Wisconsin Negligence Laws: Why You Need a Lawyer

Whether you’ve been injured in a car accident caused by a texting driver or in a slip-and-fall accident at your local coffee shop, you can seek damages if someone’s negligence caused you harm. But what are the negligence laws in Wisconsin, and why would you need a lawyer? Can’t you just file an injury claim by yourself?

It’s possible to file a claim for compensation without the help of an attorney, but that’s not usually the best idea. Negligence laws can be complicated, and negligence is tough to prove. To maximize your chance of receiving full compensation, you may need a lawyer experienced with personal injury cases on your side.

Proving Your Injuries Were Caused by Negligence

People are injured every day, but not every injury will qualify as a personal injury. There are a few criteria that must be met in order for your injury claim to hold water:

• Someone who had a duty of care to you must have injured you. What this means is that your injuries happened because of another person who should have taken precautions to prevent your injury.
• You must have suffered actual damages. You can’t file a claim simply because you were almost injured and you could have been seriously hurt. You must have actually been harmed and suffered losses or hardships.

If these two criteria have been met, you likely have a viable case. What makes personal injury cases difficult, though, isn’t whether or not you’re owed compensation—it’s whether or not you can prove your case.

Proving your case requires investigating the cause of your accident and who was responsible. You must gather evidence to demonstrate that you weren’t responsible. Finally, you must be able to prove your damages.

None of this is easy to do, and the challenging nature of injury cases is a good argument for hiring a personal injury lawyer to help you.

Negotiating the Compensation You Deserve for Your Injuries

Let’s say you have mounds of evidence to prove your claim. Would you still need a lawyer? To get the monetary compensation you’re after, you will still have to convince an insurance company to give it to you. Insurance companies don’t necessarily want to hand over their money.

If you aren’t a skilled negotiator, you may not know what a good offer looks like. You will also likely need help calculating your settlement so you can be sure you obtain full compensation for all of your losses.

Additionally, if you don’t have an attorney, insurance companies may try to take advantage of you or try to make you seem like the one responsible for the accident. Under the legal doctrine of comparative negligence, any fault they place on you will reduce the amount of compensation you’re entitled to.

Call a Milwaukee Personal Injury Lawyer Today

Have you been injured in Wisconsin because of another person’s negligence? You deserve compensation for the damages you’ve suffered. To get that compensation, you’re likely going to need a lawyer.

The Law Offices of Gary S. Greenberg is ready to take your case. Call 414-271-7007 or fill out the form on this page to schedule your free case evaluation.