Indianapolis Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal Injury Lawyer Indianapolis: Experienced Personal Injury Attorney Indianapolis

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, in the worst-case scenarios involving a fatality, 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 a wide array of personal injury suits, helping our clients to get their lives back on track. And when necessary, we have the skills needed 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 more than 30 years. Our team of lawyers are experienced in a wide array of personal injury matters, from dog bites to job injuries to medical malpractice. We limit the number of cases we take on so that we can devote care and time to each of our clients, and we’re located right here in Indianapolis to better serve you. Helping fellow Hoosiers receive justice in the face of trauma is our goal.

How Can a Personal Injury Lawyer Help Your Case?

There are a number of ways that a lawyer can help your medical injury case. First off, you are probably under significant stress following the incident and feeling overwhelmed. Having an experienced Indianapolis personal injury lawyer from Wilson Kehoe Winingham at your side guiding you step-by-step through the process will help relieve much of the pressure from the many unknowns you’re facing. Second, you are almost certain to receive a higher settlement working with one of our lawyers. We are experienced negotiators who know how to push for the highest settlement possible, especially in more complex cases.

Investigations Prior to the Lawsuit

A significant amount of hard work goes into every case to optimize payout. Depending on the case, this can include anything from obtaining video footage to witness interviews to scene recreation. Most businesses—and their lawyers—will fight every step of the way to block you from obtaining any information or content that could be used against them.

Navigating and Explaining the Legal Process

We partner with our clients to work towards the best possible results, while also 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 lowball offer into a significant 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 that will be used to prove or disprove their case. It’s important to have an experienced lawyer who knows where and how to dig in and uncover any potentially useful information, such as 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 the state of Indiana, personal injury cases will enter mediation before a case goes to trial. Mediation is an opportunity for both sides to discuss the case and share their evidence gathered during discovery that would be presented at trial. This allows both the defense and the prosecution to evaluate their cases and identify both 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 is why it’s so important to work with personal injury lawyers with significant trial experience—like the team at WKW.

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

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. According to the Indiana State Department of Health Injury Prevention Program, of all injury-related deaths in Indiana, accidental fatalities comprised 65%.

Types of Personal Injury Cases That We Handle

Our team of experienced personal injury lawyers at Wilson Kehoe Winingham have significant experience in a broad range of matters that impact Indiana citizens.

• Car Accidents: From fender benders caused by distracted driving to fatalities due to driver negligence, car accidents are on the rise in Indiana.
• Truck Accidents: Indiana sees its fair share of semi-truck accidents because so many of its residents live near the rural highways that intersect our state capital.
• Motorcycle Accidents: Studies have shown that motorcycle accidents carry an exceedingly high risk of injury to the rider. We can help.
• Bicycle Accidents: Bicyclists are particularly vulnerable to accidents and often suffer serious consequences.
• Boating Accidents: Given the large number of lakes enjoyed by so many in Indiana, boating accidents are not rare. You may be eligible for financial compensation.
• 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.
• Workplace Accidents: Work accidents may vary from a slip and fall to inhaling toxic fumes on site and account for a large part of our personal injury practice.
• Golf Cart Accidents: These can include maintenance or mechanical issue, or may be the result of negligence by another driver as more enclaves adopt golf carts to access their communities on common roads.
• Construction Accidents: Workplace injuries on construction sites can be severe, even deadly. Loss of wages often plays into construction site injuries, including future wages.
• 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.
• Premises Liability: A premises liability claim arises when a visitor or tenant of a property is injured due to misconduct or negligence by the owner of the property.
• Mesothelioma: This is a serious type of cancer usually caused by exposure to asbestos from building sites or at the workplace through negligence to create a safe workplace.
• Dog Bite Lawyers: Dog bites are the result of an inattentive or neglectful dog owner and can leave both physical and emotional scars.
• Slip and Fall Accidents: If you have been injured through a slip and fall accident at someone’s home or business that you believe may be a result of another person’s negligence, you have rights.
• 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. In some cases, these fires or explosions are the result of negligence and could have been prevented.
• 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 or even bankruptcy and foreclosure.
• Product Liability: Product liability is an area of personal injury law dealing with injuries sustained by the use of dangerous or defective products.
• 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.
• Defective Medical Devices: A defective or flawed medical device—or one that is implanted improperly—can lead to significant harm for the patient.
• Brain Injuries: Every year in the U.S., more than 1 million people suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI), most often resulting from a blow or jolt to the head. This can lead to permanent disruption to normal brain functions, altering life following the incident.
• Wrongful Death: The loss of a loved one is traumatic—and even more so if it’s due to someone else’s negligence. Family members can hold an individual or company accountable.
• 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.
• Fatal Car Accident: You don’t need to suffer financial loss on top of emotional loss following a fatal car accident if you decide to seek justice.
• Medical Malpractice: Medical error can take many forms but involves negligence at some level that led to damage or harm to 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 can pursue compensation to right this wrong.
• Nursing Home Abuse: Sadly, our most vulnerable population can find themselves in the hands of care facilities that neglect or abuse their patients.
• Spinal Cord Injury: Spinal cord injuries can be some of the most devastating, often leaving the patient incapacitated, with mounting medical bills, and the inability to work and earn wages.
• Birth Injuries: Negligence or medical error that leads to life-long injuries in a newborn is every parent’s nightmare.
• Toxic Mold Exposure: Toxic mold can develop when there are moist conditions due to leaking or flooding. Often found in apartment buildings, toxic mold exposure can lead to significant health issues due to negligence.

Types of Compensation in a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Personal injury due to negligence can leave the victim and their family in a devastating position, both emotionally and financially. Compensation that is awarded to victims in personal injury cases generally falls into two categories: economic damages 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 in nature—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 due to the fact that you will receive a bill for any care needed. 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 it can be shown that the injury may limit the victim’s future 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 in court if need be.

Loss of Services and Consortium

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

Common Defense Strategies

Both the parties named in the lawsuit and their insurance carriers will take any available path to try to limit the amount of payout in damages. If they’re unable to completely avoid being determined at fault, they will still use a number of tactics to try 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 narrative of the story to lay blame on the victim with the hopes of reducing the validity of the claim. In the state of Indiana, if a victim is found to be 51% or more at fault, they are unable to 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 a claim is filed, the insurance company may start to look for reasons to deny the claim. This can include 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 the damage has been thoroughly considered.

Discounting Your Injuries With an Expert Witness

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

Using Your Discounted Rates to Justify a Lower Payout

This is a creative, more recent tactic insurance companies are starting to use. Instead of using the actual amount of the cost of treatments, they are now saying that your claim would only be 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 that 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 and get the compensation you deserve.

How Do I Hire an Indianapolis Personal Injury Lawyer?

Your top priority for hiring a lawyer should be finding one with experience that is relevant to your case. At Wilson Kehoe Winingham, we have decades of experience in Indianapolis successfully navigating all types of personal injury cases. We also limit the number of cases we take to ensure that every client is a priority and given the attention they deserve. What’s more, we have the litigation experience you’re looking for in case a settlement can’t be agreed upon. Lastly, with our free, no-obligation consultations, there’s no reason to go it alone.

How Much Does a Personal Injury Lawyer in Indianapolis Cost?

This is a common concern for people who have suffered a personal injury, especially if the medical bills have already started piling up. The last thing you need right now is additional financial stress. At WKW, our lawyers work on a contingency basis—we only get paid if you receive a settlement—meaning there is no up-front cost to you. This is an agreed-upon percentage of the settlement, determined prior to us taking on the case.

Is There a Time Limit for Filing My Case?

While there can be certain exceptions, the statute of limitations in Indiana for a personal injury claim is two years from the date of the injury-causing incident.

How Long Will My Case Take?

This is not an easy question to answer, but one that is—understandably—always asked. It’s natural to want to know what you’re getting into. While it depends on the complexity of the case, it can typically take two to three years from start to finish. This is another reason to make sure you select an attorney you not only have confidence in, but also one you’re comfortable working with, as the process will take time.

What Is My Case Worth?

Many factors determine the worth of a case, including how much blame is apportioned to each party, the severity of damages or injury, and the amount of insurance involved. Generally speaking, an attorney will need to do some research and learn more about your personal circumstances before offering even a ballpark figure for a potential settlement.

Will This Case Cost Me a Lot of Time and Money?

As the victim of a personal injury, you may feel like the last thing you need is another thing on your plate. Making the effort of engaging in a lawsuit may seem overwhelming. And with medical bills likely piling up, the last thing you need is another big expense. While it’s true that filing a personal injury claim will require time on your part, the results could be you getting your life back on track.

It’s a shame that some victims are too intimidated to contact and work with an attorney, leaving them with either nothing or a paltry settlement tossed out by the insurance company. WKW’s experienced team of Indianapolis personal injury lawyers will work with you on a contingency basis, meaning there’s no upfront, out-of-pocket cost to you. We only collect legal fees if you receive a favorable settlement.