Riverside Personal Injury Lawyers

The Riverside personal injury attorneys of DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo know how devastating and stressful injuries can be; we have seen their effect on people’s lives since 1979. Serious injuries and accidents have risen 14% in the past year and can disrupt your professional and personal life as well as create a lot of new costs and hassles.

The good news is that we have also helped countless numbers of our clients recover, rebuild their lives, and get back to regular life. Many will say they are better off for the whole experience. We want to walk with you, especially during this difficult time. Let our attorneys meet you, earn your trust, take your case, and get you the settlement and/or verdict you deserve.

Why Turn to DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo for a Personal Injury Claim?

It is imperative to work with a Riverside work injury lawyer who has extensive experience handling these types of claims.

• At DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo, we have more than three decades of legal experience and community development, and our law firm name is recognized and respected.
• We have helped personal injury victims in Riverside and throughout California recover the compensation they are entitled to, including coverage of all their medical bills and their lost wages.
• We believe in keeping an open line of communication with personal injury clients that we assist, which means he will always know what is going on with your case.

Personal Injuries Defined

Personal injuries are defined as injuries or harm that is caused accidentally by another person who did not use enough reasonable care. “Reasonable care” is a general term that is decided on during each case using precedent from similar past cases. A personal injury can happen as a result of an accident at work, a motorcycle accident, a defective consumer product, a medical mistake, an auto or car accident, a truck accident, an accident at a restaurant, or simply a slip and fall injury.

You Heal – We’ll Work For You

The personal injury attorneys at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo have strived to help their clients and their client’s families recover maximum monetary damages while providing full support. Our focus for over three decades has been to be there for our clients for the legal process and all their other needs.

We want to help you recover emotionally, medically, and monetarily. We will be with you all the way. We conduct all personal injury cases from the simple “fender bender” vehicle accidents and whiplash or broken bones to catastrophic and serious injury cases caused by the intentional wrongdoing or negligent acts of others. Our personal injury lawyers are ready to help.

Common Personal Injuries

Our seasoned lawyers have represented clients who have had almost the entire slate of possible personal injuries. The most common that we have seen have been:

• Auto Accidents
• Motorcycle Accidents
• Train Accidents
• Boating Accidents
• Truck Accidents
• Brain Injuries
• Burn Injuries
• Aviation Accidents
• Spinal Cord Injuries
• Medical Malpractice
• Nursing Home Negligence and Abuse
• Defective Products
• Defective Hip Replacement
• Wrongful Death
• Slip and Fall Accidents
• Dog Bite Attacks
• Work Injuries (covered by Workers’ Comp)
• Intentional or Criminal Injuries

Please call us today if you or a loved one has had one of the above unfortunate injuries happen to you. We will meet with you regardless of how strong you think your case is.

Who is Liable For My Injuries?

There may be various parties liable for a personal injury claim. In most cases, civil lawsuits for personal injury cases get filed against one person or individual, but it is not uncommon for there to be multiple liable parties for a single claim. Ultimately, determining liability revolves around gathering as much evidence as possible, examining the facts of the case, and then bringing the case against the right individual or entity.

Liability comes down to proving negligence, which involves four elements. These elements include:

• Duty. The first step is showing that the alleged negligent party (the defendant) owed a duty of care to the injury victim (the plaintiff). The study of care will look different depending on the injury scenario. For example, for vehicle accident claims, it is essential to establish the duty of care owed by the negligent driver to others on the roadway. All drivers have a duty to ensure they operate their vehicles safely and that they follow traffic laws. For cases that revolve around premises liability law, it must be shown that the property owner owed a duty of care to the individual who had a right to be on the premises. This duty includes ensuring the safety of the premises and that guests understand any known risks on the property.
• Breach. After establishing that the defendant did owe a duty of care to the plaintiff, it must be shown that the defendant somehow breached the duty of care. Again, the breach will look different depending on the scenario. Following the above examples, vehicle drivers can breach their duty of care in a variety of ways, including operating while distracted or impaired or failing to stop at stop signs or stop lights. Property owners can breach their duty of care by failing to inspect or maintain their premises or not properly warning guests about known hazards.
• Causation. After showing that there was a breach of duty, it must be proven that the breach is what caused the injuries in question.
• Damages. Lastly, the injury victim must have sustained some sort of monetary loss as a result of the incident.

What About Shared Fault?

There are times when multiple parties are at fault for an incident, and it could even be the case that the injury victim shared some blame for causing their own injuries. In these scenarios, the case when you need to be more closely examined to determine percentages of fault.

California operates under what is called a “pure comparative negligence” system. This means that individuals can recover compensation even if they are up to 99% responsible for their own injuries, but the total amount of compensation they receive will be reduced depending on their percentage of fault.

For example, let us suppose an individual sustains an injury in a slip-and-fall incident at a grocery store. For simplicity, let us imagine the individual sustains $10,000 worth of damages. However, after examining the case, it is determined that the individual is partially at fault because they were looking at their phone and not able to see the upcoming spill in the aisle. If we suppose the individual is found to be 30% responsible for the incident, then they would only receive $7,000 instead of the full $10,000 to account for their 30% of the fault.

Comparative negligence can get quite complicated, particularly when there are multiple parties responsible for causing an incident. We strongly encourage all injury victims to work with a skilled personal injury lawyer who has experience handling complex claims.

What Type of Compensation is Available?

At DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo, our goal is to make sure that clients receive the compensation necessary to make them whole. This means that we strive to recover not only economic damages after an injury occurs but also various types of non-economic damages. Allow us to define these.

• Economic damages refer to the types of losses that we will be able to calculate by gathering information that comes in after the injury occurs. We can use bills, receipts, and property damage expenses to help adequately calculate your:
  • Medical expenses related to the injury
  • Lost income if you cannot work while you recover
  • Property damage expenses
  • Various out-of-pocket expenses
• Non-economic damages are a bit different, especially when it comes to how we calculate them. There are no bills that we can gather and add up to adequately calculate the more immeasurable losses a person experiences after an injury occurs. This includes:
  • Physical pain and suffering damages
  • Mental and emotional pain and suffering
  • Loss of quality of life
  • Loss of consortium for family members or spouses

There is no set of money paid to personal injury victims in Riverside. Rather, when it comes to an insurance payout or a personal injury jury verdict award, there are several factors that will be taken into account. 

Some of these factors include how severe the injuries are, how long it takes a person to recover, whether or not there was any property damage, whether there was any shared fault for the incident, and more. We strongly encourage you to work with a skilled attorney who can assist you every step of the way. Your lawyer will engage with trusted medical and economic experts who can help adequately calculate the total expected losses.

How Much Does a Personal Injury Lawyer in Riverside Cost?

When you work with an attorney from DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo, you will have peace of mind knowing that you do not have to pay any upfront or out-of-pocket costs for your Riverside personal injury claim. Our law firm handles all of those initial costs on your behalf. You will actually not have to pay any legal fees at all until after we successfully recover the compensation you are entitled to. If we do not win your case, you will not have to pay anything at all.

This type of contingency for your arrangement helps ensure that anyone, regardless of their current financial status, is able to hold at-fault parties accountable for their actions.

Time Limit to File a Riverside Personal Injury Claim 

The state of California sets a specific timeline, called the statute of limitations, for personal injury claims. In this state, injury victims must file a civil lawsuit against the allegedly negligent party within two years from the date the injury occurs. Failing to file a lawsuit within this time frame will almost always result in the case being dismissed, leaving the injury victim unable to recover compensation for their losses.

However, we also want to mention any deadlines put in place by the insurance carriers involved in the claim. Depending on the nature of your injury case, there may be various types of insurance carriers involved (auto insurance, property insurance, homeowners’ insurance, renter’s insurance, etc.). These insurance carriers will likely have their own deadlines that are much shorter than the overall personal injury statute of limitations. Please work with your Riverside personal injury lawyer to ensure you get your claims filed with the appropriate parties on time.

Steps to Take After an Injury Occurs

There are various steps that individuals can take to help ensure the integrity of their claim and maintain their well-being soon after the incident occurs.

1. Medical care. Individuals must seek medical treatment after sustaining an injury caused by the actions of another party. Even if the symptoms or signs of the injury are not immediately apparent, individuals need to go to a doctor for a full evaluation. Not only does this establish a strong link between the incident and any injuries that arise, but it also gives a doctor a chance to determine whether or not there are any hidden injuries that could constitute an emergency.
2. Report the incident. Personal injury victims in Riverside need to report the incident to the appropriate authority or person soon after the incident occurs. For example, the vast majority of vehicle accidents must be reported to law enforcement officials who come to the scene to fill out an accident report. For premises liability claims, the property owner must be made aware. Determine who to report the incident to and do so as soon as possible. 
3. Gather evidence. Individuals may be able to gather as much evidence as they can soon after the incident occurs. At the scene of an accident, this can include photographs and video surveillance of the whole area, including the cause of the incident and any injuries. Statements from my witnesses should be gathered, but it may only be possible to get the eyewitness names and contact information at first.
4. Contact an attorney. We strongly encourage individuals to reach out to a Riverside personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. An attorney can get involved as quickly as possible and begin the process of gathering information and communicating with other parties. Your attorney is your advocate, and they will handle every aspect of the case on your behalf.

Offering Clients Peace of Mind

When you have suffered an injury or accident due to the negligence or wrongdoing of another person or company, the most important decision you can make (after how/where to seek medical treatment) is to select the right lawyer and law firm to represent you. Experience, reputation, and ethics all really do matter when it comes to searching for lawyers and law firms. Our personal injury firm has been effectively handling injury cases of all types since the late 1970s by putting the client first.

At DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo we promise to guide you through the complex legal process. This will allow you the time that is necessary to heal and get better. The attorneys in our firm will work hard to make sure you do not become a victim a second time by settling for less compensation than what you are rightfully due under the law. Contact us today so we can start helping you.

Consult With Our Riverside Personal Injury Attorneys For a Free Consultation

All initial case evaluations and consultations are free as we want you to get the legal advice you need before making any decisions about your case. You will speak with a personal injury attorney who has the experience to evaluate your case. Beyond the first free meeting, you will not incur any legal fees or costs for our time and assistance unless we win your case and get you a settlement.

The personal injury and car accident lawyers at DiMarco | Araujo | Montevideo in Riverside and Orange County are available to meet at our office, in the comfort of your own home or hospital room Monday – Friday 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. Our attorneys and staff are also available at other times including evenings, Saturday and Sunday (by appointment). If you cannot come to our office we will come to you. You can call us 24 hours a day by telephone (951) 977-7787 or fill out our online contact form here.