Injured Outside of Work – What to Do?

If you’ve been injured outside the course and scope of your employment, you may be wondering what to do. You’re not eligible for workers’ compensation benefits, your medical bills are piling up, and you may be unable to work due to your injury and thus unable to pay the medical bills.

If you’ve been injured outside of the course and scope of employment, and it was someone else’s fault that you were injured, you may be eligible for financial compensation in a personal injury claim or personal injury lawsuit.

If you want to obtain the most financial compensation possible in a personal injury claim or lawsuit, you will want to hire experienced, expert personal injury lawyers like Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers.

What Is the Course and Scope of Employment?

If you were injured during the course and scope of your employment, it means you were injured while you were doing something to the benefit of your employer.

To provide an example, if, during your lunch break at work, you drive to the post office to mail a personal package and you end up being injured in an auto accident while driving back to work, this would be an example of being injured outside of the course and scope of employment. You were not doing something to the benefit of your employer by mailing a personal package during your lunch break.

However, if you also mailed a package for your employer while you were at the post office, your injury would be under the course and scope of employment. You were doing something to the benefit of your employer by mailing the package for them.

Injuries sustained during the course and scope of employment may be covered by workers’ compensation benefits. Injuries sustained outside of the course and scope of employment will not be covered by workers’ compensation benefits. You will want to hire a personal injury lawyer to obtain compensation for any injury sustained outside of the course and scope of employment if it was someone else’s fault that you were injured.

What Can I Do if I Was Injured Outside of Work?

There are several things you can do to try to deal with an injury sustained outside of work when you aren’t eligible for workers’ compensation benefits.

First, if you’re left unable to work while you recover from your injuries, you may be eligible for up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave with a continuation of health insurance coverage under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

You may also be able to use sick time or paid time off while you recover from your injuries. If your injuries leave you unable to work for at least a year, you may qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits.

Finally, if you were injured due to someone else’s negligence, you may be able to recover financial compensation for your injuries through a personal injury claim or personal injury lawsuit. Hiring a personal injury lawyer to file your claim or lawsuit for you is the best way to ensure you obtain the maximum recovery.

Studies show that injury victims who hire lawyers end up recovering more money than injury victims who don’t hire lawyers, even after lawyers’ contingency fees are taken into account.

What Is Negligence?

Negligence is the failure to behave as a reasonably careful person would under the same circumstances in order to prevent harm from occurring. An act can be negligent and a failure to act can be negligent.

It is negligent to do what a reasonably careful person would not do in the same situation. It is negligent to fail to do what a reasonably careful person would do in the same situation.

An example of doing something a reasonably careful person wouldn’t do under the same circumstances would be driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. A reasonably careful person would not drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

An example of failing to do what a reasonably careful person would do under the same circumstances would be manufacturing and selling a product you know is dangerous without warning the public about the danger. A reasonably careful person would warn the public if they knew a product they made and sold was dangerous.

Negligence and California Law

California law allows those who are injured by someone else’s negligence to recover financial compensation from the negligent party. In order to do so, California Civil Jury Instructions state that a plaintiff must prove that:

• A defendant was negligent
• The plaintiff was harmed
• The defendant’s negligence was a substantial factor in causing harm to the plaintiff

Negligence is the central theme in almost any personal injury claim or lawsuit. If you’ve been injured outside of work due to someone else’s negligence, you will want experienced personal injury lawyers like Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers to represent you.

Proving that a defendant’s negligence caused injuries to our clients is the bread and butter of our work. It is what we have been doing on a daily basis since 1990, and it is how we have recovered over $750,000,000 on behalf of our clients.

What Kinds of Injuries Sustained Outside of Work Can I Be Compensated for?

Examples of personal injuries you can sustain outside of work that you can be compensated for in a personal injury claim or lawsuit include:

• Car accidents
• Slip and fall accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Truck accidents
• Dog bites
• Dangerous drug injuries
• Defective medical device injuries
• Defective product injuries
• Toxic exposure injuries

What Can I Be Compensated for After an Injury Outside of Work?

The losses you can be financially compensated for in a personal injury claim or lawsuit are known as damages. You can be compensated for multiple types of damages if you’ve been injured outside of work, including:

• Medical bills: You can recover damages for any medical bills you have already sustained. You can also recover damages for any medical bills that it can be reasonably estimated you will incur in the future due to your injuries.
• Pain and suffering: You can recover damages for any physical or mental pain and suffering you have experienced or will experience in the future due to your injuries. These damages can’t be objectively quantified and it can be difficult to subjectively quantify them, but personal injury lawyers like Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers can accurately valuate these damages for you so you can recover every penny you deserve for your pain and suffering.
• Lost wages: You can recover damages for any time from work you must miss due to your injuries.
• Loss of earning capacity: If your injuries leave you unable to ever do your current job again or unable to ever work again at all, you can recover damages for any loss of earning capacity caused by your injuries.
• Property damage: If the accident that caused your injuries also caused damage to your property, such as damage to your vehicle in a car accident, personal injury attorneys can help you recover damages for your damaged property.
• Loss of enjoyment: If your injuries prevent you from enjoying everyday activities like exercise or hobbies, you can recover damages for your loss of enjoyment of life.
• Loss of consortium: If your injuries impact the quality of your relationship with your spouse, such as the ability to enjoy a sexual relationship, your spouse may qualify for loss of consortium damages in a personal injury claim or lawsuit.

Do I Need a Personal Injury Lawyer?

If you have been injured outside of work and are interested in filing a personal injury claim or lawsuit, you may be wondering if you need a personal injury lawyer to do so.

While there is no legal requirement for you to be represented by a personal injury lawyer if you want to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit, you simply will not obtain the financial compensation you are entitled to under California law if you don’t have a lawyer by your side.

Handling the claims process, worrying about missed work and medical bills, and dealing with insurers all while attempting to recover from your injuries without a lawyer can be extremely challenging and overwhelming.

Insurance Companies Are Not on Your Side

Insurance companies are almost always the source of any financial compensation obtained in a personal injury claim or lawsuit. The thing is, the goal of insurance companies is to make sure that you are not fairly compensated for your injuries. Their number one priority is preserving their own profit margin, and they will do anything they can to do so.

Insurance companies make a lot of money, so they can afford very expensive lawyers. Insurance companies know that if they offer you a small fraction of what you actually deserve for your injuries, you have two options:

• Accept the offer, which you may be very tempted to do if you’re unable to work and facing huge medical bills
• File a lawsuit over the lowball offer

The insurance companies know you won’t win a lawsuit against their expensive lawyers if you’re not represented by a lawyer. Thus, if you don’t have a lawyer, they won’t worry about you filing a lawsuit because they won’t respect your ability to win a lawsuit.

Because of this, the insurance company will have zero motivation to offer you a fair settlement. They know they will be able to get away with offering you an unfairly small settlement.

In addition, insurance adjusters are experts at tricking injury victims into saying things they can use to pay the victims less money. It is very easy to accidentally say something on the phone with an insurance adjuster that they can claim means you were at fault for your own injury or that your injuries aren’t as bad as you’re claiming.

Your Lawyer Will Handle the Insurance Company

However, insurance companies often quickly change their minds when lawyers get involved. It is very common for insurance companies to suddenly offer injury victims fair settlements when lawyers get involved, especially when lawyers with a long track record of success like Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers get involved.

Virtually all of our cases settle out of court for a fair settlement amount because insurance companies see our name on a document and immediately realize that they won’t be able to get away with a lowball offer. They know we will take them to court and win over a lowball offer.

It’s best to have personal injury lawyers like Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers handle all communications with insurance companies for you for this reason.

Start Your Case by Speaking to the Personal Injury Lawyers at Nadrich Accident Injury Lawyers

Our battle-tested personal injury attorneys will fight to get you every penny of financial compensation you are entitled to under California law for your injuries, medical bills, pain, suffering, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, and more.

We can also get you to the best doctors in California who will treat your injuries on a lien, meaning you won’t have to pay them until your case is over. Doctors agree to do this for our clients because they know about our long, consistent track record of success in obtaining all of the financial compensation our clients are entitled to under the law.

We have the experience and know-how to obtain financial compensation for you by proving that your injuries were caused by someone else’s negligence. And we can handle all communications with insurance companies and lawyers for you and ensure you receive all of the financial compensation you deserve for your injuries.

Best of all, we won’t charge any upfront or out-of-pocket fees to represent you. The only fee we ever charge clients is a contingency fee, or a percentage of any financial recovery we obtain for them. We don’t charge a fee if we don’t obtain a recovery.

Contact us today for a free consultation if you or a loved one was injured outside of the course and scope of employment and the injury was someone else’s fault. You may be entitled to financial compensation.