The goal of most people making a claim for an injury is to recover as much damages or benefits as possible. Recovery is not always as cut and dry as it may seem. There are sometimes many layers to your recovery that can take considerable time and require the assistance of experienced legal representation.
For example, let’s say that you work in a brand new, multi-level, office building with an elevator. While at work one day, you are riding the elevator up to your floor when the elevator malfunctions and collapses, ultimately causing serious injury to you. The question is: Who do you recover from?
Well, the answer is...several people. First, because you were working when the accident occurred, you would have a workers’ compensation claim. Next, because the elevator malfunctioned, you might have a cause of action against the company that installed the elevator, the company that sold the elevator, and the company that manufactured the elevator under a products liability theory of recovery. Furthermore, if your company does not own the building but merely rents the office space, you may also have a cause of action against the owner of the building under a premises liability or general negligence theory of recovery.
Prior to my practice of the law, I had a personal experience with the topic of our discussion today. One afternoon at work, I left the office to head out to the field to meet my crew. While driving in somewhat congested traffic, another vehicle began to merge into my lane and required me to apply my brakes. As I applied my brakes, a third vehicle had been following too closely behind me and hit me. After I spoke to the driver of the vehicle that hit me, I learned that he had no insurance. How would I recover for my injury?
Well, as you can imagine, there were multiple, complex layers to my recovery. First, because I was working, I was able to obtain benefits from workers’ compensation. Next, I could have recovered from the driver that had hit me, but he had no insurance and did not have the means to pay a judgment against him. As such, I needed a lawyer to help me recover under a concept known as uninsured motorist coverage.
As you can see, there are many different scenarios and situations that can occur that would give rise to multiple lawsuits within the same sequence of events. With this in mind, you need to make sure that you have a lawyer that knows how all of these claims interrelate so you can obtain the maximum and best result possible.
The lawyers at Nessler and Associates have decades of experience handling a multitude of claims like these for thousands of satisfied clients. We can and will use every means necessary to obtain the compensation you need and will provide the representation you deserve.