Personal Injury Cases in Douglasville

Item: Sherrod & Bernard
Rating: 5
Author: Mary Beth Davidson

Experienced law firm that treats you like family.

Sherrod & Bernard, P.C., was formed in 1992 to serve the people of Douglasville, Georgia and surrounding communities. Our founders, personal injury lawyers, John Sherrod and Ken Bernard, have worked together to build a strong and thriving practice, helping those who are seriously injured. By putting people and the community first, we’ve built a reputation as aggressive litigators and passionate advocates for injured people.

Over the years, we’ve seen insurance companies and large defense firms mistreat everyday people, depriving injured people of their rights, and leaving families devastated after injuries. This isn’t right. We fight hard to prevent these abuses by vigorously representing clients from start to finish, coaching and guiding people through each step of the personal injury claims and litigation process.

If you’ve been injured by someone else’s carelessness, our goal is to see that you and your family recover and move on with life. In fact, we want to make it so that when you leave our firm, you are better off than when you came in the door. It’s that simple.

Give our personal injury team a call, and find out if we can help you with your injury case. The claim review is free, confidential, and free of obligations.

Why You Need Help Handling a Personal Injury Claim

While some lawyers will never admit it, the truth is not everyone really needs a lawyer to help with their case. Minor fender benders with no injuries or a slip and fall in your own home may be things that you would not need a lawyer for, as examples. An attorney is necessary when someone else has carelessly caused you an injury that has affected your life in some way.

Most injuries – even seemingly minor ones such as dog bites, can leave a person missing work and unable to pay the bills. So, it’s only reasonable that if someone else caused the hardship, they should be held accountable.

Patient with injured hand consulting a physician. Many people are denied compensation by insurance companies, because large insurance carriers know that most individuals lack the resources and ability to do anything about it on their own. If the insurance company tells you your symptoms aren’t related, it doesn’t really matter to them that you know better or that a doctor may have told you differently. Ultimately, without an attorney, the insurance company could get away with leaving you and your family with steep medical expenses and lost income, none of which is your fault.

At Sherrod & Bernard, P.C., we’ve spent decades refining the process of carefully building personal injury cases for trial. We know how to present your case to a jury in order to forcefully pursue full and fair compensation on your behalf. Insurance companies know this, so they are often more likely to settle your case fairly if they know you have an experienced trial lawyer on your side.

What to Do If You Have Been Hurt Due to Negligence

Injuries don’t have to put your life on hold forever. No doubt you’ll be suffering from the pain and challenges of a recovery, but you may have legal options for getting paid and getting on with your life. We want to help. To make sure you are taking all the necessary precautions, follow these steps after any injury:

Get medical attention right away.

Don’t delay getting the help you need. If you are hurt, seek medical attention. Even if you’re one of those people who tries to “tough it out” or thinks you can “shake it off,” now is not the time to be tough. Now is the time to follow a set of simple steps to protect your family. The first step is making sure that any and all injuries are diagnosed, treated, and fully documented.

Cellphone with a red circle and line over it.

Don’t talk to insurance companies, defendants, or investigators.

Depending on the type of case, you may be contacted by various representatives of the insurance company or even the defendant. In some cases, large corporate defendants will hire surveillance teams, private investigators, and other professionals to look for ways to deny you compensation or shift the blame to you. Nothing good can come of you communicating with insurance adjusters or private investigators.

A person receiving updates from social media on their smart phone.

Stay off social media.

It can be very tempting to share everything on the Internet, but you can bet the insurance company and defendant are scouring the Web looking for anything you do. Even if you think your post is private, you may be surprised to find out that clever investigators can often locate everything you say and post, including your photos and comments on friends’ social media accounts. They may twist your words or take a photo out of context to try to weaken your case. So, the best practice is don’t post anything until the case is over.

A red gavel sitting on top of two books.

Hire an attorney.

Simply put, the easiest way to make all the debt collectors, government and health insurance reps, and insurance adjusters stop calling you is to hire an attorney. Once you hire our firm, we will put everyone on notice that you are represented by legal counsel. This means if anyone wants to talk to you about the case, they need to go through us. This gives you peace of mind, takes the stress off you, and lets you focus on what matters most – taking care of yourself and your family.

Have a Question About Your Case? Call Us Today:

770-920-8350Request A Callback

What Do You Need to Prove in a Personal Injury Claim?

Many people believe that the insurance company has to pay if you can prove that the defendant was at fault in causing your injuries. That is generally true, but there is a lot more to resolving a personal injury case. Here are the four basic elements you need to prove in order to be compensated:

Duty

Breach of Duty

Proximate Cause

Damages

Duty

You must prove that the defendant owed you a legal duty. This can vary from case to case. For instance, drivers owe a duty to keep a careful lookout for others and to obey the law. Doctors are required to meet a particular standard of care. Property owners owe visitors and guests a duty to maintain a safe environment and warn of dangers that may not be readily visible.

Breach of Duty

Next, assuming you can prove that the defendant owed you a particular duty, you must then prove that they violated that duty in some way. This is known as a breach of the duty, which is essentially the heart of any negligence claim. If proven, the defendant is negligent. But this isn’t the end of the case.

Proximate Cause

Often the harder part of the case is proving that the defendant’s negligence actually caused the specific injury you are claiming. If your injuries didn’t come from the defendant’s conduct, you cannot recover.

Damages

Finally, even if you can prove that the defendant’s negligence directly caused an injury, you must still prove the extent of the injury. You would have a hard time successfully arguing that you should be compensated if you can’t prove how badly. This is known as proving damages. These can include lost income, medical expenses, pain and suffer, and more.

Compensation in a Case

Damages are the legal term for your injuries and losses. When you claim compensation in a personal injury case, you are really outlining the ways that you have been damaged or the ways that you have lost something as a result of the defendant’s conduct.

Common damages that may be claimed in a personal injury case include:

Lost wages from missing work
Lost future ability to make a living
Past medical bills
Medical bills you are reasonably likely to incur in the future

Lost enjoyment of life
Emotional distress
Pain and suffering
Disfigurement and disability

Keep in mind that there are some injuries that are so catastrophic that a person may lose the ability to walk, see, or function in other ways. In these cases, there are numerous additional damages that can be claimed, such as adaptive housing, money for prosthetic limbs (amputations), and even money to pay for long-term caregivers in some cases.

When a close relative is killed by someone else’s negligence, you may have a right to pursue compensation for wrongful death. This type of claim allows certain surviving family members to seek money for:

Final expenses
Burial costs
Loss of financial support

Loss of emotional support
Loss of companionship, comfort and affection

Each case is unique, however, so don’t assume that all damages will apply in every case. It’s best to talk to an attorney to find out what options you have given the facts of your case. The attorneys of Sherrod & Bernard, P.C., welcome inquiries and are happy to answer your questions about potential damages that you can seek. Call or stop by our office today to discuss your case.

Statute of Limitations on Personal Injury Claims in Georgia

Georgia law gives injured people just two years from the date of their injury to bring a lawsuit against the party responsible for hurting them. There are only a few narrow exceptions.

Man showing his injured arm from car accident. For instance, if you’ve been injured by medical mistakes or malpractice, Georgia law requires most medical malpractice claims to be brought within two years of the negligent act or error. One exception is in cases of missed or incorrect diagnosis. In these cases, the law may permit these types of claims to be brought after two years where the person had no reasonable opportunity or reason to know of the missed diagnosis within two years. In such situations, courts will begin the two-year clock with the moment when the person became aware of the malpractice or when they should have known about it.

In cases involving local municipalities and government agencies, you may need to provide written notice of your intent to claim injuries within as little as six or 12 months of your injury, depending on the city or municipal agency.

Because statutes of limitations are not always as clear and straightforward as they would seem, it’s best to talk to a lawyer within the first few weeks of learning of an injury, if at all possible. The sooner you talk to a lawyer, the sooner you can start protecting your rights.

Common Types of Personal Injury Cases We Handle

The attorneys of Sherrod & Bernard, P.C., are versatile and flexible in handling just about any type of injury claim you have. We handle all of the following, but if you don’t see your injury listed, give us a call to see if we can still help:

Car accidents
Tractor-trailer and other heavy truck wrecks
Motorcycle crashes
Bicyclist and pedestrian injuries
Slip and fall / trip and fall injuries
DUI crashes
Distracted driving accidents

Medical malpractice
Nursing home abuse and neglect
Workers’ compensation
Construction site accidents
Defective medical devices
Product defects
Premises liability

Since many accidents may not always fall neatly in one category, you should try to work with an injury law firm that has a broad range of experience. For instance, you may have a motor vehicle crash while on the job. This could present both a workers’ compensation case and a case against the negligent driver.

Call Sherrod & Bernard, P.C., to learn more about what we can do to help.

Working With Sherrod & Bernard, P.C.

At Sherrod & Bernard, P.C., we’ve been helping injured people since 1992. Since that time, we have worked hard to build a reputation as a responsible local law firm that puts its clients first. In and around Douglasville, Georgia, our attorneys are members of the community, mothers, fathers, and dedicated advocates for those who are going through serious difficulties after an injury.

If you need help, whether it’s a car accident, a medical error, or some other type of personal injury, give us a call. We promise we’ll never charge you for a consultation, and we’ll take a fee only if we are able to get compensation for your injuries. If you don’t recover money, we won’t get paid either.

Count on Sherrod & Bernard, P.C., for all your personal injury legal needs.

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