If you or someone you love suffered a severe injury due to someone else’s carelessness or recklessness, you might be eligible to file a personal injury lawsuit. A skilled personal injury attorney with Rafi, Brown, and Stokes is ready to help you recover money for your medical bills, lost wages, and more. You take care of your health – we’ll take care of everything else.
Give us a call at (404) 800-9933 or contact us online to schedule a free case evaluation with a Marietta personal injury attorney. You’ll receive the aggressive representation it takes to help you recover and move on with your life.
Our personal injury practice areas
The following is a brief look at the types of cases we regularly handle:
- Car and motorcycle accidents
- Semi-truck and box truck collisions
- Bicycle and pedestrian collisions
- Workplace injuries
- Slip-and-fall incidents
- Negligent security at apartments, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other venues
- Boating accidents
- Dog bites
- Medical malpractice
- Defective products
Why hire Rafi, Brown, and Stokes
Our Marietta personal injury attorneys have a long track record of helping clients obtain justice. These are just some of the case results we’ve achieved:
- $2 million for a client who suffered a severe injury when their hand was trapped in a piece of defective equipment.
- $3 million in a wrongful death case stemming from a tragic shooting in Macon.
- $3 million for the family members of the victim of a truck accident on I-285.
- $3.1 million for the family of a person killed in an accident involving a medical transport van.
- $3.28 million for a client who was severely injured in an Atlanta accident.
Steps to take after being hurt
If you can remember to take the following steps after suffering an injury, you’ll have a better chance of achieving a full recovery. You’ll also have a much stronger case.
1. Find a safe place away from the source of injury
An accident resulting in a severe injury can often leave you stunned and unsure of what to do. Your first action should be to get as far away from what hurt you as possible. For example, try to move your vehicle to the shoulder of the highway or a parking lot after a car wreck.
2. Perform a self-evaluation
You might not realize just how badly hurt you are because of adrenaline. But this powerful hormone might be masking the severity of your injury. Check to see if you can move your arms and legs, and check for wounds or cuts. The more information you can provide the 911 dispatcher, the better-prepared emergency personnel will be to treat you.
3. Call 911 and ask for an ambulance and the police
When you call 911, tell the dispatcher as much as you can about your injuries and how many other people were hurt in the accident. You should also make sure they send both an ambulance and a police officer.
The officer will investigate to determine how the accident occurred. Their resulting report could provide powerful evidence to strengthen your case.
4. Take notes and photos of the scene
Your safety will always be the highest priority, of course. But if you’re physically able to take photos of the accident scene, and you can do so safely, these pictures could dramatically impact your case. Get photos of your injuries and anything else you believe is important, such as conditions that contributed to the accident.
5. Collect contact information from witnesses
There’s a good chance at least one person saw what happened. Ask them for their contact information, and tell them your Marietta personal injury attorney will get in touch later.
6. Keep a written or digital record of your experience in the minutes, hours, and days after the accident
We’ll cover damages more in-depth later in this article, but you’ll likely be eligible to receive compensation for your non-economic damages, such as lost quality of life and pain and suffering. Keeping a detailed journal of your experiences after the accident will increase the chances of recovering those damages.
7. Visit your primary care physician or specialist
Getting prompt medical attention will be critical for your health. It will also show that the accident caused your injury, and what type of treatment you’ll need on an ongoing basis. All of this information will be vital to your case.
8. Speak with a Marietta personal injury attorney
Get in touch with a Marietta personal injury attorney as soon as possible so they can investigate the accident. Your attorney is your legal and personal advocate, and they can help you obtain medical treatment as well as maximize the amount of your claim.
Don’t miss the deadline to file your personal injury claim
Georgia has a two-year statute of limitations regarding most personal injury cases. If you don’t meet this deadline, the chances of receiving the compensation you deserve will be very slim. Also, the longer you wait to file a claim, the higher the likelihood that vital evidence will disappear.
Possible damages you can claim
The purpose of a personal injury lawsuit is to compensate an injured person for their damages, or losses. With the help of a skilled Marietta personal injury lawyer, you will likely be able to recover two types of damages: economic and pain and suffering damages.
Economic damages
Economic damages are straightforward and relatively easy to prove. All you need is documentation of your medical bills (both present and future), your lost wages, and any property damage that occurred.
Pain and suffering damages
In Georgia, injured people can recover damages for their mental and emotional losses. Pain and suffering damages include things like:
- Interference with normal living or enjoyment of life
- Loss of earning capacity
- Physical impairment
- Fear and shock
- Past and future actual pain and suffering
- Past and future mental anguish
These are real losses that cause significant distress, but they are more difficult to recover because they don’t come with a set number or bill. Our skilled Marietta personal injury attorneys have decades of experience arguing successfully for pain and suffering damages, and we’ll work hard to recover them for you.
Non-economic damages
Non-economic damages, however, are far different. You’ll need a seasoned Marietta personal injury attorney to prove the subjective losses you’ve experienced. These include the lost quality of life and pain and suffering mentioned above, as well as mental and emotional distress.
How to find the right personal injury lawyer for your needs
You might be considering an attorney because of an advertisement. But this strategy is not the best way to select a lawyer. Talk to at least three or four of them to get a feel for whether you’ll be comfortable working with them. Look at online reviews of the attorneys you’re thinking of hiring. Once you’ve narrowed down your choices, trust your instincts.
We’ll fight the insurance company to get you the maximum compensation
Insurers will do everything they can to either minimize your claim or deny it completely. When you choose a Marietta personal injury attorney with Rafi, Brown, and Stokes, you can do so with total confidence.
We won’t be intimidated by deep-pocketed insurance companies and their high-priced lawyers. We know their tactics, and we know how to argue to get the full compensation you need.
Parties who may be liable for your injury
There could actually be several people or entities that played a role in causing your injury. That’s what makes personal injury cases so complex. If you were in a car wreck, for example, the at-fault driver may have been drunk and their brakes might have failed. In this example, you’d sue not only the driver but also the brake manufacturer.
Identifying all potentially liable parties could increase your settlement. Each defendant should have their own insurance policy, so the more insurance money that’s available, the more money you may be able to collect.
How our injury attorneys prove liability
An experienced attorney will have ways of finding evidence that most non-lawyers won’t. For example we can obtain phone records and surveillance camera footage. Our lawyers can also get so-called “black box” data from commercial trucks that show how the vehicle was operating at the time of an accident. Again, however, you’ll need to hire a lawyer quickly before essential evidence fades away or disappears completely.
Personal injury lawsuit process
No two personal injury cases are completely alike. But the following will give you a general idea of what to expect.
1. Legal consultation
This is where you get to know your Marietta personal injury attorney and they get to know you. The consultation will be your opportunity to explain what happened to you and how. The lawyer will then explain the strengths of your case, as well as any weaknesses if they exist. We’re happy to meet with you in person, over the phone, or on Zoom.
2. Accident investigation
We can’t overemphasize the importance of the investigation. It could very well make the difference between obtaining full compensation and getting nothing. The lawyers with Rafi, Brown, and Stokes are investigative experts. We’ll take a detailed, exhaustive look at the accident to determine how it happened and who is to blame.
3. File demand for compensation
Once we identify all of the liable parties, we’ll send all of them a demand letter. As the name implies, this letter is a demand for compensation. Some attorneys simply send form letters that are worded exactly the same regardless of the details of the case. We never do that, because we know insurers are much less likely to offer fair settlements when they receive boilerplate demand letters.
4. Negotiation
The demand letter is a starting point in negotiating a settlement. More than likely, the insurer will initially offer less than you deserve. But we’ll have the truth on our side, and your Marietta personal injury attorney will have the skill to make a persuasive argument so the insurer increases that offer. The vast majority of personal injury cases settle without the need to go to court.
5. Take the case to trial
There are some instances where an insurer will simply refuse to pay an injury victim what they deserve. If this happens in your case, we’ll be prepared to take the case to court and win. The process begins by filing a lawsuit, then engaging in discovery, after which mediation occurs. If the other party refuses to offer a fair settlement, the last step is to have a trial by jury.
Rafi, Brown, and Stokes has a great deal of trial experience and we know how to convince juries that our clients should receive every dollar they’re demanding.
Why it’s important to visit the doctor
If you don’t see a doctor immediately, you’ll be putting your health at risk. Delaying medical help could set your recovery back for weeks, months, or even longer.
It will also make it easy for the insurance company to argue your injury really isn’t as serious as you claim. The insurer might even argue that you’re faking your injury just to make some money. Failing to see a doctor will play right into the insurance company’s hands – and that’s the last thing you want to do.
Cost of hiring a personal injury lawyer
Rafi, Brown, and Stokes won’t make a dime unless we achieve a successful result on your behalf. You have nothing to lose by choosing our firm. We’ll handle all of the expenses associated with representing you, and then get a percentage of whatever you win.
Our Marietta personal injury lawyers are here to help
Please don’t hesitate to speak with a Marietta personal injury attorney with Rafi, Brown, and Stokes. You can schedule a free consultation by contacting us online or calling (404) 948-3311.
