Cape Cod Personal Injury Lawyers

Personal Injury

Personal injury lawsuits may be brought against a person or entity that is at fault for an accident that resulted in injuries. Many personal injury lawsuits in Massachusetts are pursued under a theory of negligence. To prove negligence, you will need to show that the defendant owed you a duty of care, the defendant failed to meet the applicable standard, and you sustained damages that were caused by the defendant’s carelessness. The duty of care owed and whether it was breached depends on the particular circumstances. In more complicated cases, it may be necessary to retain an expert to provide testimony on issues such as accident reconstruction, whether a duty of care was breached, or the extent of the damages.

Car Accidents

Around 135,000 car accidents occur in Massachusetts each year. All drivers owe a duty to use reasonable care when operating their cars. This duty may be breached in many different ways, including by speeding, texting, tailgating, drunk driving, drugged driving, aggressive driving, and fatigued driving. If a personal injury attorney on Cape Cod can establish another driver’s liability, a victim may be able to recover the damages caused by the driver’s negligence. These may include medical bills, lost income, lost earning capacity, property damage, out-of-pocket costs, emotional distress, and pain and suffering. Massachusetts follows a rule of modified comparative negligence. You can only recover compensation as long as you were less than 51% responsible for the accident causing your injuries, and your recovery will be reduced by your proportion of fault, if any is found.

Truck Accidents

Often, truck accident lawsuits in Massachusetts not only are exceptionally complicated but also involve catastrophic or fatal injuries to multiple people. It is often important after a truck accident to conduct a comprehensive investigation of all of the contributing causes to the accident. Truck drivers and trucking companies are supposed to follow the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) regulations. Violating the regulations may be strong evidence of negligence. For example, if an interstate truck driver skips the rest breaks mandated by the FMCSA regulations and causes an accident due to his fatigue, he may be held liable for his negligence. A trucking company can also be held vicariously liable for its driver’s negligent acts in the course of employment.

Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcyclists are particularly susceptible to catastrophic or fatal injuries when they get into a collision with a larger vehicle. Some common types of accidents involving motorcyclists include broadside collisions, unsafe lane change accidents, left turn accidents, and intersection accidents. Drivers of passenger cars and trucks may not see motorcyclists because they are smaller. Often, there is a juror bias against motorcyclists, and insurance adjusters are aware of this bias. They may not offer a fair settlement, trying to allege a motorcyclist’s comparative negligence. This makes it especially important to hire an experienced Cape Cod personal injury attorney to handle a motorcycle accident case.

Slip and Fall Accidents

Slip and fall accidents are among the most common kinds of accidents in Plymouth and on Cape Cod. They occur if somebody slips, trips, or stumbles over a substance or another dangerous condition on the floor or ground and falls. Often, they are results of a business failing to maintain the floor or another surface and failing to warn visitors about dangerous conditions. In Massachusetts, you need to establish the property owner or occupier’s notice of a dangerous condition. However, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has held that notice can be shown if a plaintiff can prove that an injury was attributable to a reasonably foreseeable dangerous condition related to the defendant’s mode of operation.

Medical Malpractice

In Massachusetts, you generally have three years from the date that an injury is inflicted to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. However, the clock can be extended under certain circumstances if you did not know about the injury right away. Not all mistakes made by doctors or other health care providers are considered medical malpractice. To recover damages for medical malpractice, a personal injury lawyer on Cape Cod will need to prove that a health care provider’s breach of the professional duty of care caused your harm. Within 15 days of the defendant answering your lawsuit, your attorney or you will need to present an offer of proof to a three-person tribunal, which is put in place to decide whether your evidence is sufficient to raise a legitimate question about whether the defendant was negligent in providing you with medical care.

Nursing Home Negligence

When you place a loved one in a nursing home, you expect that they will receive care under all of the applicable laws and regulations, as well as the terms of the contract under which they were admitted. Unfortunately, nursing home negligence and abuse are common. Often, they are related to understaffing, health care fraud, and mismanagement. Residents may not always advocate for themselves, either because they are incapacitated in some way or because they are afraid of reprisal from the staff. Some common signs of nursing home negligence and abuse include untreated pressure sores, malnutrition, dehydration, inadequate hygiene, physical abuse, unnecessary physical restraints, chemical restraints, and sexual abuse. It may be possible for a resident or a loved one to recover damages for injuries caused by nursing home negligence. Nursing home staff are required to report any suspected neglect or abuse, but often they do not, making it especially important for a resident’s loved ones to be vigilant to the possible signs.

Products Liability

Products that can cause harm include vehicle components, pharmaceutical drugs, medical devices, retail consumer products, and industrial products. If you were injured by a defective product in Massachusetts, your Cape Cod personal injury lawyer may be able to recover damages under three different theories of products liability. The three theories of products liability are breach of implied warranty of merchantability, negligence, and Chapter 93A. The most commonly asserted theory of liability is breach of warranty of merchantability. The warranty of merchantability is an implied warranty that guarantees that a product will perform according to its expected use.

Dog Bites

Dog bites can be very severe and cause scarring or disfigurement. Under Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 140, Section 155, the owner or keeper of a dog may be liable if a dog causes injuries, and the victim was not provoking the dog, perpetrating another tort, or trespassing. For example, if you are standing on a public sidewalk in Plymouth or on Cape Cod, and a dog gets free from their owner and runs up to bite you, you may be able to hold the dog owner liable. If the owner is a minor, the minor’s parent or guardian can be held liable for the damages with the assistance of a personal injury attorney on Cape Cod. Massachusetts is a strict liability state, meaning that a dog owner may be held liable even if the owner did not have prior knowledge that the dog had a propensity to bite.

Workers’ Compensation

If you were injured or made sick on the job, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. Benefits can cover all of your medical costs, as well as partial wage replacement for temporary or permanent disabilities. The amount of disability benefits will depend on the degree of the disability, with an injured worker receiving more if they are unable to go back to work at all. The workers’ compensation system was put in place to make it easier to recover money to take care of medical expenses and lost wages. However, in practice, insurers do deny valid workers’ compensation claims, and it can be important to retain an experienced workers’ compensation attorney. If an insurer denies your claim, you can appeal through the Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA).

Consult an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer on Cape Cod

It can be challenging to recover from the emotional and physical toll of an accident, especially when the injuries are so severe that they require expensive treatment at a time when you are unable to work. At the Law Offices of John C. Manoog, III, our Cape Cod personal injury lawyers have a strong reputation and a long track record of protecting clients’ rights and securing the compensation that they deserve. If you are injured in an accident or at work in Plymouth or any of the communities on Cape Cod, you should contact the Law Offices of John C. Manoog, III. Call us at (888) 262-6664 or complete our online form for a free consultation. Nós Falamos Português.