lawyers Know the Law

Civil law can be an incredibly complex area of law, and without legal expertise, you might not have access to all the information you need to make the best choices for your situation. Our law firm in Charleston, SC can help you understand complicated issues such as liability, comparative blame, and the statute of limitations. Personal injury law is our primary focus. Our Charleston SC personal injury attorney can help you understand the laws about your unique situation and give you the tools you need to move forward.

With the right Charleston personal injury lawyer by your side, you’ll be more likely to obtain the outcome you want and get the compensation you deserve.
Personal Injury Lawyers Negotiate with Insurance Companies

Many people understandably want to settle with the insurance company after an accident. We understand! You have more than enough on your plate, and building a case might feel like a lot of work for little reward. However, you should know that the insurance company is not on your side.

Insurance companies owe their loyalty to their investors, which means that they are not necessarily concerned with your best interests. You might have submitted your claim immediately after the accident, but the insurance company might offer an inadequate settlement amount or offer to reimburse only some of your costs. In other words, you might end up juggling future medical expenses, coping with lost earning ability, and lacking compensation for the pain, suffering, and other non-monetary losses you experienced.

Our personal injury law firm in Charleston, South Carolina proudly serves Charleston by advocating for victims. We know how to negotiate with insurance companies. We won’t rest until we can reach a settlement that is satisfactory to you. We know the laws on your accident case here in Charleston, SC and understand the intricacies of insurance. We can identify various factors that could play a role in your case, including policy coverage, exclusions, and restrictions, and we’ll fight for fair compensation.
Personal Injury Attorneys Support You

Not only will your injury lawyer in Charleston SC help to demystify the legal aspects of your case, gather evidence to support your claim, and negotiate with the insurance company, but we will also help you understand your settlement options.

Agreeing to a settlement means you will no longer be able to file a lawsuit against the at-fault party, and it also means that you might not receive the total compensation to which you could be entitled. Our Charleston SC law firm can help you decide if a settlement is in your best interests and negotiate for one that is appropriate for all you have experienced.

Meet Our Attorney

​Our car accident attorney in Charleston SC has many years of experience as a trial lawyer. The energy and drive he invested into his work then are now being channeled into his passionate pursuit of justice as a personal injury lawyer. The author of “Battle Plan: Your South Carolina Car Accident Claims Guide,” a seminal work that guides accident survivors on the steps they need to take to battle insurance companies after an accident, our auto accident attorney zealously fights for his clients both in and out of the courtroom.

Named as one of South Carolina’s Top 100 Trial Lawyers as well as one of the Top 40 Trial Lawyers Under 40, our injury lawyer will work tirelessly to achieve the results you want. You will notice the difference the moment you walk through the doors of our law firm. We will update you on each new stage of the case and provide you with all the information you need to know. You’ll never be left in the dark, and our law firm will provide you with seasoned legal advice and expertise to guide and support you as you move through your case.

Our law firm clients know that they can leave the toughest and most stressful parts of the case in the capable hands of our car accident attorney in Charleston SC, and you can, too. A free consultation with our injury lawyer can be a great way to learn more about your options.

Guaranteed, Or We’ll Work for Free

Our personal injury law firm in Charleston South Carolina is so confident in our ability to help you that we guarantee we’ll recover damages on your behalf. In other words, If we don’t get a verdict for you or achieve a settlement, we’ll work for free. Our Charleston, SC law firm clients will be responsible for the expenses of the case, which can be advanced, but we will waive our injury attorney's fees.* Contact our auto accident attorney today to schedule your free consultation!