If you were injured in Long Beach because of another person’s negligence, you may be facing more than physical pain. Medical bills can begin arriving while you are unable to work and insurance adjusters may start asking questions. When you are getting overwhelmed by bills and insurance adjusters, hiring a Long Beach personal injury lawyer can give you the legal assistance you need to get through this time.ย
At West Coast Trial Lawyers, our legal team understands how impactful sudden accidents can be on a personโs life and are committed to delivering the legal guidance people need. As a result of our firmโs dedication, we have recovered over $2 billion in financial compensation on behalf of our clients and will continue to fulfill our legal duty to help people.
Whether you have been involved in a car crash, a dog bite incident, or sexual assault, our team is here for you. On top of it all, we operate on a contingency fee basis, meaning you wonโt have to pay any legal fees unless we win.ย
Call us today at (562) 396-9874 or fill out our online contact form for a free case consultation.ย
Why Hire a Long Beach Personal Injury Lawyer?
A serious accident can become a legal and insurance dispute surprisingly quickly. While you are receiving medical care, the insurance company may already be reviewing photographs, obtaining statements, and looking for reasons to reduce what it ultimately pays.
A Long Beach personal injury attorney can take over that side of the process while you focus on your recovery. While it is possible to handle the legal process on your own, it is highly discouraged to do so unless you have a strong understanding of the legal process because insurance companies will use tactics designed to lower your compensation.ย
Why Choose West Coast Trial Lawyers in Long Beach?
At West Coast Trial Lawyers, our firm has handled a variety of claims from minor accidents to lawsuits against large corporations like Marriott and Disney. As personal injury cases can involve powerful defendants from national insurance carriers to corporations on the fortune 500, you want a legal team who has the experience and the track record to fight for you.ย
What You Get When You Hire West Coast Trial Lawyers
- An In-House Trial Team– West Coast Trial Lawyers maintains an in-house litigation and trial team capable of taking a case beyond the insurance-claim stage when necessary.
- Direct Attorney Access– From the moment you sign on, you will have direct access to your attorney and they will communicate with you about your case, any updates, and answer questions that you have.ย
- Resources for Complex Injury Claims– Our firm has the resources to develop catastrophic injury cases when the damages and liability issues justify a more extensive investigation.
- Long Beach Locals-ย Our firm maintains a Long Beach office at 111 West Ocean Boulevard, Suite 400, in Downtown Long Beach, giving locals quick and easy access to our team.ย
Personal Injury Cases We Handle in Long Beach
Different accidents create different questions about fault, insurance coverage, evidence, and damages. West Coast Trial Lawyers handles a broad range of injury claims in Long Beach.
- Long Beach Pedestrian Accident Attorney
- Long Beach Bicycle Accident Attorney
- Long Beach Bus Accident Attorney
- Long Beach Food Delivery Accident Attorney
- Long Beach Motorcycle Accident Attorney
- Long Beach Truck Accident Attorney
- Long Beach Burn Injury Attorney
- Long Beach Brain Injury Attorney
- Long Beach Scooter Accident Attorney
- Long Beach Wrongful Death Attorney
- Long Beach Uber and Lyft Accident Attorney
- Long Beach Dog Bite Attorney
- Long Beach Spinal Cord Injury Attorney
- Long Beach Car Accident Attorney
- Long Beach Premises Liability Attorney
How Common Are Serious Accidents in Long Beach?
In Long Beach, the city experiences a significant number of traffic injuries compared with other large California cities. According to the California Office of Traffic Safety’s 2023 crash rankings, 3,774 people were killed or injured in Long Beach traffic collisions and among the 15 similarly populated California cities in its comparison group, Long Beach ranked first for total victims killed or injured.ย
While the City of Long Beach has adopted a Vision Zero-based Safe Streets initiative aimed at eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries, these numbers illustrate why serious motor vehicle, pedestrian, and bicycle accidents remain an important concern.ย ย
What Should You Do After an Accident in Long Beach?
No matter what kind of accident you have been involved in, your immediate priority should be seeking out appropriate medical care if you hurt or experiencing symptoms after the accident. Depending on the accident, some conditions can become more noticeable hours or days later, and medical records can also help establish when symptoms began and how they progressed.
However, if you are physically fine at the moment, it is vital to document the accident scene by taking photos and videos. Additionally, try to obtain contact information from everyone involved in the accident, keep copies of accident reports and medical records, and be cautious when speaking with another party’s insurance company. Statements made shortly after an accident can later become important if the insurer disputes fault or the severity of your injuries.
What Evidence Can Help Prove a Long Beach Personal Injury Claim?
What evidence you need will entirely depend on the accident. For example, a vehicle collision may involve photographs, dashcam footage and local police reports, while a slip and fall may depend on surveillance footage, incident reports, inspection schedules, and evidence showing how long a dangerous condition existed.
However, if there is one piece of evidence that you need to collect immediately, it would be video footage, because it is not only the strongest piece, but it is the most time sensitive. Many businesses, homes, parking structures, buses, dashcams, and doorbell cameras may record an accident, but many systems automatically overwrite old recordings. As such, identifying potential cameras quickly can make a significant difference in a disputed claim.
What If More Than One Person Caused the Accident?
Personal injury claims do not always involve one obvious defendant, because a multi-vehicle crash could involve several negligent and reckless drivers and a premises liability case could involve both a property owner and a maintenance contractor.
To settle cases like these, California follows pure comparative negligence, established by the California Supreme Court in Li v. Yellow Cab Co. Under this system, responsibility can be allocated among the parties according to their respective percentages of fault. For example, if someone’s damages were determined to be $100,000 but they were found 25% responsible, their recovery could generally be reduced to $75,000.
What If You Were Injured While Working in Long Beach?
An accident that happens while you are performing your job can potentially involve more than one type of claim. For example, a delivery driver who is injured when another motorist runs a red light may potentially qualify for workers’ compensation benefits through their employer while also having a separate personal injury claim against the negligent driver. These are sometimes referred to as third-party injury claims because someone other than the injured worker’s employer caused the accident.
Can You Receive Workers’ Compensation and File a Personal Injury Claim?
In some circumstances it is possible, because workers’ compensation and personal injury claims operate under different rules and provide different types of benefits. A third-party personal injury claim may allow an injured worker to pursue damages that are not generally available through workers’ compensation, such as pain and suffering. However, reimbursement and lien issues can arise when workers’ compensation benefits have already paid medical expenses or wage replacement.ย
What Compensation Can You Recover in a Long Beach Personal Injury Claim?
California Civil Code ยง 3333 allows accident victims to recover damages caused by a defendant’s wrongful conduct. Depending on the case, an accident victim may recover a mix of calculable and incalculable damages. For instance, economic damages can include past and future medical expenses, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, rehabilitation costs, property damage, and other measurable financial losses.
Meanwhile, non-economic damages can potentially compensate for pain and suffering, emotional distress, physical impairment, inconvenience, disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life. In rare instances, punitive damages can be awarded but they are intended to punish particularly wrongful conduct rather than compensate for ordinary negligence.
How Much Is a Long Beach Personal Injury Case Worth?
When it comes to determining the value of a personal injury case, there is no universal โaverage settlementโ that determines what an individual case is worth. The value of a claim can depend on factors such as the severity and permanence of the injury and how the injury affects the person’s everyday life.
For example, a person who suffers a temporary soft-tissue injury and returns to work quickly will have a very different claim from someone who requires spinal surgery and can no longer perform their occupation. There are personal injury settlement calculators that can provide rough estimates, but consulting with a local Long Beach personal injury lawyer can give you a more accurate estimate regarding the overall value of your claim.ย
What Happens If the Insurance Policy Is Not Enough to Cover My Injuries?
Insurance limits can become a major issue after a catastrophic accident, because if the person responsible carries relatively low liability limits the chances of obtaining a full recovery settlement is low, but an attorney may investigate whether other sources of compensation exist. Depending on the circumstances, those sources could include underinsured motorist coverage, an employer’s policy, a commercial insurance policy, another responsible driver, manufacturer, or another defendant.ย
What If You Cannot Work Because of Your Injuries?
If you are unable to work because of the injury you have suffered from the accident, you can file a claim for lost wages and can potentially seek compensation for income you already lost while recovering as well as future income losses when an injury creates lasting limitations.
For example, if someone suffers a serious back injury in a car crash, but is required to perform heavy lifting at their job, they can file a claim that takes account of their reduced ability to earn money in the future.ย
How Long Do You Have to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Long Beach?
Under California Code of Civil Procedure ยง 335.1, most lawsuits involving personal injury or death caused by another person’s wrongful act or negligence must be filed within two years. Any failure to file a claim on time will result in the stateโs statute of limitations taking into effect, barring an injured person from filing a claim and recovering compensation, no matter how much evidence they have.ย
However, not every case follows the same deadline. For example, claims involving the City of Long Beach or another California public entity may require an administrative claim to be presented within six months under California Government Code ยง 911.2. There may be exceptions to the statute of limitations, but it is rare and will depend on the nature of the case.ย
Where Are Long Beach Personal Injury Lawsuits Filed?
When it comes to filing a personal injury lawsuit in Long Beach, civil matters may proceed through the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, South Judicial District. However, most local lawsuits are filed at the Governor George Deukmejian Courthouse, located at 275 Magnolia Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90802. However, filing a lawsuit does not necessarily mean a case will go to trial, because many claims tend to resolve through negotiations, mediation, or settlement after litigation begins.
What Happens if You Miss Medical Appointments During a Personal Injury Claim?
Missing an occasional appointment does not automatically destroy a personal injury case. However, repeated or unexplained gaps in treatment may become an issue because an insurance company can argue that the injuries were not as serious as claimed or that later treatment was unrelated to the accident.
There may also be perfectly reasonable explanations for a treatment gap, including difficulty obtaining appointments, lack of transportation, insurance problems, work responsibilities, or improvement followed by a later recurrence of symptoms.
Does a Gap in Treatment Reduce a Settlement?
A gap in medical treatment can affect how an insurance company evaluates a claim, but there is no automatic formula that reduces compensation simply because treatment was interrupted.
The reason for the gap, length of the delay, type of injury, medical records, and subsequent treatment can all matter and accident victims should be truthful with their personal injury lawyer about any treatment gaps rather than attempting to hide them.
Speak With a Long Beach Personal Injury Lawyer
After a serious accident, dealing with medical treatment, missed work, and insurance questions is exhausting when you are trying to recover. While there is so much uncertainty about your situation, you donโt have to approach it alone. If you have been injured in an accident that wasnโt your fault, reach out to an experienced Long Beach personal injury lawyer at West Coast Trial Lawyers to get the support you need.ย ย
At West Coast Trial Lawyers our team of attorneys understand how troubling sudden accidents can be and when you hire us, our team will investigate the accident, evaluate available insurance coverage, and pursue available compensation under California law. As a result of our firmโs dedication, we have recovered more than $2 billion on our clients behalf, and we will continue our legal duty to provide top-tier legal representation to those in need.ย
Call us today at (562) 396-9874ย or fill out our online contact form for a free case consultation.ย
Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Frequently Asked Questions About Long Beach Personal Injury Claims
Can I Recover Compensation if the Accident Aggravated an Old Injury?
A defendant is not automatically excused from liability simply because you had a pre-existing condition. If an accident made an existing injury or medical condition worse, compensation may be available for the additional harm attributable to the accident.
What if My Medical Bills Exceed the At-Fault Personโs Insurance Limits?
Your attorney may investigate whether other insurance policies or responsible parties exist. For example, a serious Long Beach crash involving a commercial or delivery driver might potentially involve the driver’s employer or a commercial insurance policy. An automobile accident could also implicate your own underinsured motorist coverage.
What if the Driver Who Hit Me Was Working for a Company Near the Port of Long Beach?
If the driver was acting within the scope of employment when the accident occurred, their employer could potentially share responsibility. However, determining employment status and what the driver was doing at the time of the collision will become an important part of the investigation.
What if Two Drivers Are Blaming Each Other for Causing My Injuries?
More than one driver can potentially share fault for the same accident and evidence such as photos, videos, and vehicle damage can prove what actually happened. Additionally, the state will allow multiple parties to share fault if that happens to be the case.ย
Can I Obtain Surveillance Footage of My Long Beach Accident?
Potentially, because businesses, dashcams, doorbell cameras, or other sources may have recorded what happened. However, there is no universal retention period for video footage, and some systems automatically overwrite recordings.ย
Can I Sue the City of Long Beach if a Dangerous Road or Traffic Signal Contributed to My Accident?
Possibly, but claims against public entities are substantially different from ordinary negligence cases. Liability may depend on who controlled the property, what dangerous condition existed, whether the entity created the condition or had legally sufficient notice of it, and whether the required government-claim procedures were followed.
What if I Already Gave the Insurance Company a Recorded Statement?
Giving a recorded statement does not automatically destroy your case. However, the insurer may compare what you said against later medical records, testimony, photographs, and other evidence. Tell your attorney what was discussed and provide a copy or recording of the statement if one is available.
What if the Person Who Caused My Accident Died in the Crash?
The other person’s death does not necessarily eliminate your claim. The driver’s liability insurance may still apply, and certain claims may potentially proceed against a deceased person’s estate or appropriate representative.
These cases can involve additional procedural requirements, making early evaluation of insurance coverage and applicable deadlines particularly important.
What Happens if My Injuries Become Worse After I Accept a Settlement?
A final personal injury settlement commonly requires the claimant to sign a release resolving the claim. Once an enforceable settlement and release have been completed, it may be extremely difficult or impossible to obtain additional compensation simply because an injury later becomes more serious than expected.
