Personal Injury Lawyers Offering Experience, Compassion, and Results
The Montgomery County personal injury lawyers and staff at Warren McGraw & Knowles LLC dedicate themselves to protecting your future when you need protection the most. We have over 80 years of combined experience protecting the futures of injured and disabled clients throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, including in Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lehigh, Berks, Northampton, and Lancaster Counties. Injuries, accidents, chronic illnesses, and disabilities can seriously disrupt your life and put your future, and your family’s future, in harm’s way. An injury or illness can cause loss of earnings, unemployment, and a need to permanently change a job or career. An injury or disability can interfere with your ability to pursue your hobbies and passions, and it can cause damage to your personal relationships. We will consider all kinds of compensation or benefits that can protect your future. We will thoroughly analyze your case to make sure that you are claiming all the remedies that you are entitled to claim. Our attorneys will aggressively pursue your entitlement to the damages, compensation, and benefits that you should receive.
Personal Injury
Most personal injury lawsuits are brought under a theory of negligence. This means that the injured party (plaintiff) will need to establish that the defendant failed to take the precautions that were appropriate in the situation. The circumstances surrounding the accident will determine the standard of care that the defendant needed to meet. Negligence by a victim will not prevent them from recovering damages unless they were more at fault for the accident than the defendant. A victim needs to bring a claim within a certain time (statute of limitations) to preserve their rights. Our personal injury attorneys can help Montgomery County residents injured due to the fault of others gather evidence to support their legal claims comply with procedural rules involved in pursuing their claims.
Car Accidents
Car accidents may result from driver negligence, manufacturing defects, or dangerous road conditions. If you were injured in a car accident that was caused by someone else, you may be able to recover damages by establishing negligence. For example, if you were T-boned by a car that ran a red light, you should be able to show that the driver of the car was negligent. Drivers have a legal duty to use reasonable care and may breach the duty to use reasonable care through distracted driving, drunk driving, speeding, weaving, tailgating, aggressive driving, or failing to obey traffic signals and signs. If you can establish liability, you may be able to recover damages for your lost income, medical bills, pain and suffering, and other economic and non-economic losses.
Workers’ Compensation
In Pennsylvania, workers’ compensation is a no-fault system that is meant to provide financial assistance to workers who have become disabled on the job or in a work-related accident. These benefits compensate for wage loss and pay reasonable medical expenses. The workers’ compensation system was created to make it easier for injured workers to obtain compensation than it would be if they needed to sue their employers. In exchange for making an employer responsible for benefits, even if it was not at fault for the work injury or illness, a worker can obtain compensation to cover their basic needs. Unfortunately, it can still be challenging to obtain the all of benefits an injured worker should receive through the workers’ compensation system, so hiring an attorney can make a huge difference to the outcome of a claim.
Slip and Fall Accidents
In Pennsylvania, an individual or company that owns or possesses land can be held responsible for injuries to visitors in slip and fall accidents. Owners and those in control of private property and businesses have a duty to keep their premises free of dangerous conditions, whether by performing repairs or issuing warnings. To establish an owner or occupier’s liability for a slip and fall, you will need to show that the party in possession of the property violated that duty of care. The extent of the duty owed depends on the type of visitor to the property. The greatest duty is owed to invitees, who are people invited onto the property, such as a customer in a grocery store.
Motorcycle Accidents
In a collision, there is no buffer between a motorcyclist and the driver of a larger vehicle. Motorcycle accident lawsuits often involve catastrophic or fatal injuries. In Pennsylvania, people who operate or ride a motorcycle need to wear protective headgear, unless they are over 21 and either have two years of experience riding motorcycles or have completed a motorcycle safety course approved by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation or PennDOT. Even if you wear appropriate protection, however, you may be injured by a driver who fails to respect your right to use the road. Many insurers and defense attorneys try to argue that a motorcyclist was responsible for a crash, so you should retain lawyers who know how to defeat these arguments. We will pursue not only the damages that you have incurred to date but also the future damages that you are likely to incur.
Bicycle Accidents
Some of the most devastating accidents on the roads in Pennsylvania involve bicycles. Like drivers of larger vehicles, bicyclists need to follow all the rules of the road that apply to motor vehicles. Often, drivers violate the rights of bicyclists with whom they share the road. A driver may cut off a bicyclist who has the right of way, for example, or they may drive too close to a bicyclist. Our Montgomery County personal injury lawyers can investigate the cause of your accident. Under Pennsylvania law, a victim of a bicycle accident is entitled to full recovery of their damages, even if they chose a limited tort option for their car insurance policy.
Disability Benefits
We help clients pursue the following types of disability benefits: Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), employer provided disability benefits, and private disability insurance. Americans face a significant chance of becoming disabled during their careers. A disability may be a result of a disease, an accident, or a work injury. The emphasis in disability programs, such as those administered by the Social Security Administration (SSA), is not how you developed a disability but the extent of your disability and whether it keeps you from working. To qualify for SSDI, for example, you must meet the SSA’s definition of a disability, and you must have worked for long enough to qualify. Work credits are based on your total yearly wages or self-employment income.
Medical Malpractice
Health care providers are required to provide care in accord with the prevailing standard of care applicable to health care providers in their field. To establish medical malpractice, you will need to show that a health care provider violated their professional duty of care. This means that they failed to take the same steps that a competent health care provider would have taken in the same situation. Since an ordinary person probably would not understand this standard, a personal injury attorney in Montgomery County would need to retain an expert witness to help prove the plaintiff’s case. Our firm handles claims arising out of emergency room mistakes, hospital infections, failures to diagnose, surgical errors, pharmaceutical errors, birth injuries, and lack of informed consent just to name a few examples.
Construction Site Accidents
Construction sites can be very dangerous. Due to the higher risk of injury, it is vital that workers are properly trained in safety measures, including how to utilize safety equipment and operate machinery. There are numerous regulations that must be followed, including rules promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). While your only remedy against your employer may be workers’ compensation benefits, it is important to look closely at the accident to determine all the contributing causes. It may be possible to sue someone other than your employer such as another contractoror vendor for negligence or misconduct at the site.
Truck Accidents
Commercial trucks, such as tractor-trailers and big rigs, are among the most dangerous vehicles with which you share the road. Large commercial trucks have huge blind spots, which can make it challenging to observe passing traffic or smaller vehicles. Additionally, they need more room to turn and a greater distance to stop. It is important, after a truck accident, to investigate all contributing causes to the accident. Those responsible may include the truck driver, the trucking company, a mechanic, the truck manufacturer, a third-party loader, and drivers of other vehicles. Our Montgomery County personal injury lawyers can bring all the appropriate parties into your claim.
Taxi, Bus, and Train Accidents
Like trucks, buses and trains pose a high risk of causing serious injuries in accidents, due to their size and weight. While taxis are more ordinary in size, taxi drivers often operate their vehicles aggressively or recklessly to complete as many trips as possible. We can advocate for injured passengers in taxis, buses, and trains, as well as drivers and passengers in other vehicles that were struck by a taxi, bus, or train. These cases may become more complex than ordinary personal injury cases. For example, if you were struck by a bus that is operated by a government entity, you may need to meet certain procedural requirements to preserve your rights.
Dog Bites
Under Pennsylvania law, dog owners are supposed to properly restrain or supervise their dogs. Dog bites can inflict serious injuries or infections. A dog bite victim may need to take time off from work and may face significant medical bills. To obtain damages for a dog bite, you may need to sue the dog owner. You will need to show that you suffered a serious injury without having provoked the dog. A personal injury attorney in Montgomery County can establish liability even if a dog previously did not bite anyone.
Wrongful Death
The most tragic accidents involve the loss of a victim’s life. When a person dies because someone else acted negligently, their family members often can bring a wrongful death claim. The process of proving fault is largely similar to a personal injury claim, but different types of damages may be available. Some types of damages relate to the costs incurred by the victim’s estate, such as medical expenses and funeral costs. Other types of damages are based on the relationship of the victim to their family members and attempt to quantify the impact of the victim’s loss on their lives.
Hire a Skilled Personal Injury Attorney in Montgomery County
At Warren McGraw & Knowles, LLC, we look at your claim in many different ways because our lawyers have broad experience with diverse types of claims. Since recovery of one type of benefit can affect the recovery of other benefits, we create a plan of when and how to pursue your different claims so that your total recovery is maximized.
We carefully consider all your rights to recovery. We work with one another and with our clients in a team atmosphere. We do not try to make your case fit a “one size fits all” mold. We listen to you and learn about the specific circumstances of your case. We educate you about your choices so that you can decide which plan is best for you. You do not need to hire a separate lawyer for each type of claim that you are bringing. Warren McGraw & Knowles, LLC handles all your needs under one roof.
Our primary physical office is in Blue Bell, Montgomery County but we handle cases throughout the Delaware Valley (Philadelphia, Bucks, Delaware, Chester), Lehigh Valley (Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton) and beyond. We can meet with you anywhere by appointment, at your home or other location, in person, or using video conference technology. We focus on making it easy for you to have the type of meeting you want. To set up a free consultation with a personal injury lawyer in Montgomery County, call us at (610) 584-9400 or complete our online form.