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Lafayette Personal Injury Lawyer

Were you injured due to another party’s actions in Lafayette, Louisiana? A Lafayette personal injury lawyer at Kenny Habetz Injury Law is here to help you secure the financial recovery you deserve, call us at (337) 399-9000.

You may be able to hold them financially accountable by filing a personal injury claim. Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to recover fair compensation after an accident – which is why legal representation is often your best option.

We have over a decade of experience helping injured victims after devastating accidents in southern Louisiana – and we have a proven track record of success. Our legal team has won millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts, helping our clients move forward.

We’re prepared to put our skills, resources, and dedication to work for you to achieve the best possible outcome in your case.

Contact us for a free initial consultation. We’ll discuss the benefits of creating an attorney-client relationship and your legal options for pursuing compensation.

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Why Should I Hire Kenny Habetz Injury Law To Handle My Personal Injury Case?

Accident victims are often left with severe injuries, leading to expensive medical bills, lost wages from missing work, and emotional trauma. If this sounds familiar, a legal battle may be the last thing on your mind.

However, it’s crucial to take action sooner rather than later, or you may lose your right to seek compensation from the at-fault party. An attorney from Kenny Habetz Injury Law will handle every aspect of your claim to allow you to focus on healing and recovery.

Our legal team has over ten years of experience and is passionate about providing exceptional client services. Here are just a few reasons you should hire our law firm to handle your Lafayette personal injury case:

We’ll keep you informed throughout the process and ensure that you understand what to expect at each stage.
We’ll listen to your questions and concerns and work with you to build your case.
We offer transparent and honest communication – so you’ll always know the status of your case.
We’ll gather compelling evidence to prove every element of your personal injury claim, including causation, damages, and liability.
We know how to negotiate with insurance companies and identify when they’re lowballing injury victims.
We’re prepared to go to court and represent you at trial if we fail to secure a settlement that fairly compensates you.
We work on a contingency fee basis – meaning if we don’t win, you owe us nothing for our legal services.

Contact our law office today if you’ve been injured in a personal injury accident in Lafayette, LA. We offer a free consultation to listen to what happened and give preliminary legal advice.

Why Should I Hire a Lafayette Personal Injury Lawyer?

A personal injury attorney is your best asset if you file a civil action against another party. Most claimants recover much more money in a personal injury case if they retain legal representation.

Here are just a few of the benefits of hiring an attorney to help with your claim:

You’ll level the playing field: Most personal injury claims involve insurance companies, which have vast resources to undervalue, delay, and deny claims. An attorney will put you on equal footing with these large corporations and ensure they don’t take advantage of you.
Attorneys have access to leading experts: Some cases are complex and require the assistance, opinions, and testimony of industry experts. An experienced attorney will know who to call for help.
You’ll likely be blamed for your accident: Defendants frequently attempt to push blame onto accident victims to reduce their financial liability – even if they don’t have evidence to substantiate it. An attorney will protect you and fight for fair compensation.
You need time to rest: You probably don’t want to take on a legal fight when you’re healing from injuries. An attorney will take the lead and handle your case from start to finish.

Schedule a free case evaluation to learn more about why you should retain legal counsel after an accident in Lafayette, LA.

When Should I Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer?

Not all cases require an attorney’s assistance. For example, if you were in a fender-bender and barely sustained any property damage, you can likely handle your claim. However, if you sustained injuries in an accident or incident, you should hire an attorney as soon as possible. Why?

First, Louisiana has a harsh statute of limitations: most cases must be filed within one year of the accident date. You need to be aware of the statutory deadline that applies to your case, or you could forfeit your right to injury compensation. An attorney will monitor the applicable deadline and ensure you don’t miss it.

Additionally, the sooner your attorney starts gathering evidence, the stronger your case will be – and the more likely you’ll secure the compensation you deserve. Evidence fades over time. Eyewitnesses may forget important details regarding your case, and physical evidence can be lost.

We Handle All Personal Injury Cases

The legal team at Kenny Habetz Injury Law can help you after any type of accident or personal injury. Here are some of our primary practice areas:

Car Accidents

If you were injured in a car accident caused by another motorist, you might have several options for pursuing compensation. Our Lafayette car accident lawyers will help you identify the available insurance coverage, including the at-fault driver’s liability coverage. We can also help you file a personal injury claim if necessary – such as if your expenses exceed the insured’s policy limits.

Truck Accidents

Accidents with large commercial vehicles can be devastating for people in passenger vehicles. You may suffer catastrophic injuries that impact your life forever. A Lafayette truck accident lawyer will identify potentially liable parties – including the truck driver, trucking company, supplier, cargo loader, or others – and hold them accountable. We’re also familiar with state and federal trucking regulations that could affect your truck accident case.

Wrongful Death

Under Louisiana law, certain surviving family members can file a wrongful death claim if they lost a loved one due to the fault of someone else. If you lost your loved one in an unexpected, avoidable accident, our Lafayette wrongful death lawyers will help you pursue compensation for your funeral and burial expenses, loss of financial support, grief, and other damages.

We understand that money won’t bring them back and may be the last thing on your mind. However, you and your family may need financial assistance after losing someone who contributed to your household.

We also handle:

How Much Is My Personal Injury Case Worth in Lafayette, LA?

How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Personal Injury Lawyer in Lafayette, LA?

The value of your case will be based on the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident. While the cases involving the most serious injuries are usually worth the most, the topic is more complicated. Other factors that could come into play include, but are not limited to:

Whether you will make a full medical recovery
The amount of evidence available to assert your claim
How much of the fault you share for the accident
How old you were at the time of the accident
The terms and conditions of any insurance policies that apply to the matter

Ultimately, the easiest way to find out how much your case might be worth is to set up your free consultation with our experienced personal injury lawyer in Lafayette.

How Long Do I Have To File a Lawsuit After an Accident?

Louisiana law allows you one year after the date of your accident to file a personal injury lawsuit in most cases. It is of the utmost importance that you file your claim on time – otherwise, you won’t be able to pursue compensation in a court of law.

However, there are exceptions to the one-year deadline in some cases. For instance, you might have additional time for certain types of personal injury lawsuits – such as product liability lawsuits – if you did not discover your injury until long after the accident took place.

You should feel free to contact us if you believe the deadline for your case is soon approaching, as we can provide additional help during your free case evaluation.

What Damages Are Available to Lafayette Accident Victims?

Victims of personal injury accidents in Lafayette can pursue economic damages as well as non-economic damages. Punitive damages might also be available in limited circumstances.

Economic damages represent your financial losses, including things like:

Out-of-pocket expenses
Rehabilitation
Medical bills
Lost wages
Decreased earning capacity

Non-economic damages represent your other categories of losses that are not necessarily financial in nature, such as:

Pain and suffering
Anxiety, depression, and other similar conditions
Emotional distress
Scarring
Disfigurement

Punitive damages are meant to “punish” the at-fault party rather than to compensate you, although they still do in effect. These damages are reserved for specific cases in Louisiana, such as drunk driving or domestic violence.

What Is the Personal Injury Claims Process, and What Should I Expect?

While no two personal injury claims will play out exactly the same – this area of the law is relatively fact-dependent – there are stages that most will go through that can provide you with a sense of what to expect. These are:

Investigation – We’ll conduct a thorough investigation into your case to collect evidence, determine every liable party, and accurately assess your case’s value.
Demand Letter – The next step is to send a demand letter to the appropriate party (usually the at-fault party’s insurance company).
Negotiation – Most likely, the insurance company will offer a settlement amount that is much less than what your case is actually worth in response to the demand letter. Negotiations will then kick off in earnest.
Settlement or lawsuit – If the other side refuses to settle for an adequate amount, it might be best to file a lawsuit and take the case to court.
Pretrial procedures – Once the case reaches court, various pretrial processes must take place, such as pretrial discovery and pretrial motions.
Trial – Cases can settle all the way up to and even during trial, but this is ultimately the last stage that a case will go through before reaching an outcome.

Keep in mind that most cases won’t make it to court, let alone trial. However, Kenny Habetz Injury Law is always willing to take a case the distance if that’s in the best interest of our client. Reach out today for a free case review.

How Can a Personal Injury Attorney Help Me After an Accident?

A personal injury attorney can take care of virtually every aspect of your claim while you focus on your recovery. To that end, a lawyer can help by:

Collecting the necessary evidence in support of your claim
Handling the paperwork, communications, procedures, and negotiations on your behalf
Filing a lawsuit if necessary and representing you in court
Hiring experts to analyze and strengthen your compensation claim, even to testify at trial if needed
Protect you against accusations that the accident was mostly your fault
Keep you apprised of what your legal options are as your case unfolds

Hiring a personal injury lawyer after an accident in Lafayette, Louisiana means you’ll be setting yourself up best for a successful outcome. Want more information about how Kenny Habetz Injury Law can help specifically with your case? Call today for a free consultation.

How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Personal Injury Attorney in Lafayette, LA?

Most personal injury attorneys in Lafayette work on a contingency fee basis. This means their fee is contingent upon the outcome of your case. If your attorney obtains a settlement or verdict for you, they will take a percentage (usually 30 to 40%) of the award as compensation for their services. If they fail to recover an award, you will not owe any compensation.

Moreover, most injury firms offer free initial consultations to all prospective clients. Therefore, it costs virtually nothing upfront to hire a personal injury lawyer in Lafayette, LA.

Louisiana PI Laws Brief Overview

As discussed previously, there are many different Louisiana laws that could affect your injury case.

The most common PI laws that come into play are:

Statute of limitations. Louisiana only gives you one year to file a personal injury or wrongful death claim. The clock typically starts ticking on the date of the accident.
Comparative fault. Louisiana has pure comparative negligence rules. Every party who shares fault for an accident is responsible for their proportionate share of damages. This includes injury victims.
At-fault insurance. Louisiana is an at-fault state for auto accidents and auto insurance. After a car accident, you will file a claim against the at-fault party’s insurance company to recover compensation for your losses. Contrast this with a no-fault state where you must first seek compensation from your own insurance after a crash.

Other laws could apply to your case. An experienced attorney can help you understand what laws are relevant to your claim and how they impact your right to compensation.

What is Negligence?

Negligence is the foundation of most personal injury cases. It means that someone has failed to exercise reasonable care in a certain situation and injured another party. Negligence cases include but are not limited to motor vehicle accidents, slip and falls, medical malpractice, and premises liability incidents, to name a few.

Not all injury claims are based on negligence. Some involve strict liability. In these cases, the victim doesn’t have to prove negligence. They only have to prove the at-fault party engaged in certain unlawful behavior. Product liability and dog bite cases are two examples where strict liability might come into play.

What Should I Do After an Accident in Lafayette, LA?

You should take a few key steps after a Lafayette accident in order to protect your injury claim. You should always consider:

Contact 911. When you contact law enforcement, the dispatcher can send police officers and emergency medical services to the scene. The police officers can create an accident report recording the facts and circumstances surrounding the accident (a report that could be helpful to your injury claim). EMTs can transport you to the hospital to receive treatment for your injuries.
Exchange information. You should exchange insurance and contact information with all parties involved in the accident. You will need this info to file your injury claim. You should also get the contact information for any witnesses to the accident. These witnesses might play an important role if your case goes to court.
Take photos and videos. It never hurts to take photographs and videos of the accident scene. You should also take photographs of your injuries.
Seek medical attention. You should seek immediate medical attention after the accident. You can let EMTs take you to the hospital, or you can follow up with your own medical provider. Early treatment can help you receive care for all of your injuries — including those that haven’t presented symptoms yet. It can also weaken any claims that you failed to mitigate your damages.

You should also contact a Lafayette injury attorney as soon as possible after your accident. Your lawyer can explain your rights and options and put you in position to have a successful injury claim. Contact Kenny Habetz Injury Law to schedule a free initial consultation to get started with your claim.

How Long Will My Personal Injury Case Take in Louisiana?

The length of your case will depend on many factors. No other cases can help you predict its exact timeline.

If you have minor injuries and damages, your case will likely resolve in a matter of weeks or months. If you have severe injuries, your case could take several months or more than a year, depending on the circumstances.

Injury claims that remain with the insurance company will be the quickest to resolve. If you need to take your case to court, you can expect it to take longer to complete. Cases that proceed to trial can last for multiple years in some instances.

Contact Our Experienced Lafayette Personal Injury Lawyers For Legal Help

You should act quickly to preserve your claim if you’ve been injured in an accident. You shouldn’t have to pay for someone else’s negligence or misconduct. Kenny Habetz Injury Law can help you hold the at-fault party responsible for your losses.

Let us put over a decade of experience and top results behind your case. Contact our legal team to schedule a free case review with our Lafayette personal injury lawyer. We’ll dedicate our extensive skills and resources to help you get the most from your personal injury case.

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Visit Our Lafayette Law Office

110 E Kaliste Saloom Rd Ste 101 Lafayette, LA 70508
(337) 399-9000

These are some other areas we serve:
Lafayette Parish including Lafayette, Carencro, Scott, Broussard, and Youngsville; St. Landry Parish including Eunice and Opelousas; Iberia Parish including New Iberia and Jeanerette; East Baton Rouge Parish including Baton Rouge, Central, Zachary and Baker; Calcasieu Parish including Lake Charles, Sulphur and Westlake.