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    Lafourche Parish Personal Injury Lawyer

    When an accident in Lafourche Parish leads to injury or damages, the injured party or parties may have legal grounds for a personal injury lawsuit. If successful, a lawsuit can force the responsible party to pay for economic costs such as medical bills and loss of wages, and potentially certain non-economic damages as well.

    A skilled Lafourche Parish personal injury lawyer who knows injury cases and has extensive experience in this area of law could work to ensure your rights are protected. Insurance companies will often make a low offer to settle personal injury cases, but a qualified injury attorney could deal with the insurance company on your behalf and represent your best interests.

    Legal Protections for Injured Workers

    The Louisiana Office of Workers Compensation, a division of the Louisiana Department of Labor administers the state’s workers’ compensation program. It provides wage recovery and medical care for land-based workers who are injured on the job, whether the injury was the fault of the worker or their employer. However, workers in Lafourche Parish and elsewhere in Louisiana may not sue their company directly to receive compensation for pain and suffering

    What is the Jones Act?

    The Jones Act covers seaman employees who work on Louisiana’s inter-coastal waterways and in off-shore jobs, including those who work on floating oil rigs. This law affords these workers the right of maintenance and cure, which is the equivalent of room and board, as well as medical care if an illness or injury occurs while the seaman is in the service of the vessel.

    Additional damages such as pain and suffering, past lost wages and future lost wages may be awarded if an injury is caused by employer or co-employee negligence, such as failure to repair a workplace hazard or if the employer failed to ensure a vessel is seaworthy. In some cases, workers may have to sue their company to receive compensation.

    What are the Common Recoverable Damages?

    Two types of damages, economic and non-economic, are allowed in Lafourche Parish. The purpose of monetary damages is ideally to restore a person’s personal and financial status to what it was before the accident.

    An injured person may sue for all the costs associated with caring for their injury, as well as to recover wages they cannot or could not work to earn during the healing process. In the event of a crippling accident or one with permanent effects, compensation may be pursued for income lost over a lifetime.

    The harm done to a person’s mental and emotional states in the form of pain, suffering, mental agony, emotional distress, and others specific to the situation may also be pursued as damages in certain cases.

    Understanding the Element of Negligence

    Almost all personal injury cases in Lafourche Parish have the issue of negligence in common. In legal terms, negligence involves a party failing to behave in a careful and prudent manner toward someone else.

    To prove negligence, the accused party must have had a duty to act with care toward the injured person in a way that did not directly cause them harm—intentionally or unintentionally. For example, boaters in the waterways of Lafourche Parish need to be careful of other watercraft, but a passerby does not have a duty of care to a person who slips and falls.

    If this duty is breached and the breach directly caused the accident in question, it is considered the proximate legal cause and the individual should seek out the help of a Lafourche Parish personal injury lawyer. When such an accident results in damages, the responsible party may be sued for compensation.

    Getting Assistance from a Lafourche Parish Injury Attorney

    To determine if you have a case, it may be wise to make an appointment for a free consultation with a Lafourche Parish personal injury lawyer. A qualified attorney could review the facts of the situation to determine the strength of your case and explain the legal concepts involved, with no obligation to retain them if they find you have a valid case.

    Kopfler & Hermann, Attorneys at Law Kopfler & Hermann, Attorneys at Law
    7910 W Main St
    Houma, , LA 70360
    N/a (985) 262-3936

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