Seattle Personal Injury Lawyer

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Numerous scenarios in and around Seattle can lead to serious personal injuries, and some occur far more often than others. Here are some of the personal injury cases we routinely handle:

Motor vehicle accidents. Car accidents, truck accidents, boat accidents, and motorcycle accidents injure millions of Americans annually, including right here in the Seattle area. Motorists, businesses, and government entities may face liability in these cases.

Bicycle and pedestrian accidents. Cyclists and pedestrians face serious injuries (or worse) in crashes involving motorists. Distracted drivers increasingly face liability for these types of accidents.

Premises liability incidents (a.k.a. slip and fall). Slipping and falling is one of the many ways a person can get injured on someone else’s property. Property owners who fail to meet their duty of care often have liability to visitors who sustain an injury on their properties.

Workplace and construction accidents. Similar to premises liability, employers and others in a workplace or others on a job site have a duty to keep workers safe. Catastrophic injuries can happen when they fail to fulfill that duty, leading to liability.

Defective products. According to the National Safety Council, consumer products injure approximately 10.5 million people annually. Under Washington law, when a product has a defect in its design, construction, or lack of warnings to users, the manufacturer and others involved in producing and distributing it may have liability to anyone the product injures.

Medical malpractice. Seattle residents have every right to expect their medical service providers—doctors, nurses, therapists, etc.—to deliver the appropriate standard of care for their needs. Sometimes, however, those same providers fall short. When they do, injured patients have the right to seek financial compensation through the legal process.

Nursing home abuse. Elderly people who live in Seattle-area nursing homes have an absolute right, guaranteed by state law, to live in dignity and free from abuse. The law also gives those residents and their representatives the right to seek compensation from anyone who enables or fails to prevent nursing home abuse.

Dangerous drugs. Prescription drugs have lifesaving qualities, but they can also cause severe harm. Injured consumers can seek to hold drug makers and prescribers accountable when drugs lack adequate warnings or harmful contaminants.

Dog bites. Dog owners in Seattle can be held strictly liable for any injury their dog causes when it bites someone. If the dog was deemed dangerous at the time of the attack, those same owners could face civil and criminal penalties.

Seattle Accident Statistics

Seattle is a major city with a population of more than 730,000. It is also part of the greater Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue region which has more than 4 million people living in the area.

As such, traffic accidents are a regular occurrence throughout Seattle. The Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) reported the following accident statistics for Seattle for a recent year:

• 8,192 total traffic-related accidents, resulting in 243 serious injuries and 36 fatalities
• Distracted driving was cited in 1,431 crashes
• 579 alcohol-involved crashes occurred, injuring 29 and killing 6

Although you can get into a vehicle accident virtually anywhere in Seattle, certain roads see more accidents than others, including:

• Mercer Street
• Northeast 45th Street
• Aurora Avenue North
• East Marginal Way South

Additionally, more than 90,000 drivers cross the West Seattle Bridge each day, and I-5, I-405, and I-90 experience a lot of congestion and traffic accidents, particularly near the Sea-Tac Airport and downtown.

Common Personal Injuries in Seattle

Every personal injury case is unique in its facts and circumstances. Some people walk away from multi-car accidents with barely a scratch. Others suffer severe health complications from seemingly mundane falls.

Here are some of the most common injuries that bring clients to Boohoff Law seeking our help to obtain compensation for their personal injury claim:

1. Traumatic brain injury (TBI). TBI happens when the brain sustains damage from a sudden impact or shaking, from a penetrating injury, or oxygen deprivation. Traumatic brain injuries can leave their victims living with severe cognitive deficits, physical impairments, and in the worst cases, in permanent states of unconsciousness or semi-consciousness. Motor vehicle accidents and falls often cause TBIs.

2. Spinal cord injury. A blow or penetrating injury to the spinal column can result in damage to the passageways and structures through which the brain communicates with the body. The most common disability associated with a spinal cord injury is paralysis, either partial or total, including paraplegia and tetraplegia. Common causes of spinal cord injury include motor vehicle accidents, workplace and construction accidents, and falls.

3. Burns. Accidental exposure to flames, chemicals, and electricity can cause the burning of human tissue, sometimes severe and life-threatening. Burns are extremely painful and notoriously difficult for doctors to treat. Recovery takes months or more and often involves a series of excruciating surgeries. Even after full recovery, burn victims may have to live with disfiguring scars and painful disabilities.

4. Crushed or amputated limbs. In violent car accidents and accidents involving heavy objects or machinery, people’s limbs can get trapped, crushed, or severed. These are horrific accidents that permanently alter the victims’ lives, forcing them to re-learn basic tasks and to live with often debilitating pain.

5. Organ failure/health complications. Some injuries result from people taking the wrong medications or receiving improper medical care. As often as not, medical mistreatment can cause life-threatening health complications, such as the failure of internal organs or systems, or the progression of a disease that should have been diagnosed. Victims of nursing home abuse often suffer from these sorts of injuries.

6. Broken bones and orthopedic injuries. Any sort of violent impact can break bones and twist limbs. While these injuries tend to heal, they can leave victims with permanent disabilities.

Of course, this is nothing close to a complete list. Personal injuries are as diverse as the circumstances that cause them. Regardless of what kind of injury you have, if you sustained it because of someone else’s wrongful conduct, then you may have the right to compensation.

Consulting with an experienced Seattle personal injury lawyer is the best way to learn about your rights under Washington state’s personal injury laws.

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Common Damages for Seattle Personal Injuries

If you or a loved one has been the victim of personal injury, legal assistance could be essential to helping you return to everyday life. A personal injury lawyer can help you seek the benefits and compensation you deserve after enduring a painful event. Washington allows a person harmed by someone else’s negligence or intentional misconduct to seek damages from the wrongdoer.

Generally speaking, lawyers classify these damages into two categories: economic (or special) damages, and non-economic (or general) damages.

Economic damages 

This type of compensation reimburses victims of personal injury for their out-of-pocket costs stemming from the injury. Economic damages typically include:

• Medical bills

• Lost income

• Property damage

• Other related out-of-pocket expenses

If someone else caused your injuries, they should be responsible for covering all of your medical expenses, so you should never hesitate to seek treatment to ensure the best possible prognosis. You can include all types of medical bills in your claim, including:

• Ambulance transportation

• Emergency room treatment

• Diagnostic testing

• Hospitalization and ICU admission

• Surgical procedures

• Medication

• Medical equipment

• Rehabilitation facilities

• Physical and occupational therapy

• Home health care

• Chronic or long-term care costs.

• Assistive medical devices and home modifications.

• Property damage

• Lost wages

• Lost earning ability or employment opportunity due to injuries

Under Washington law, the party with legal liability for economic damages may have the right to pay them to the person harmed in periodic installments instead of in a lump sum. Your attorney can give you an idea of what to expect when it comes to compensation for your economic damages.

Non-economic damages 

This type of compensation provides a remedy for more intangible harms that are more difficult to calculate. These may include:

• Pain and suffering. Injuries result in much more than financial losses for many people. Injuries can cause extreme—and sometimes, chronic—pain. This pain can wear on you and cause emotional distress, depression, anxiety, and many other emotional disorders. While pain and suffering have no quantifiable dollar value, there are formulas that your lawyer can use to determine the value of these non-economic losses.

• Damage to personal relationships (a.k.a. loss of consortium/companionship/parent-child relationship). Having an injury not only hurts you but also those who you love. An injury can put great pressure on a marriage, parent-child relationship, or other close companionship. Some people can no longer be intimate with a spouse or play with their children, and this can damage everyone involved. You can pursue compensation for these losses.

• Negative impacts on quality of life. Injuries can disrupt your life in many ways and cause you to lose much enjoyment in your life. The daily impacts of your injuries add up. If you cannot participate in sports or other recreational activities you enjoy, work in the garden, coach your child’s sports team, or even care for yourself, your damages should reflect this.

Non-economic damages have a reputation in popular culture as being very large. That is not necessarily the case in Washington, however. Washington law subjects non-economic damages to a cap. The plaintiff may recover a maximum of 43 percent of the average annual wage in Washington (an amount set by law) multiplied by his or her life expectancy at the time of the personal injury (but no less than 15 years). Washington law also does not generally allow for punitive (or exemplary) damages.

Wrongful death damages

When a person dies due to the negligence or wrongful act of another, their surviving family members may be entitled to seek compensation through a wrongful death claim. While no amount of money can truly compensate for the loss of a loved one, wrongful death damages aim to provide financial support and a sense of justice to the grieving family.

In a personal injury case involving wrongful death, damages are also classified into two categories:

• Economic damages: These include quantifiable financial losses such as medical expenses incurred before death, funeral and burial costs, loss of future income and benefits, and loss of inheritance.

• Non-economic damages: These damages are more subjective and harder to quantify, but they are equally important. They may include compensation for the loss of love, companionship, guidance, and emotional support provided by the deceased.

In addition to wrongful death damages, some states allow the deceased person’s estate to recover damages that the deceased could have claimed had they survived, such as medical expenses and pain and suffering endured before death.

The specific damages available and the rules surrounding wrongful death claims can vary by state. An experienced personal injury attorney can help families understand their rights and guide them through the complex legal process of seeking justice for their loved one’s untimely death.