Understanding Personal Injury Claims in Arizona

When it comes to personal injury and negligence claims, it’s important to know the laws and requirements in your state. If you’ve been injured in an accident in Arizona, the process for proving negligence and filing your injury claim will be different.

Before you prove negligence and get to the details of the claim, you have to know the laws. To learn more about the claim process, contact our Phoenix personal injury attorneys at the ELG Law. Our team of personal injury lawyers is here to help with a free, no-nonsense consultation for legal aid.

Negligence

First, it’s important to know about negligence in your case. Negligence, per the legal definition, is a failure to act with the same level of care someone else would have exercised in similar circumstances. When it comes to your claim, you, the plaintiff/victim, must prove negligence. You must prove that the defendant owed a duty to you and that they breached that duty.

For example, drivers have a duty to obey driving laws in Arizona, so if a motorist runs a red light and hits you, they’ve breached their duty of care.

Then, you must prove that the defendant’s actions led to an accident that caused your injuries and caused physical, emotional, and/or financial damages.

Personal Injury Claims

Familiarizing yourself with the claim process is also helpful, though you should contact a lawyer as soon as possible.

Once you’ve organized the facts of your case, a lawyer will file a claim on your behalf. The defendant has 20 days to respond to the claim after it’s received. And if a response is filed, both parties will need to provide evidence; depositions will come into play here, as they’re used to request important documents, like police reports and photographs.

After this discovery process, a motion to set the case is completed. If the case continues at this point, a jury or judge will review the injury claim, determine fault, and award damages.

Keep in mind that you must list a monetary value so the court can compensate for your loss. And in Arizona, the statute of limitations for filing a claim is two years, so you have two years from the date of your injury to take action.

Furthermore, comparative negligence comes into play in Arizona. This means that both parties, the plaintiff and the defendant, can carry fault. If the plaintiff is at fault, the jury may reduce their compensation by the degree of fault they hold. And if the plaintiff caused the accident or somehow contributed to their injury, they might be unable to recover compensation.

Arizona Personal Injury Law

Arizona’s law also includes the right to contribution, which focuses on the rights of individuals who are both liable for the same injury to a person and damage to the property. This means victims have a right to hold each party that contributed to the damages responsible.

For example, this most often applies to medical malpractice cases. More than one medical professional may have breached their duty of care in this case.

Personal Injury Attorney in Phoenix

Above all, contact your attorney if you’ve sustained an accident injury and have questions about filing a claim. Your lawyer will help you organize the facts of your case, help you prove damages, and explore your legal options.

Contact our Phoenix personal injury lawyers at ELG Law at (623) 562-3838 for a free consultation today.