Rules of a Personal Injury Case

Answer:

It’s often surprising to people how complex the rules that apply to personal injury cases in Idaho can be. There’s lots of different statutory and case law that makes the practice of personal injury law in Idaho challenging. It’s fun, but it’s challenging. It can impact your case.

For example, we follow a rule called comparative negligence, or comparative responsibility, or comparative fault. This is an apportionment of responsibility for an injury amongst the injured person and the person who caused the injury. It can be amongst multiple people who caused the injury. You take 100% of a claim or an injury accident and say that’s how much total responsibility there is.

A jury is asked to apportion it between the person who caused the accident, the injured person, or maybe there’s multiple people who caused the accident. Maybe there’s a driver running a stop sign and a person sitting in the seat next to them grabbing the steering wheel. They both are responsible for that collision that caused you an injury. That’s one of the complexed rules.

We also have what’s called a cap on damages. Lobbyists went to our legislature and said, well, even though you don’t know all the facts of every case, we’re going to put a limit to the amount of actual losses you can recover. There are ways that a good trial attorney in Idaho can get away from that cap on damages by showing other levels of proof or behavior by the person who caused the injury that will eliminate that cap and allow you to get full, fair, and maximum compensation like you deserve for your injury claim. You didn’t ask for it. You’re not out looking for a personal injury attorney in Idaho because you wanted to. We’re not people that you meet when something good is happening.

Understanding these rules and all the other rules that apply is a very important thing. It’s why you want an experienced personal injury trial attorney in Boise, Idaho, to help you out, not somebody who’s just a lawyer, or who practices on a general practice firm, or whose focus is divorce cases, or wills cases, or business transactions. They’re good folks, but they don’t know their way around personal injury law. If you have any questions about your personal injury case, give us a ring. We’re happy to talk to anybody anywhere across Idaho about their injury claim.