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Getting medical care should be the first step you take after sustaining an injury in an accident in Tennessee. Even if you think your injuries are minor, it’s important to undergo a full evaluation. Some injuries, including concussions, back injuries, soft tissue damage, and internal trauma, may not show immediate symptoms. Be sure to save medical bills, discharge papers, prescriptions, and follow-up instructions.
If your injury is going to affect your health, work, finances, or daily life, the next step is to talk to an experienced injury attorney. A lawyer can help you determine:
Calling a lawyer doesn’t mean you’re filing a lawsuit that day. But it allows you to explain your situation, get information about your options, and decide what you might want to do next. This meeting should be free of both cost and commitment. This gives you a chance to decide if you feel confident in a firm’s ability before you ask them to pursue your claim.
The Johnson City personal injury lawyers at The Haynes Firm are available to meet with you, listen to your story, and help you understand your rights and options. We operate on a contingency fee basis, meaning that you don’t pay for our services until after we have secured compensation for your claim. If we don’t win your case, you don’t owe us anything.
After a personal injury lawsuit is filed in Tennessee, the case moves from the claim stage to the court process. This does not mean your case will automatically go to trial. But filing a lawsuit may be necessary if the other side denies fault, disputes your injuries, or refuses to make a fair settlement offer.
In Tennessee, a civil lawsuit generally begins when a complaint is filed with the court. The complaint explains who is being sued, what happened, why the defendant is legally responsible, and what damages the injured person is seeking. After the complaint is filed, the court issues a summons. Tennessee procedure generally requires the summons to be served within 90 days.
After service, the defendant has the chance to respond. The response may admit certain facts, deny liability, raise defenses, or argue that someone else caused the injury.
From there, the case may involve:
Filing a lawsuit can feel intimidating, but it may simply be the next logical step in protecting your rights. A lawsuit gives your attorney tools to demand evidence, question witnesses, and push the case forward when the other side is not treating the claim fairly.
The Haynes Firm has decades of experience helping victims of serious injury in Johnson City, Kingsport, and the surrounding areas of Tennessee. During your confidential and free consultation, we can provide an overview of the typical Tennessee personal injury claims process, along with specifics about your case, to help you gauge how long it may take to resolve your claim.
Discovery is the formal, evidence-gathering stage of a personal injury lawsuit. It allows both sides to request information, documents, records, and testimony from each other before trial.
In a Tennessee personal injury case, discovery may include:
Discovery is important. Personal injury cases are built and won on proof. You can’t just say you were harmed. You have to show what happened, who was at fault, how the injury has changed your life, and what financial losses have followed.
Discovery can take time, but it often moves the case closer to settlement. Once both sides see the evidence, the strengths and weaknesses of the case become harder to ignore.
At The Haynes Firm, we take the time necessary during discovery to build the strongest case possible. Our personal injury lawyers work with both internal professionals and external specialists who can provide expert testimony and assist in our analysis of documents, medical records, and other key pieces of evidence.
Yes, you may still be able to recover compensation in Tennessee if you were partly at fault for an accident. Tennessee follows a modified comparative fault system. Under this system, you can recover compensation if you are less than 50% at fault. However, if you are partly responsible, your compensation may be reduced by your share of fault.
For example:
Comparative fault is one of the biggest reasons to be careful with what you say or post to social media after an accident. The other side may try to blame you even when you didn’t cause the accident. They may argue that you were being careless or inattentive. In a serious injury case, even the smallest shift in fault can make a big difference in the outcome of your case.
At The Haynes Firm, our Kingsport personal injury lawyers push back against unfair blame by gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses, reviewing photos and video, working with experts, and building a clear timeline of what happened. Before you accept more blame than is fair, talk to us for FREE to learn how we can assist in accurately determining liability.
A personal injury settlement offer is only fair if it reflects the full value of your losses. A quick offer may sound helpful at first, especially when medical bills are arriving, and you’re missing work. However, early settlement offers often come before the full impact of the injury is known.
A fair settlement might need to include compensation for:
In Tennessee, there is no cap on economic damages. This means you can recover dollar-for-dollar compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, and projected future expenses and losses. There is, however, a cap on non-economic damages, like pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment in life.
It’s important that you don’t accept a settlement without talking to an attorney about your rights. Once you’ve accepted an offer, you may be barred from future recovery. During your no-cost, no-obligation case review with one of the Johnson City personal injury lawyers at The Haynes Firm, we can discuss possible damages to help you understand what your claim might be worth.
Yes. Most do.
A settlement can happen before a lawsuit is filed, after the filing, during discovery, at mediation, or at any point before the trial. They occur when both sides agree on:
Settlement is faster, but it’s not always the right move. If the other side refuses to accept responsibility or offers less than the case is worth, going forward with litigation may be necessary.
Bear in mind that not all personal injury lawyers are proven trial attorneys. When you’re looking for a lawyer, making sure you’re selecting one with experience in the courtroom is essential. Having a trial lawyer on your side lets you know that you’ll be taken care of, no matter which direction your case goes.
The award-winning trial attorneys at The Haynes Firm have significant experience both in and out of the courtroom. Competent and proven negotiators, we still prepare every case for trial to make sure we can provide the most effective representation.
We never expect accidents to occur. We seldom plan for them. We just don’t think they’ll happen to us. Unfortunately, things like car crashes, injuries from defective products, slip-and-fall accidents, and medical malpractice do happen—and with alarming frequency—often leaving victims confused and uncertain about how to proceed. When is it best to file an insurance claim? Is filing a personal injury claim always best?
Suffering a serious injury can be one of the most stressful experiences in your life. Facing physical pain, emotional trauma, and mounting financial losses from medical bills and an inability to work, you may begin to feel overwhelmed. This is where an attorney can be indispensable. Filing a personal injury claim to seek compensation for medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages can help provide the relief you need to start rebuilding your life.
At The Haynes Firm, we understand how difficult it can be to determine the next steps after an accident. Our team of experienced personal injury attorneys is here to listen to your story and provide straightforward advice on how best to proceed. Dedicated to helping victims of catastrophic injury seek fair compensation, we’ll take on the task of fighting for justice, allowing you to focus your energy on recovering physically and emotionally so you can get on with your life.
To schedule your FREE consultation with one of the Johnson City personal injury attorneys at The Haynes Firm, call us at 423-928-0165 right away. We help people who have sustained severe injuries from accidents in the Tri-Cities Area, Elizabethton, Jonesborough, and throughout Tennessee.
When you’re injured in an accident, you may automatically assume insurance is the best way to seek compensation. Accidents are, after all, the reason that we have insurance. However, depending on the type of accident you have been involved in, there could be very complex laws surrounding how insurance works. For example, following a car accident, the at-fault party’s insurance will not likely pay anything towards medical expenses, lost time from work, or other expenses for your bodily injury, until your case is ready to be resolved in full.
Even when the process is cut and dry, insurance claims typically involve negotiating with insurance adjusters from the liable party’s insurer. These companies have a contract with the person responsible for your injuries—not with you, the victim—meaning they don’t necessarily represent your best interests. What’s more, in some cases, insurance companies may try to offer a quick settlement that looks good at first but will fail to cover all of your damages. The problem is that once you have accepted a settlement, you will no longer have the option of filing a personal injury claim. Talking to an attorney before you negotiate with insurance can help to protect you against low-ball settlement offers and work to ensure you retain your right to seek the full compensation you are due.
Filing a personal injury claim allows you to pursue damages beyond what an insurance policy might cover, including pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of quality of life. At The Haynes Firm, our personal injury lawyers take the time to carefully evaluate cases involving serious injury, enabling us to make an accurate assessment of damages and determine their true worth. Before you accept an offer from insurance, talk to one of our attorneys for free to make sure you are choosing the best option for your claim.
Determining liability is one of the most important aspects to consider before filing a personal injury claim. However, establishing fault can be incredibly complex, requiring a thorough investigation that goes beyond initial accident reports. Again, this can be further complicated by the type of insurance—homeowners, auto, business, professional liability, etc.—involved in the claim.
For example, there may be more than one driver who is determined to be at fault in a vehicle accident. Under Tennessee’s modified comparative fault rules, an injured party may still be able to obtain compensation for damages if they are found to share less than 50% of the responsibility for the accident.
Let’s say a driver at a stop sign, after coming to a complete stop, turns left without signaling. At the same time, another driver fails to stop at the sign at all, resulting in a collision. If a jury determines that the driver who ran the stop sign is 85% at fault for the crash, finding the injured
driver 15% at fault, then the judge will reduce the jury’s damages verdict accordingly. So, if the plaintiff is awarded $20,000 for damages in this hypothetical, the total verdict would be reduced by 15% to the sum of $17,000.
This is, of course, just one example of how liability plays a role in determining compensation. Things may look different in cases of premises liability, medical malpractice, or claims involving defective products.
An experienced injury attorney will investigate your accident to identify all liable parties and help ensure fault is properly established. This helps to ensure your right to seek compensation is protected and, in some cases, can also help to promote accountability and increase public safety.
At The Haynes Firm, our Tennessee personal injury lawyers conduct thorough investigations to gather evidence before filing a personal injury claim. This may include reviewing accident and medical reports, interviewing witnesses, and working with accident reconstruction experts to get a clear understanding of what happened. In this way, we can build the strongest case for compensation and seek the full damages you are entitled to.
Each personal injury claim is unique. However, many follow a similar timeline, which often includes:
At The Haynes Firm, our personal injury team has decades of experience—both in and out of the courtroom—fighting for the rights of injury victims. Recognized by Best Lawyers® and U.S. News & World Report as among the best lawyers in the country, our attorneys have also been recognized by Super Lawyers®, the National Trial Lawyers Association®, and others for their success in litigating complex cases involving medical malpractice, auto accidents, and more. If you need an experienced attorney, reach out today for a FREE case review to learn how we can help.
Things that can have a bearing on your case include:
It’s essential to act fast when filing a personal injury claim. For most of these cases, Tennessee’s statute of limitations only allows an individual one year to take legal action. However, before you conclude that your case is barred by the statute of limitations, you should speak with one of our lawyers. Some issues can allow for an extension of the statute of limitations for medical malpractice, auto injury, and other claims.
An injured party may be awarded compensation for various damages in Tennessee personal injury claims, including:
There are caps on non-economic damages in Tennessee. Under most circumstances, this cap is $750,000 per person. However, in catastrophic injury cases, the cap is increased to $1 million per person. There are no caps on economic damages in Tennessee.
At The Haynes Firm, we have provided client-focused legal representation for over 70 years. Our attorneys understand the emotional and financial toll an accident can take on individuals and families. We are dedicated to doing everything possible to secure the compensation our clients deserve.
Proven negotiators and skilled litigators, our commitment to our clients goes beyond legal proceedings. We offer compassionate support, clear and consistent communication, and personalized attention to ensure you are fully cared for during the entire process.
If you have been injured or a loved one has been killed in an auto accident, by a defective product, on poorly maintained premises, or by a medical professional, we want you to know that you are not alone. Contact The Haynes Firm online or call our Johnson City office today to schedule your FREE case evaluation and let us help you seek the justice you need to heal.
1009 East Watauga Ave.
Johnson City, TN 37601
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207 East Main Street
Johnson City, TN 37604
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