Indianapolis Personal Injury Attorneys

Personal injury law involves injury or harm done to a person stemming from another’s negligence. The result of the injuries can often be life-altering for the victim and – worst-case scenarios – heartbreaking for the victim’s family. At Wilson Kehoe Winingham, we have decades of experience working to bring justice to personal injury victims and their families, securing the highest level of compensation possible. Our lawyers have negotiated favorable settlements for various personal injury suits, helping our clients regain their lives. And when necessary, we have the skills to see your case through at trial.

Why You Should Choose Wilson Kehoe Winingham as Your Legal Advisor

Personal injury cases have been at the heart of WKW’s practice for over 30 years. Our lawyers have experience in a broad range of personal injury matters, from dog bites to job injuries to medical malpractice. We limit the number of cases we undertake to ensure each of our clients receives the care and time they need. And we’re located right here in Indianapolis. Our goal is to help fellow Hoosiers receive justice in the face of trauma.

Read more testimonials from real-life people about their experience with WKW.

How Can a Personal Injury Lawyer Help Your Case?

There are several ways that a lawyer can help your medical injury case. After a serious incident, you are likely under significant stress and feeling overwhelmed. Having an experienced Indianapolis personal injury lawyer from Wilson Kehoe Winingham by your side can guide you step-by-step through the process. Our support will help relieve much of the pressure from the many unknowns you face. Second, our lawyers will fight hard to get you the best settlement possible. We are experienced negotiators who know how to advocate for our clients, especially in more complex cases.

Investigations Prior to the Lawsuit

A lot of hard work goes into every case to optimize damages. Depending on the case, this can include anything from obtaining video footage to conducting witness interviews to scene recreation. Most businesses and their lawyers will try to prevent you from accessing information and materials that could be used against them. The attorneys at WKW are committed to helping you get every piece of evidence possible that could help you win your case.

Navigating and Explaining the Legal Process

We partner with our clients to work towards the best possible results while keeping them informed about each step of the process. Our significant experience negotiating with insurance companies is key to any successful settlement.

We have decades of experience turning an insurance company’s initial offer into a substantial outcome for the benefit of our client. Most insurance companies will try to gloss over many aspects of the case that our lawyers know warrant attention and compensation.

Gathering the Facts and Building a Case

Each personal injury case goes through what’s known as the discovery stage of a lawsuit, where both sides ask questions and seek information to prove or disprove their case. Having an experienced lawyer who knows where and how to dig in and uncover any potentially useful information is crucial. This information could include police reports, witness statements, and any past improprieties in the case of the accused. Once discovered, they may not want this information to come to light, helping lead to a settlement.

Encourage Settlement During Mediation

In Indiana, personal injury cases will enter mediation before a case goes to trial. Mediation allows both sides to discuss the case and share the evidence gathered during discovery that they would present at trial. Reviewing this evidence allows the defense and prosecution to evaluate their cases and identify strengths and weaknesses.

The goal of mediation is to come to a settlement and avoid going to trial, which can be a long, drawn-out process and can be hard for the victim to endure. In the case of Wilson Kehoe Winingham, it also allows us to demonstrate our litigation experience and willingness to take the case to trial if needed.

Excellence in Litigation at Trial

While both clients and lawyers alike usually aim for a favorable settlement, it’s always possible that your case will go to trial. This possibility is why working with personal injury lawyers with significant trial experience – like the team at WKW – is so important.

Our lawyers are experienced and polished. We work with the latest technologies to uncover any potential advantages to help your case. We won’t be intimidated by insurance company lawyers and will lead you through each step of the process.

“I can’t say how grateful I am to Wilson Winningham Kehoe Law Firm for everything they have done for my family. The entire law firm went above and beyond everything I ever could have imagined would come from our tragedy.”– Honey Leigh, Past Client

Indiana Injury Lawsuit Statistics

Personal injuries can happen anytime to anyone, often with devastating consequences that can impact the victim or their loved ones for life.

Types of Personal Injury Cases That We Handle

Our team of experienced personal injury lawyers at Wilson Kehoe Winingham have ample experience in various legal matters that impact Indiana citizens.

Aviation Accidents: Aviation accident cases may involve private, military, or commercial airplanes or helicopters. Our WKW staff includes two licensed pilots with a wide range of ratings and experience, making us uniquely qualified to help you fight and win your aviation-related personal injury case.

Bicycle Accidents: Bicyclists are particularly vulnerable to accidents and often suffer severe consequences.

Birth Injuries: Negligence or medical error that leads to life-long injuries in a newborn is every parent’s nightmare.

Boating Accidents: Given the many lakes enjoyed by so many in Indiana, boating accidents are not rare. You may be eligible for financial compensation.

Brain Injuries: Every year in the U.S., an estimated 1.5 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI), often resulting from a blow or jolt to the head. These injuries can permanently disrupt normal brain functions, altering life following the incident.

Car Accidents: From fender benders caused by distracted driving to fatal car accidents due to driver negligence, car accidents are rising in Indiana.

Construction Accidents: Workplace injuries on construction sites can be severe, even deadly. Loss of wages often plays into construction site injuries, including future wages.

Defective Medical Devices: A defective or flawed medical device—or one implanted improperly—can significantly harm the patient.

Dog Bite Lawyers: Dog bites result from an inattentive or neglectful dog owner and can leave physical and emotional scars.

Drug Injuries: This can occur when pharmaceutical companies intentionally withhold potential risks of a drug. They can also be the result of a medical error by your doctor.

Farming Accidents: Anyone who has spent time near farming equipment knows how serious these injuries can be, ranging from toxic fume inhalation to permanent disfiguration.

Fatal Truck Accident: Whether due to driver error or faulty equipment, you can pursue compensation following the loss of a family member from a trucking accident.

Fire and Explosions: The injuries sustained in fires and explosions can be devastating, resulting in death, permanent injury, long-term medical care, and months or even years of painful rehabilitation. These fires or explosions sometimes result from negligence and could have been prevented.

Golf Cart Accidents: These can include maintenance or mechanical issues. They may also result from negligence by another driver as more enclaves adopt golf carts to access their communities on common roads.

Insurance Claim Denials: Insurance claim denials or bad faith claims arise when a policyholder believes their insurance company is breaching their contract by refusing to cover a claim, often resulting in devastatingly high medical bills, bankruptcy, or foreclosure.

Medical Malpractice: Medical error can take many forms but involves negligence that damages or harms a patient.

Medical Misdiagnosis: Whether it’s the wrong diagnosis from your doctor, a missed diagnosis, or you did not get the treatment you should have, these can all have life-altering consequences.

Medical Negligence: If your doctor or medical facility behaved in a negligent manner that caused harm to the patient, you may be able to pursue compensation.

Mesothelioma: Exposure to asbestos at building sites or in the workplace typically causes this serious form of cancer. It typically results from business owners’ negligence in creating a safe work environment.

Motorcycle Accidents: Studies have shown that motorcycle accidents carry an exceedingly high risk of injury to the rider. We can help.

Nursing Home Abuse: Sadly, our most vulnerable population can find themselves in the hands of care facilities that neglect or abuse their patients.

Premises Liability: A premises liability claim arises when a visitor or tenant suffers an injury due to misconduct or negligence of the property owner.

Product Liability: Product liability is an area of personal injury law dealing with injuries sustained by using dangerous or defective products.

Slip and Fall Accidents: If you believe a homeowner or business owner’s negligence caused you to suffer a slip and fall accident, you have rights.

Spinal Cord Injury: Spinal cord injuries can be devastating, often leaving the patient incapacitated, with mounting medical bills and the inability to work and earn wages.

Toxic Mold Exposure: Toxic mold can develop in moist conditions due to leaking or flooding. Often found in apartment buildings, toxic mold exposure can lead to significant health issues due to negligence.

Truck Accidents: Indiana sees its fair share of semi-truck accidents because many residents live near the rural highways that intersect our state capital.

Workplace Accidents: Work accidents may vary from a slip and fall to inhaling toxic fumes on site, accounting for a large part of our personal injury practice.

Wrongful Death: Losing a loved one is traumatic — even more so if it’s due to someone else’s negligence. Family members can hold an individual or company accountable.

Types of Compensation in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Personal injury due to negligence can leave the victim and their family in a devastating emotional and financial position. Compensation awarded to victims in personal injury cases generally includes economic and non-economic damages.

Economic damages are easy to put a dollar amount on, as they generally correlate to an exact figure, such as medical bills or lost wages. Non-economic damages are more abstract—but just as valid—and include pain and suffering.

Medical Cost

Medical bills can pile up quickly in a personal injury suit. These economic damages are generally easy to calculate because you will receive a bill for each treatment, examination, and test. They may include ambulance costs, hospital bills, treatment, and therapy.

Lost Wages

If you’ve been unable to work following the accident or injury, the economic damages sought will often include the wages you would have earned if not injured. They may also include future wages if the injury will limit the victim’s earning potential.

Pain, Suffering, and Mental Anguish

This type of compensation falls under non-economic damages. The emotional trauma following a personal injury is real and can take many forms. You may be crippled by anxiety and fear, unable to function on a day-to-day basis as you did previously. If you’ve lost a partner, loss of companionship is a legitimate example of non-economic damages. The experienced personal injury lawyers at Wilson Kehoe Winingham will know how to address these issues in settlement negotiations or court.

Loss of Services and Consortium

Loss of services and consortium is a legal term for a basic concept. It’s when a spouse or partner of a personal injury victim claims damages. The consortium is available as an element of damages to a married couple when a personal injury alters the couple’s former way of life. These are typically non-economic damages, including marital strain, inability to do activities together, sexual constraints, and loss of companionship.

Common Defense Strategies

The parties named in the lawsuit and their insurance carriers will take any available path to limit the amount of payout in damages. If they cannot avoid fault, they will still use several tactics to reduce the merit of your claim as much as possible. The personal injury lawyers at WKW have decades of experience with this and will not be intimidated by these tactics.

Shifting the Blame to the Victim

Insurance companies will often try to shift the story’s narrative to blame the victim with the hopes of reducing the validity of the claim. In the state of Indiana, if a victim is 51% or more at fault, they cannot claim damages. Insurance companies are notorious for twisting the victim’s words to sound as if they played a role in the accident.

Complete Denial of the Claim

Once you file a claim, the insurance company may search for reasons to deny it. They may resort to tactics such as a failure to pay premiums or withholding information to attempt to deny a payout.

Responding with Quick Low Offers

Lowball offers by insurance companies are commonplace in personal injury cases. Victims often fall prey to this technique if they are not working with an experienced lawyer who knows this is an attempt to wrap up the claim before experts have determined the full damage.

Discounting Your Injuries with an Expert Witness

Insurance companies will hire doctors as expert witnesses to prove that your injury results from a pre-existing condition or is unrelated to the case. This is a common tactic to get the victim to back down, used most frequently with victims not represented by a lawyer.

Using Your Discounted Rates to Justify a Lower Payout

Instead of using the actual cost of treatments, the defendant now claims that your damages are only valued at the percentage your insurance company covers. So even though you’ve been responsible by having—and paying for—medical insurance, they will try to penalize you for this.

Why You Should Hire WKW

The seasoned Indianapolis personal injury lawyers at WKW have decades of experience helping victims get full and fair settlements. And when that’s not possible, we also have what it takes to see your case through to trial. WKW limits the number of clients we take on to ensure you are always a priority. With our free, no-obligation consultation, there’s no need to take on your case alone. Call our office today at (317) 576-3859 or fill out a contact form and get the compensation you deserve.

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