In many ways, the town first known as Knox’s Corners is the quintessential California city. It hardly ever rains, the temperature hardly ever deviates from short-sleeve weather, and after a population explosion in the 1960s through the 1980s, the growth rate has leveled off since the 1990s. By almost all accounts, El Cajon is a city on the upswing and one of the better places to live in central San Diego County. From humble beginnings, the city of El Cajon now boasts a population of almost 100,000 and is the sixth-largest city in San Diego County.
Just like any other large city, accidents happen every day in El Cajon, CA. The I-8 Freeway cuts almost through the center of town, and there are a lot of alcohol-related crashes in this part of San Diego County. The largely straight freeway also causes many speed-related collisions, especially because some westbound motorists do not adjust to the lower speed limit coming in from the mountains. Off the highway, there are a lot of high-traffic pedestrian areas, like the sprawling Parkway Plaza Mall, and landowners are not always as attentive to safety as they should be. If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s negligence, we can help.
How Our Personal Injury Attorney Can Help
The experienced El Cajon personal injury attorney at Injury Trial Lawyers, APC, routinely handles cases throughout San Diego County. We can help you obtain compensation for your injuries. As a bonus, our attorneys can ensure that you receive the medical care you need from professionals who are accustomed to helping car crash victims.
Accident victims in California are entitled to money for their:
- Economic losses: such as emergency medical expenses, follow-up medical care, physical rehabilitation, lost current wages, and lost future wages, and
- Noneconomic losses: such as pain and suffering, loss of consortium (companionship), emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment in life.
If the tortfeasor (negligent actor) deliberately ignored an obvious risk and thereby endangered the safety and property of other people, additional punitive damages are available as well. Juries often award these damages in DUI cases, hit-and-run cases, and some other similar situations.
How Long Do I Have to Sue?
In most cases, victims have two years from the date of the accident to sue. If this deadline passes, it is almost impossible to file a claim for damages. Therefore, an attorney must get to work quickly to collect evidence and research the law to build a winning case, because as time passes, the evidence tends to disappear and witnesses’ memories fade. Furthermore, pretrial settlement talks cannot begin in earnest until an attorney can negotiate from a position of strength.
Insurance company lawyers are trained to delay the process as much as possible because they know that the victims are not working and are experiencing financial duress. So, rather than be pressured into accepting a settlement offer that is less than what the victims deserve, it is best to partner with an aggressive attorney who will use strong evidence to push the case through the system.
Personal Injury Practice Areas
At the Injury Trial Lawyers, APC, we stand up for the legal and financial rights of accident victims in El Cajon. In addition to winning needed money, we also do our part to make El Cajon a little safer for everyone.
- Car Crashes: Over 90 percent of vehicle collisions are caused by excessive speed, alcohol use, distracted driving, careless driving, or some other human error. All these cases are actionable in court.
- Slip-And-Falls: Under California law, most owners have a duty to keep their premises free from dangerous conditions like wet spots on floors, loose stairway rails, burned-out security lights, and so on.
- Motorcycle Crashes: Moderate-climate areas like El Cajon tend to have lots of motorcycle-vehicle crashes because bikers are on the road practically twelve months a year.
- Pedestrian Accidents: When a large, fast-moving car strikes a slow-moving and vulnerable pedestrian, the victims are nearly always seriously injured or killed.
We also handle construction accidents, dog bites, child injury cases, and other negligence matters.
Statistics
In the year 2017, there were 744 total fatalities in injuries in El Cajon. Out of those, 56 involved alcohol, and 2 of those victims were under the age of 21. That same year, 48 motorcyclists and 38 bicyclists were injured or killed in car crashes. There were 139 DUI arrests. The top contributing factors to these crashes and injuries were speed and driving at night
What If You Were Partly At-Fault?
Some people believe that if they were partially at fault then they cannot receive compensation, but in California, the opposite is true. Even if the victim was 99 percent at fault, California law still allows recovery, because the Golden State has a pure comparative fault law. If the tortfeasor and victim were each partially to blame, perhaps because the tortfeasor was drunk and the victim was speeding, the jury divides liability between the two. In this example, if the victim’s damages were $100,000 and the jury split liability 50-50, the victim would get $50,000. But, if this same case and result occurred in Nevada, the victim would get nothing, because that state has a 51 percent liability threshold.
Roughly the same thing applies regarding seat belts. Although seat belt non-use is admissible in California to reduce damages, this evidence must meet certain legal qualifications before the jury can hear it, so it is not admissible in all cases.
Speak to an El Cajon Personal Injury Attorney Today
No one can turn back time and fully reverse the effects of a car crash, workplace injury, or other incident. But at Injury Trial Lawyers, APC, we do the next best thing by fighting for full and fair compensation. Call El Cajon personal injury attorney Richard Morse today to find out how we can assist you. We are not satisfied with anything less than the best result under the circumstances, so contact us today and let us fight for you.
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