Personal Injury Accident Lawyers Bakersfield

Personal injury claims arise when the actions of a business or person result in bodily injuries for another person. The person or business at fault might undertake these actions intentionally. For example, a bar fight or a sexual assault can support a personal injury claim.

The person or business might also act unintentionally, but negligently. A distracted driving car accident or lax mopping in a grocery store might support a future personal injury accident claim.

In some cases, California and Bakersfield, CA law on a local level does not care what a person or business had in mind when an accident happens. Thus, people and businesses have strict liability for damage caused by defective products and dangerous animals that they are responsible for.

But all of these cases have one common thread — the injuries were preventable. By behaving in a way that results in injuries to you, the wrongdoer gave you the legal right to pursue them for compensation.

At Owen, Patterson & Owen (OPO), we charge a contingent fee to represent injured clients.

This means that you will not pay any legal fees at all unless we win or settle your injury accident case. As a result, we will not ask you for any upfront fee to get started on your case.

Instead, we will get paid from your settlement or damage award at the end of your case. A contingent fee motivates us to get the best possible outcome for your case.

We understand that the outcome of your case could play a significant role in your financial survival. You may have medical bills piling up. Your injuries might prevent you from working or taking as many hours as you might normally have at work.

A contingent fee ensures that you can devote your resources to getting the medical treatment you need.

After an accident, many accident victims try to handle their insurance claims and the realm of personal injury law on their own.

Although you have the right to represent yourself, self-representation will usually produce poor results.

When you hire the team at OPO, you get the benefit of nearly half a century of combined experience and knowledge. This means that no matter how you suffered your injuries, we have probably dealt with a similar case. This makes our representation vastly superior to self-representation. Our experience also gives us a unique edge over many of the insurers and insurance defense lawyers we encounter.

​The steps that we can take when handling a personal injury law case for our Bakersfield, CA clients include:

• Investigating your accident
• Gathering evidence to support your case
• Interviewing and deposing witnesses
• Consulting with your doctors and other experts about your injuries
• Preparing insurance claims and supporting documents
• Negotiating with claims adjusters to settle your case
• Filing and litigating lawsuits for unsettled claims

We will not take each of these steps in every case. But we do as much as we need to in order to get positive litigation outcomes for our client’s legal needs.

Many accident victims feel confused by the personal injury claim process.

This confusion is often fed by claims adjusters who act as though they have your best interests at heart when truly, they only work to protect the insurance company’s interests.

Here are some answers to frequently asked questions about personal injury claims:

Q: What do I need to prove to win a case?

A: The answer to this question depends on the type of case. Most personal injury claims rest on the legal doctrine of negligence to recover compensation. To win a negligence case, you must prove four elements:

• Duty: You must show that the other party owed you a duty of care to safeguard your health and safety. In a car accident case, every driver owes motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians a duty to drive in a reasonably safe manner.
• Breach: The other party must do something that is unreasonably dangerous. Texting while driving or leaving a puddle in the middle of a restaurant would qualify as unreasonably dangerous.
• Damage: You must suffer an injury.
• Causation: The breach must cause the injury. This requires that the action falls within the chain of events that led to your injury and that an injury was a reasonably foreseeable result of the action.

If you prove these four elements, the burden shifts to the other party to try to defend their actions.

The law also recognizes two other theories of liability. Intentional torts require that you prove the action that caused your injury was intentional. For example, assault or sexual abuse fall into the category of intentional torts.

California law and Bakersfield, CA law on a local level imposes strict liability for particularly dangerous activities. Thus, keeping dogs or dangerous animals will subject the owner to strict liability for attacks.

Q: What Damages Can I Recover for My Case?

A: Every case has unique damages. Damages fall into two categories. Your total damages represent the sum of your economic damages and your non-economic damages.

Economic Damages—These damages compensate you for the financial costs of your injuries. They include medical expenses, lost income, and diminished earning capacity. You can easily calculate your economic damages by adding up all your medical bills and the income you lost out on while recovering from your injuries.

Non-Economic Damages—Non-economic damages compensate you for all of the non-financial ways your life changed due to your injuries. Some examples are physical pain, mental suffering, inconvenience, and lost activities. You can include anything that shows a diminished quality of life resulting from your injuries.

Q: Do I Need a Personal Injury Attorney to Deal with the Insurance Company?

A: Most injury cases begin with an insurance claim. The insurer assigns the claim to a claims adjuster, who investigates the claim and determines the insurer’s liability for your injuries. The claims adjuster will often deny your claim or reduce it and offer a settlement that is less than your documented damages.

A personal injury attorney has the experience in injury cases and the negotiating skills to push the claims adjuster to improve the offer. By documenting your claim thoroughly and showing the claims adjuster what you might get in court, a California lawyer can often get much better results by negotiating rather than accepting the initial offer.

Owen, Patterson & Owen (OPO) offers a free initial consultation so you can speak to an experienced and knowledgeable Bakersfield, California lawyer about your case. You have no obligation to hire our Bakersfield, CA law firm after the consultation.

This means that you can use our consultation strictly as a resource to gauge the merits of your case. This also allows you to interview us to decide whether our representation will achieve the results you want for your case. By the end of your free consultation, you should have all of the facts you need to decide how to proceed with your injury claim.