Fort McMurray, AB Personal Injury Lawyer

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    Injured in an accident? If another party’s negligence caused the problem then you may have a personal injury claim. Our Fort McMurray, AB personal injury lawyers handle all kinds of claims.

    How can a Fort McMurray, AB personal injury lawyer help?

    We handle every kind of personal injury case. We can get you fair compensation for:

    Most injury claims are paid by the negligent party’s insurance company. These companies will rarely offer a fair settlement on their own! They’ll lowball you if you don’t have an experienced personal injury lawyer by your side.

    Let us help you get the settlement you deserve. We’re known as Alberta’s toughest negotiators and litigators, and we’ll get the job done right.

    What should be included in a personal injury claim?

    In Alberta, there are three types of damages you may collect.

    The first type are economic damages. These are your medical bills, your lost wages, and, if applicable, your loss of earning capacity. Economic damages also cover the amounts you’ll need for your long term care. We won’t know exactly how much these damages are worth until you’ve reached maximum medical improvement. At that point the full extent of your bills will be evident and we can project your long-term care needs, as well as whether you are likely to be able to return to work.

    The second type are non-economic damages, also known as pain and suffering. Alberta law recognizes that people should not have to go through pain and suffering they didn’t bring on themselves.

    The third type is punitive damages. Punitive damages aren’t available in every case. They’re reserved for times when someone’s actions have been so egregious, so foolish, and so negligent that they literally deserve to be punished for their actions.

    You’ll rarely see punitive damages in a car accident case unless the driver was drinking. You might see them in a truck accident case where the truckers violated the law while operating their vehicle, or in a slip and fall case where the landlord had a great deal of time to address an especially dangerous hazard.

    Speak to your lawyer to find out whether punitive damages are available in your case.

    What’s considered pain and suffering?

    Pain and suffering covers any physical pain you’re feeling along with any emotional anguish you may have to go through. It can cover the chronic pain an injury leaves you with and the PTSD you have to work through and receive counseling for.

    In Alberta, pain and injury awards are capped at $5000 for soft tissue injuries and at $370,000 total.

    How do you prove pain and suffering?

    Many types of evidence can support your pain and suffering claims. Medical records, psychiatric records, and expert testimony are some of the most common. We can also demonstrate how the injury has impacted your life, especially if it has made it impossible for you to pursue hobbies you used to enjoy, has robbed you of a career, or has kept you from keeping up with your children.

    It’s up to your lawyer to translate this data into a hard-hitting impact statement that will get you the maximum amount that is possible for your case.

    Why Merchant Law?

    When you work with a lawyer from Merchant Law you’ll be working with one of Alberta’s most experienced personal injury lawyers. Our team is dedicated to getting you the best possible settlement and will work hard to negotiate it. We’re also known as top-notch litigators, which is helpful in the rare instance of a personal injury case that needs to go to court.

    Get started today by calling (780) 799-7777 for a free consultation. Remember this call is a no-obligation, risk-free call. You don’t even have to worry about coming up with a retainer: we don’t get paid until your case is successful.

    What is the average payout for a car accident?

    The average payout is about $40,000 but it depends on a great many factors.

    A settlement amount will typically cover the cost of your medical bills, the cost to repair your car, and your lost wages. Your settlement would also account for future care needs and the extent to which the accident has impacted your ability to work in the future.

    Most settlements also include a pain and suffering amount. In Alberta these damages are capped at $5488 for soft tissue damages and at $370,000 for major injuries.

    In some rare cases, the other person’s behavior may also be so egregious as to warrant punitive damages.

    Why do you need a lawyer for a personal injury case?

    Insurance companies may offer you a settlement right away, but it will usually be too small to cover the costs associated with your accident.

    In addition, it is easy to say or do things which can reduce your ability to make claims. Alberta is a contributory negligence province, which means your claim amount can be reduce if a case can be made that you contributed to your own accident.

    Cases can also get increasingly complex depending on who the accident was with and who is responsible for it. Some of our clients have been in accidents with drivers in the United States, for example, or have gone up against major corporations who own the trucks that struck their cars. In these cases, you may well walk away empty-handed if you don’t have top-notch legal representation on your side.

    Common Car Accident Injuries in Fort McMurray

    Across Alberta, car and motorcycle accidents occur with alarming frequency. Alberta statistics show that there were 142,598 collisions in 2018, with 17,055 resulting in serious injuries. 289 of those cases resulted in deaths. Fort McMurray sees a lot of those accidents and our car accident lawyers see new cases every day.

    In each of these cases, the at-fault driver wasn’t paying attention, or wasn’t following traffic laws.

    We take these cases very seriously. Each of these injuries often represents a life-changing event for our clients.

    Alberta law requires insurance companies to pay the victims of these accidents appropriate compensation for their losses, but that doesn’t mean they’re not going to work hard to pay you as little as they can get away with.

    Common Injuries

    Many of our clients come to us with the following conditions:

    • Traumatic brain injuries or concussions
    • Permanent disabilities
    • Neck and back injuries
    • Broken bones and fractures
    • Spinal cord injuries
    • Cuts and lacerations
    • Nerve damage
    • Herniated discs
    • Scars and disfigurement
    • Joints and ligaments injuries
    • “Whiplash” or soft tissue injuries
    • Fatalities (wrongful death).

    We also see clients with psychological or “non-physical” injuries. Under Alberta law, consequences such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety are just as real and compensable under tort law as the physical injuries are. You just have to prove you have them, which is why we send you to an expert psychologist to get the proof we need to argue your case successfully.

    Monetary Losses and Consequences

    Personal injury cases don’t just refund you for your medical bills. They refund you for the time you’ve missed at work. Lost income or wages claims are fairly straightforward. What isn’t so straightforward are cases wherein the accident destroys your ability to earn income or advance your career path.

    Our Ft. McMurray law team will ensure that no stone is left unturned. We can help get you compensated for your loss of earning potential.

    It hardly seems fair. Alberta law forces you to purchase auto insurance. Yet when you get into a car accident, they don’t want to be there for you. In actuality they try to cheat you when you do get injured by offering substantially less than what you may be entitled to receive with the help of a lawyer, proper evidence, and a proper case preparation, to get you what a judge of the court would give you.

    You won’t just find the negligent driver’s insurance company dragging their feet. Yours will, too!

    Meanwhile, you’ve got bills, and lots of them. Medical bills that Medicare won’t cover. Dental bills. Money that isn’t coming in because you had to miss work in order to recover.

    You need help. Help from experienced personal injury lawyers who can get you the money you deserve.

    In fact, it’s wise to secure that help before you even leave the hospital.

    Strengthen Your Claim

    You can strengthen your claim while you’re still at the accident site, as well as after the accident.

    1. Get the names and contact information of everyone who is on the scene of the accident, especially the other driver’s.
    2. Avoid making statements like “I’m sorry,” “I never saw him coming,” or “this was my fault.” Rest assured these statements will be used against you later.
    3. Get medical attention. Alberta requires accident victims to “mitigate” their damages. If you fail to get medical attention you could be accused of exacerbating your damages instead, and can lose all or most of your claim.
    4. Avoid saying things like: “I’m fine.” These sorts of statements can be used to downplay the severity of your injuries later.
    5. Take pictures if you can.
    6. Follow all of the doctor’s instructions. Again, this is a matter of mitigating your losses, and preserves a clear chain of causality between the accident and your losses.
    7. Call a personal injury lawyer before speaking to anyone from any insurance company. This includes your own! Don’t sign anything they give you unless your lawyer tells you to. Let your lawyer communicate with them.
    8. Keep all medical records, documents, bills, instructions, prescriptions, and other documentation from necessary services. Work closely with your lawyer to get the evidence they’ll need to successfully pursue your claim.

    It’s okay to call us if you’re still within the basic two-year limitation period, even if you feel you’ve made some mistakes after reading the list above. We may still be able to take, work, and even win your case.

    We fight for you.

    What happens next?

    A battle in which the other driver’s insurance company will try to prove you were at-fault for the accident.

    If they can prove you were even a little bit at fault, you lose money.

    Alberta is a comparative negligence province. It assigns each driver a percentage of fault. Every percentage point of fault you are assigned reduces your award.

    You will need a lawyer who will thoroughly investigate your case and who will convince a judge, a jury, or even the insurance company that your fault percentage is as low as possible.

    How do I know my claim is worth pursuing?

    It’s never a good idea to try to guess. It’s not even necessary to try.

    You can get a no-obligation, no-risk consultation from the expert personal injury lawyers at Merchant Law, instead.

    We’ll tell you whether you have a case, and what we can do to help. If we decide to take your case, you won’t have to worry about coming up with a retainer or paying an hourly rate. We don’t get paid until we successfully negotiate a good settlement for you, or win your case in court.

    Just call (780) 799-7777 to get started today.

    Contact Merchant Law Today

    Have you been injured in an auto accident, boat accident, or slip and fall? Have you been injured in any other kind of accident that’s occurred because someone else was negligent or failed to meet their obligations?

    If so, reach out to the personal injury lawyers at Merchant Law. Our team has decades of experience helping people just like you. We can get you justice and help you cover the costs brought on by your accident.

    The personal injury lawyers at Merchant Law are known as some of Alberta’s toughest litigators and savviest negotiators. When you call us, insurance companies know that we mean business.

    Working with us is risk-free. We work on contingency, which means we don’t get paid until you either get a fair settlement, or a verdict in your favor.

    Typically our clients walk away with up to ten times as much money as they’d have gotten on their own, even after our fees are accounted for.

    Get started today by calling (780) 799-7777, or visit our office at 425 Gregoire Drive.