Filing a Civil Suit in a Personal Injury Case
If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident or in another type of injury where someone else is at fault, you might want to speak to an attorney. Even if the person or entity that caused the accident has insurance, insurance companies do not always pay out an adequate amount to cover a person's injuries. A personal injury lawyer in Burlingame may be able to help.
For example, you might be injured in a slip and fall accident. You might walk into a store on a rainy day where the wet floor has not been mopped. You might fall on a set of unstable stairs at a place of business or a private residence. You could sustain serious injuries as a result, and an attorney may be able to negotiate with the insurance company or even file a lawsuit if necessary.
Another example is an injury in a motor vehicle accident. In a case like this, the driver might be responsible. If the driver was on the job at the time, their employer might also be partly responsible. Other entities might bear responsibility too. For example, a city might be sued by a pedestrian who is hit at in a crosswalk that has a history of problems with poor signage and lack of visibility.
If a civil suit is filed in a personal injury case in which there are also criminal charges, the civil suit can still be successful even if the criminal case is not. In a civil suit, it is only necessary to present a preponderance of evidence unlike a criminal case in which something must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. A preponderance of evidence simply means that one side's evidence is more persuasive than that of the other side.
