Injured Due to Negligence?

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Rochester Personal Injury Lawyer

Serving Injured People & Accident Victims in Rochester and Western NY

Have you been injured by a negligent individual or party? Then you may be entitled to personal injury compensation for your losses and your suffering. Our personal injury law firm in Rochester, New York, has a consistent record of legal victories driven by our commitment to our clients, innovative case strategies, and staying on the offensive. With King Law, you can strike back. No matter how complicated your case may seem, the team is prepared to protect you during all of the phases of the personal injury lawsuit process.

King Law provides best-in-class legal counsel to the residents of Rochester and the surrounding areas. We support clients throughout Rochester, Monroe County, and Western New York. Whether your case will be heard in Monroe County Supreme Court or Rochester City Court, our team is ready to represent your case and fight for a fair and successful outcome. We represent clients from Irondequoit, Greece, Park Avenue, Brighton, Henrietta, East Rochester, Webster, Penfield, Pittsford, and beyond.

We deliver meaningful results for our clients. Our demonstrated record of wins has not been achieved through a one-size-fits-all legal strategy. Our attention to detail and deep knowledge of personal injury law allow us to create customized legal strategies for our clients. As former prosecutors with extensive trial experience, our attorneys at King Law will tailor a plan of action for your case and go on the offensive. One call is all it takes for us to take charge of your case and get a free consultation.

Types of Personal Injury Cases We Handle in Rochester, NY

At King Law, we take cases from people who have suffered injuries from a variety of circumstances. Whether you were in a car crash on I-490, involved in an accident at work, or slipped on an unmaintained sidewalk while walking downtown, our attorneys can help you recover compensation for your losses.

Here are just some of the personal injury claim types our firm supports:

• Car accidents
• Construction accidents
• Dog bites
• Hazing injuries
• Medical malpractice
• Motorcycle accidents
• Pedestrian accidents
• Slips and falls
• Truck accidents
• Workplace injuries

How We Build Cases for Our Rochester Clients

In personal injury cases, negligence must be proven. If the accident or injuries could have been prevented had the liable party exercised greater care or caution, then you may have a valid claim. The firm can review the details of your case to determine its merits and inform you on what you should do next.

In order to get a fair, accurate, and complete idea of how much your recoveries will end up costing you, the firm can work with financial and medical experts. Only when the full value of your claim is known can a settlement be bargained or accepted.

Insurance Companies vs. Personal Injury Lawyers

The job of a personal injury attorney is to make sure a victim is fairly compensated for their injuries and losses. The job of an insurance company is to save money through all possible means. To accomplish this goal, they try to put as much blame as possible on the injured individual to minimize how much compensation they need to give them.

Your Rochester personal injury attorneys will fight for fair compensation that adequately addresses your past, current, and future losses. Our attorneys at King Law will use careful analysis, extensive evidence, and careful application of legal statutes to win you as much compensation as possible. We can communicate with your insurance provider to ensure they do not try to use persuasive language to get you to say or do the wrong thing. King Law will protect your best interests and legal rights throughout a personal injury claim.

What To Do After an Injury or Accident in Rochester, NY

When you are in an accident or faced with an unexpected injury, it can be difficult to know what to do next. Accidents and injuries are stressful events, and your decision-making is affected. If you experience an injury or an accident, there are simple steps you can take to protect yourself and your future legal interests.

If you are in an accident or experience a serious injury in the Rochester area, here are some immediate steps you can take to protect yourself:

• Call 911 or the Rochester Police Department
• Seek medical treatment at a local hospital (e.g., Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester General Hospital, or Unity Hospital)
• If you can do so safely, document the accident scene and injuries through notes, pictures, or videos
• Avoid conversations with insurance adjusters until you have spoken with a lawyer
• Contact a Rochester personal injury lawyer

Once your immediate safety and health needs are addressed, your personal injury attorney can advise you on what to do next. We will advise you on which parties to communicate with, which parties we should communicate with, and advise you on records maintenance to support your case.

New York Statute Of Limitations On Injury Cases

In the state of New York, victims of accidents caused by another party’s negligence are entitled to file a claim against the responsible party in pursuit of compensation for their suffering and serious injuries. However, these claims must be filed within a certain amount of time in order to be heard by the courts. This is because nearly all types of lawsuits are subject to a statute of limitations, or a window of time in which a person is permitted to pursue legal action.

In the case of personal injury lawsuits, the statute of limitations in New York allows accident victims to file a claim within three years of their accident. If a claim involves New York City authorities or a government agency, a notice of claim must be filed within 90 days, and a lawsuit must be filed within one year and ninety days. Wrongful death and medical malpractice claims must be filed within two years and six months.

If this time period expires and a person has not yet filed a claim, they will no longer be able to seek legal action and or compensation. For this reason, it is imperative that injured parties contact an attorney as soon as possible to ensure they meet all relevant deadlines and properly preserve evidence and documentation.

You should speak with an experienced legal counsel to understand your options and if filing a lawsuit would actually benefit you. Allow Rochester personal injury lawyer Robert King to review your case and determine if more needs to be done before you file and whom you should file your case against.

Compensation Available in Rochester, NY, for Personal Injury Cases

If you have been injured, it affects almost all areas of your life. Compensation should account for both immediate losses and long-term needs. Our team of personal injury attorneys will fully assess your losses and circumstances to make sure we fight for adequate compensation that addresses your actual losses.

Compensation in a successful personal injury case will usually provide for past, current, and future costs related to:

Determining how much money or compensation is required to fully recover from an accident requires a detailed review of your bills, payments, losses, and possible future costs. Insurance companies routinely undervalue claims. Initial settlement offers from insurance companies rarely account for your full scope of losses. Many initial settlement offers from insurance companies are the smallest amount they can legally state, and it will not be enough for everything you need now and later. At King Law, we review the full extent of your losses and fight for meaningful compensation that will protect you and your family now and in the future.

In order to get a fair, accurate, and complete idea of how much your recoveries will end up costing you, the firm can work with financial and medical experts. Only when the full value of your claim is known can a fair settlement be negotiated.

What You Need to Prove to Win Your Personal Injury Case

When you can prove that the other party was to blame for your injuries, you maintain the right to file a personal injury case. However, merely filing a personal injury case is not enough to recover damages, or monetary compensation. Instead, you will need to produce evidence to satisfy the four elements of a personal injury case in New York:

1. Existence of Duty of Care
2. Breach of Duty of Care
3. Causation
4. Damages

Our Rochester, NY, personal injury attorneys at King Law has decades of experience working on personal injury claims and can help you to prove each element and recover the settlement you deserve.

Existence of Duty of Care

The first element that must be established in a personal injury claim or lawsuit is the existence of a duty of care—that is, that the defendant in the case owed some duty of care to the plaintiff in the case. In many case types, duty of care is implied. For example, all drivers on the road owe a duty to others on the road to operate their vehicles legally and reasonably. In other cases, duty of care may need to be established. For example, in a premises liability case (e.g., a case alleging harm from inadequately maintained or dangerous property), the plaintiff may need to prove that they were lawfully upon the property. Therefore, the property owner owed them a duty of care—the duty to maintain the property in a reasonably safe condition.

Breach of Duty of Care

Once the existence of a duty of care is established, the second responsibility of the plaintiff is to prove that the defendant breached the duty of care. Typically, this is referred to as negligence—the failure to exercise a reasonable degree of care for a given situation. Breaching the duty of care can look different depending on the case. In a car accident claim, it might include things like speeding, driving while distracted, or performing an illegal maneuver. In a slip and fall case, it might mean the property owner’s failure to remedy a hazardous condition, such as an uneven walking surface or a spilled substance.

Causation

Next, the claimant will need to prove that the breach of duty of care was the proximate cause of their injuries. Essentially, the person injured needs to prove that their injuries would not have occurred but for the defendant’s negligence/breach. The claimant must produce evidence that proves this by preponderance of the evidence, meaning that it is “more likely than not” that injury was the result of the incident in question. This process differs from the burden of proof in a criminal case, which is “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Damages

Finally, the claimant must prove that they have suffered actual damages as a result. This could include economic and non-economic harm, such as lost wages, medical expenses, and pain and suffering. At the law office of King Law, our personal injury lawyers empathize with what you are going through and is here to advocate for you. When you call our personal injury attorney’s office, we’ll start working on your case immediately and can provide you with a free case consultation. Please call us directly or send us a message online telling us more about your case to get started.

Trial Experience in Monroe County Courts

Our team of attorneys at King Law all have experience trying cases in Monroe County Courts. They are all Rochester-area natives who have built their lives and careers in our community. Our team of personal injury attorneys is made of former county prosecutors. We understand the complexities of guiding cases through criminal and civil courts.

Founding attorney, Robert King, was an assistant district attorney for Monroe County. He was also a senior trial attorney in the Special Victims Unit. Robert King, is a veteran litigator who has been featured in the prestigious 2016, 2017, and 2018 Super Lawyers Rising Stars lists – an honor reserved for less than 2.5% of lawyers in the state.

His brother, Jerry King, began his career as an assistant district attorney and spent 2 years as a prosecutor in Schuyler County, 2 years as a prosecutor in Steuben County, and 3 years in Ontario County. Personal injury lawyer Greg Colavecchia was an assistant district attorney for Monroe County for 8 years and eventually earned the title of senior assistant district attorney.

Each of our attorneys has the knowledge and legal experience necessary to take cases to trial. If insurance companies do not agree to a fair settlement for our clients, we are ready to fight in court. We will put our hard-earned legal knowledge to work for you.

Should I Settle My Personal Injury Case?

After you have sustained an injury in an accident, it can be difficult to think about the long-term financial consequences and to focus on the present. To be sure, when you are facing the immediate effects of lost wages and increasing medical bills, you might assume that it is in your best interest to obtain compensation for your case as quickly as possible. However, if you settle your case too early, or if you accept a settlement offer without speaking with a Rochester personal injury lawyer, you can end up closing your case without getting the type of compensation you might have been eligible to receive if you had entered into additional negotiations or if you had taken your case to court.

Many personal injury lawsuits do end in settlements. Indeed, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), almost 75% of all personal injury cases end in an acceptance of a settlement offer, and only about 3% of all personal injury cases actually go to a judge or jury verdict. For the three-quarters of personal injury lawsuits that end in a settlement, it is important to keep in mind that the parties may have been involved in lengthy settlement negotiations before an agreement was reached. So, should you settle your personal injury case? It depends upon the particular details of the case. Here are some of the factors to consider.

Never Accept a First Settlement Offer

Whether you have filed an auto insurance claim or a personal injury lawsuit against the liable party, you should never accept a first settlement offer. Insurance companies, especially, tend to make a first settlement offer under the assumption that you will work to negotiate a better offer. You should also remember that the insurance company is not on your side and is not necessarily offering a settlement that is in your best interests. Similarly, if you file a lawsuit and receive a settlement offer, you should receive the offer with the assumption that you may be able to negotiate a better offer. And if the initial settlement or any subsequent offer is not fair, you should not accept it.

Consider How the Settlement Offer Compares with a Potential Damages Award

In deciding whether to accept a settlement offer, you should work with your attorney to consider how that settlement offer compares with a potential damages award you might expect to receive if you win your personal injury lawsuit. Typically, settlements are for amounts less than what a plaintiff would receive if she or he took the case to trial and won, but the numbers should not be drastically different, particularly to the point that the plaintiff would not be receiving fair compensation in accepting the settlement.

Consider Your Long-Term Needs When Reviewing a Potential Settlement

If another party is responsible for causing your injuries, it can be tempting to accept a settlement offer simply because you need the money now to pay bills and to make up for your lost wages. If you can, it is critical to think about your long-term needs and whether you can wait to receive a fair amount of compensation.

Personal Injury Claim Mistakes To Avoid

The common personal injury claim mistakes that victims make:

• Not contacting the police immediately. You should notify the police as soon as you can after an accident. The police will arrive, assess who may be liable, and write up a police report. Be sure to ask the police officer how you can obtain a copy of that report.
• Not getting medical treatment. Getting the care you need is not only important for your health, but it can strengthen your claim. If you don’t seek treatment, insurers may think that you are not injured and will most likely deny your claim.
• Not continuing medical treatment. If you have seen a doctor, make sure that you follow through with your appointments and your doctor’s treatment plan. If insurers find that you have gaps in your treatments or have stopped treatment, they can use it as an indication that you have fully healed.
• Failing to collect information. Remember to take pictures of the accident scene, your information, and take down contact information from witnesses who saw what happened. Do this as soon as you can because witness memories can fade over time.
  Failing to preserve evidence. Claims are all about evidence. You will need to preserve and protect the evidence that you have obtained. Make copies of documents, forms, photographs, and other key pieces of evidence in your claim.
• Accepting the first offer from insurance companies. Insurers are rarely willing to pay you what you are entitled to receive. The first offer is almost always a very low settlement that is not enough to cover your damages. There is usually room to negotiate, so don’t hesitate to do so.
• Waiting too long to submit a claim. All claims have a time limit. If you wait too long, you may lose your right to recover any type of compensation for your injuries.
• Not hiring an attorney. An attorney will be able to tell you if a settlement offer is fair and help you prepare an accurate claim. When you have an attorney working on your case, you can minimize mistakes and maximize your chances of obtaining a fair settlement.

Why Choose King Law Over Other Rochester Personal Injury Firms

There are a lot of great personal injury lawyers in Rochester and Western New York, but at King Law, we do the extra work that makes measurable differences for our clients. We use all the tools at our disposal to build a customized legal action plan that helps our clients. If you have been hurt in a Rochester-area accident, you can trust our team to do the work that other firms rush through. As former prosecutors, we understand how to go on the offensive and build a strong case.

Here are some pros of hiring King Law to represent your personal injury claim:

• Former prosecutor experience
• Trial-ready litigation approach
• No upfront legal fees
• Personalized case strategy
• Willingness to go to court when necessary

If details and personal attention matter to you, King Law is ready to represent your case. You can feel safe and confident in the level of service your will be provided. We will take your case seriously and fight for meaningful compensation for your injuries.

Contact a Rochester Personal Injury Lawyer Today

Personalized Representation From Our Rochester Personal Injury Lawyers is Available 24/7

If you have been in an accident or are injured in Western New York, talk to the team at King Law. We are ready to negotiate with businesses and insurance companies and fight for compensation on your behalf.

When insurance companies are unwilling to offer a fair settlement, we are not afraid to take them on or take your case to court. Our personal injury attorneys at King Law have extensive experience preparing, trying, and winning cases in front of a jury. You can benefit from our in-depth courtroom experience and extensive litigation knowledge and experience.

Speak with our experienced Rochester personal injury lawyers to get started and learn why you should hire us. Our team of attorneys makes it a priority to get to know you, your goals, and the difficulties you are facing during this time. You can always expect nothing but the most attentive and personalized counsel from King Law.

FAQs About Personal Injury Lawsuits in Rochester and Western New York