If you are injured either while visiting a relative in his or her home or injured while riding in a vehicle with a relative, you would hope that relative would want to help you. If he or she is not willing to help you with medical bills, you may have to sue. This is a very unfortunate and delicate matter, but a personal injury attorney can help. Here is how your lawyer may advise you to proceed when you may need to sue family members.
Consider the Long-Term Effects
Some physical injuries may not be worth suing over. Consider the long-term effects; would your injury be completely healed by the time you get to court to sue your family member? If so, possibly damaging your relationship with that family member over a physical injury that has healed may not be such a good idea. He or she might not want to speak to you, even long after your injuries have healed. On the other hand, if your injuries are particularly serious and have a deep and lasting impact on your life and livelihood (e.g., you were shoved in your relative's pool and severed your spinal chord such that you will never walk again), then you may very well want to pursue a lawsuit.
Sue Only for What Your Medical and Health Insurance Will Not Cover
Even when your injuries will last you the rest of your life, you should only sue for what your health and medical insurance will not and did not cover to treat you initially. This way, you are not trying to sue your family member for all you can, but sue only for what you need. It may still damage the relationship between the two of you, but what you are suing for is not entirely unreasonable. Your relative may be more likely to come around to your point of view and accept his or her responsibility in the matter when you have not sued him/her for compensation above and beyond what you actually need.
If You Sue for Lost Wages, Sue Within Reason
Suing a family member for lost wages because you have missed work or can no longer do the job you did before the accident is a very tenuous position. Usually, you can sue for the wages lost for each day you were in the hospital, as well as any days where you were laid up at home and could not work. You will have to provide your lawyer and the courts with documentation showing that you could not work on these days and that proof typically includes notes to your employer that excuse you because of your injuries. You will also need a note from your employer proving that you lost "x" amount of dollars because you did not work. As for future earnings, you may not get, it is a good idea to look at disability income instead of suing your relative.
Share16 May 2016
Defective products are produced and sold to consumers all of the time. Unfortunately, some of these defective products cause consumers injuries when they malfunction. So, what can you do if a defective product causes you or someone that you love some kind of injury? This blog will show you how the legal system works to protect consumers from instances such as this. You will find out about personal injury lawsuits and what it takes to file and proceed with a lawsuit to hold the company that manufactured that defective product responsible for the role that they played in the pain that has been experienced.