Types of Lawyer Services Available
A lawyer can provide many types of services available, depending on your specific legal problem. Some specialties include family law, intellectual property, and estate planning, among many others. Other common cases can involve workers’ compensation or other personal injury cases.
A personal injury lawyer can help with cases such as slip-and-falls, workplace accidents, or auto accidents. For instance, a person may file a slip-and-fall claim if they injured themselves on someone else’s property after the fall. According to research, approximately 22% of slip-and-fall accidents resulted in a person being out of work for more than a month. Also, the effects may include lost wages and medical costs, so a personal injury lawyer helps the plaintiff seek compensation for those losses.
And, while having a significant amount of savings helps, fewer than one in four Americans simply do not have enough. More than half of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck, while nearly 30% lack adequate savings. On average, it takes six months’ worth of savings and expenses to cover someone in case of emergencies. Because of this, some people seek the help of a lawyer to recover any funds because of lost wages and medical payments.
Another type of personal injury case that a lawyer can help with includes workers’ compensation. Approximately 74% of states require their businesses to include workers’ compensation protection. Common claims in the workplace include falls due to slippery floors. Research notes that approximately 85% of such incidents make up workers’ compensation cases. Compensation amounts vary depending on the injury. In fact, the maximum award for a workers’ compensation claim was approximately $169,880 as of 2015.
Auto accidents are another common case that a personal injury lawyer handles. Common culprits often involve drunken or distracted driving. According to statistics, almost at any time more than 60% of drivers use their cell phones, GPS, or another electronic device while driving. This is dangerous because even five seconds off the road can lead to an accident. In recent years, more than 3,000 crashes have been because of distracted driving, and more than 400,000 were seriously injured.
Most personal injury cases can be settled out of court, while approximately only around 2% of these cases go to trial. Out of federal civil personal injury cases, approximately 20% result from auto accidents, 13% involve products liability, and 10% come from medical malpractice.
