Fighting the Fights Other Law Firms Won’t
After you get into a serious accident, you need and deserve compensation. You also need the help of a Sterling Heights Car Accident lawyer. Those responsible for injuries will rarely admit fault, and insurance companies do their best to steer clear of accountability. Some personal injury lawyers in Sterling Heights might even say that your case is too difficult for them to take on.
But our Sterling Heights personal injury lawyers at Goodman Acker are ready to step up to the challenge. We are proud and prepared to take on complex and high-stakes catastrophic injury claims that cause other personal injury attorneys in Sterling Heights to shy away. Our tenacious and deliberate approach to casework and representation has earned us a long history of incredible success for our clients—and we don’t have any intention of changing our winning methods now.
You need a Sterling Heights personal injury attorney who is resilient, knowledgeable, and wants to do all they can to help you and your case. At Goodman Acker, our Sterling Heights personal injury lawyers are ready to learn more about you and how they can help. Give us a call at 248-286-8100 and ask for a free consultation today.
If you need a Sterling Heights Car accident attorney, contact our team online or call at 248-286-8100.
We Handle All Types of Personal Injury Claims
Personal Injury Lawyers in Sterling Heights with Vast Experience
What sets our personal injury firm apart from the rest in Sterling Heights, Michigan? It’s our standard of excellence, which includes:
- More than 150 years of combined experience
- A 99% success rate for settled cases
- Case results resulting in millions of dollars for our clients and their families
- Client-focused representation that produces strong client testimonials
- Featured regularly in the news with media outlets like Fox 2 News and Local 4 Detroit
- Commitment to and aggressive-yet-ethical, high-performing firm culture
- Availability 24/7 for client emergencies
- Free initial consultations
Our standard of excellence and the quality representation it fosters get noticed by our clients and our peers. We are consistently recognized as top personal injury lawyers by:
- Super Lawyers
- AV Martindale-Hubbell
- The National Trial Lawyers Top 100
This recognition does not come easy, but we continue to receive it because we work diligently to build compelling cases. We fight for our clients when others might retreat.
In terms of personal injury cases, we handle car accidents, dog bites, pedestrian accidents, medical malpractice, truck accidents, premises liability cases, traumatic brain injuries, wrongful death cases, and much more. We also have the legal talent and experience needed to assist you with long-term disability and Social Security disability claims. Essentially, if you have been hurt for any reason and deserve compensation, then a Sterling Heights personal injury lawyer from Goodman Acker can help you obtain the damages that you’re owed.
For a combined 150+ years, we have been helping our community members throughout the Sterling Heights metropolitan area. We have a 99 percent success rate to show for it.
Why Hire a Sterling Heights Personal Injury Attorney?
If you’ve been injured, you might think that you can handle the insurance companies on your own or that you can even defend yourself in court if need be. However, you’ll be much more likely to recover full compensation by working with a Sterling Heights personal injury attorney. Plus, why tax yourself while you’re injured? Focus on recovery while we fight for your compensation.
Personal injury lawyers in Sterling Heights can help with your case by:
- Negotiating with insurers to make sure that they don’t cut your compensation short
- Handling your claim and administrative tasks and filing the paperwork while you focus on healing
- Investigating your case by reviewing accident reports, medical records, on-site surveillance, and other evidence
- Identifying at-fault parties who may be responsible for an accident and owe you compensation
- Involving expert witnesses such as medical professionals and accident analysis professionals whose expertise can be used to support your case
- Representing you at trial if your case must go to court and there is no other option for obtaining a fair settlement.
By teaming up with personal injury attorneys in Sterling Heights, you’ll have expertise and experience on your side. At Goodman Acker, we take pride in being able to handle complex and high-stakes injury cases, and we know that our services and resiliency can be used to your benefit.
What Compensation Can Sterling Heights Personal Injury Lawyers Help Me Recover?
Don’t Suffer Financially Because of Someone Else’s Negligence
The person or entity who caused your injuries should be the one who is held financially accountable for your damages—it is as simple as that. However, insurance companies rarely comply so easily. Instead, they will take all steps to deny your claim and to minimize any settlement that’s ultimately offered.
Our Sterling Heights personal injury lawyers don’t stand for such treatment from the responding insurance parties. If you deserve $1 million in damages, then we will fight for $1 million in damages when acting as your legal representatives. We do not slow down or tire until we achieve the optimal case result for you, which is how we’ve won 99% of our cases.
Our Sterling Heights personal injury attorney can help you to obtain damages for:
- Doctors’ bills and medical expenses
- Therapy costs and future medical expenses
- Lost income and lost wages
- Loss of quality of life
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of earning potential if injuries hinder your job performance.
How Does a Sterling Heights Personal Injury Lawyer Prove Negligence?
To recover compensation after injury, personal injury lawyers in Sterling Heights must demonstrate that a defendant was negligent. Essentially, if no one is accountable for an accident, compensation cannot be recovered.
A Sterling Heights personal injury attorney looks for four key legal elements used to demonstrate negligence:
- Duty of Care – The defendant owed you a duty of care to not cause harm.
- Breached Duty – The defendant breached this duty by acting negligently.
- Cause – As a result of this negligence, you were injured.
- Damages – You suffered damages (meaning monetary expenses) as a result of your injury.
Personal injury attorneys in Sterling Heights know how to look at the facts of a case to identify where a defendant was negligent. After doing so, a Sterling Heights personal injury attorney can pursue the damages that you’re rightfully owed.
Personal Injury FAQ
Common Questions for Personal Injury Attorneys in Sterling Heights
Below are some of the most common questions and answers that you might have for an Sterling Heights personal injury lawyer. You likely have other questions, as well. So, give our office a call at 248-286-8100 and ask for a free consultation to learn more about how we can help.
Working with a Sterling Heights personal injury attorney and pursuing a claim does not necessarily mean that you will have to go court. Injury cases are taken to trial only if there’s no other way for a plaintiff to obtain a fair settlement and get their deserved compensation. Going to trial is typically a last resort, not a go-to option.
The used car for sale in your driveway is worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay. Similarly, your personal injury case is worth whatever an insurance company is willing to pay. Just like the used car has an asking price, a personal injury case has an asking price. A Sterling Heights personal injury lawyer calls this asking price the claim’s settlement value.
Several factors determine a used car’s asking price, such as the vehicle’s condition, miles driven, market conditions, and the seller’s motivation. Likewise, several factors determine a personal injury claim’s settlement value, such as the facts of the case, legal arguments in favor of the victim, legal arguments in favor of the defendant, the victim’s motivation to settle quickly, if any, and likely juror attitudes about the case.
In both cases, it’s essential to set the correct asking price or settlement value. If the settlement value is too high, the insurance company might not negotiate. If the settlement value is too low, the victim will probably wind up settling for less than the case is worth.
Emergency responders usually arrive promptly at the scene of a car accident or other serious injury. But these professionals aren’t there to collect evidence in a potential liability lawsuit. This responsibility falls to the victim, or to the victim’s Sterling Heights personal injury lawyer. Evidence in personal injury cases includes:
- Witness statements,
- The police accident report, and
- Electronic evidence, such as surveillance camera footage.
Victims should get the name and contact information of as many witnesses as possible. If possible, victims should also give a statement to emergency responders. However, victims shouldn’t talk to the other party’s insurance company at this point. Finally, make a note of any nearby cameras, even if they are a block or two away from the accident scene.
If you are unable to collect evidence, don’t worry. Your Sterling Heights personal injury lawyer can collect this evidence for you. Attorneys also have access to additional proof, such as medical bills and a vehicle’s Event Data Recorder, a device similar to a commercial jet’s black box flight data recorder.
The answer to this question varies in different states. In many states, victims who are partially responsible for their injuries aren’t entitled to any compensation at all.
The Wolverine State is different. Michigan is a modified comparative fault state with a 51 percent threshold. So, even if a victim was 50 percent responsible for the accident, the tortfeasor (negligent party) must pay a proportionate share of economic damages. Economic damages usually include medical bills, lost wages, and damaged or destroyed property.
If it tries to use the comparative fault defense, the insurance company has the burden of production and the burden of persuasion. Lawyers must convince a judge to allow the defense. Then, lawyers must convince jurors that the defense applies.
Michigan has a three-year statute of limitations for most personal injury cases. This deadline isn’t a problem in many cases. But it could be a problem in some cases. Toxic exposure illnesses are a good example. Many of these victims, like lung cancer victims, don’t know for several years after exposure to a dangerous chemical (or even several decades) that they have a disease. By that time, the three-year statute of limitations has passed.
Nevertheless, these victims still have legal options, thanks to the delayed-discovery rule. In Michigan, victims need not file legal claims until they know the complete extent of their injuries and are able to connect those injuries to a tortfeasor’s conduct or misconduct.
Recommended Reading
- How the Personal Injury Claim Process Works
- Is There a Minimum Value for a Personal Injury Settlement?
- How Long Will My Personal Injury Case Last?
Call a Sterling Heights Personal Injury Attorney at Goodman Acker
For years, Goodman Acker has been helping the people of Sterling Heights and Southfield seek justice, compensation, and a sense of closure after serious accidents occur. If you want to know more about our law firm and how we can help you with your Sterling Heights personal injury lawyer, feel free to browse our client testimonials or check out some of our best case results.
Goodman Acker. Good decision.
You can call 248-286-8100 to arrange a no-cost, no-obligation case consultation with our team to begin. We look forward to learning more about you and your case and being committed to helping you.
Goodman Acker P.C. – Sterling Heights
113854 Lakeside Cir suite 240
Sterling Heights, MI 48313
Phone: (586) 261-8457
LEGALLY REVIEWED BY BARRY J. GOODMAN
Barry J. Goodman has devoted his professional life to keeping courthouse doors open for victims seeking justice. Always a tireless advocate for his own clients, Goodman sees his responsibility as a Detroit personal injury attorney in a broader sense as well. [ Attorney Bio ]
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