Can I Protect Myself from a PI Claim?

Unfortunately, there’s no way to completely eliminate your liability and protect yourself from a personal injury claim. Injuries happen, sometimes regardless of how many precautions a person takes. While it may seem like it’s impossible to avoid being sued, it generally follows that the more precautions you take to prevent others from sustaining injuries, the less likely you could be liable for injuries due to negligence. Although we cannot completely eradicate lawsuits and accidents that cause injury, we can all work together to prevent injury.

Take Care of Your Car

Taking care of your car can prevent accidents and personal injury claims resulting from the accidents. Make sure your headlights, brake lights, and blinkers are all working properly. You should also make sure that your tires are in good condition, especially with fall and winter coming. If your car isn’t working properly, and a mechanic suggests that it needs to be repaired before you drive it, make sure to follow their recommendations. Although not every 100,000 mile care package is necessary or even worth it, it is important to research the necessary maintenance and make sure you have your car maintained properly.

Maintain Your Yard

Did you know that you could be liable for injuries that happen on your property? This is because property owners are generally liable for injuries that guests and implied invitees sustain while on the premises. This is why it’s important to take reasonable precautions to remove or mitigate dangers in your yard. When it comes to keeping liability out of your yard, or at least reducing it, attractive nuisance doctrine is also something that you need to consider. Children are very rarely considered to be trespassers, and according to the laws, they may not understand the dangers associated with certain things such as animals, equipment, land formations, etc. In order to keep children from getting injured in your yard, you may need to put up a fence or take other precautions to keep them safe.

Carry Insurance

Not having insurance can open you up to a lot of liability, especially if you have assets that are worth going after. A lot of people feel like they don’t need to carry insurance because they don’t have any assets in the first place. However, not carrying insurance can be a big problem for anyone who’s injured by your negligence. If you cause a car accident that injures another driver, and you don’t have insurance, the injured person may be forced to pay for their medical expenses out of pocket, especially if they don’t have a uninsured motorists policy. While carrying insurance doesn’t prevent a personal injury claim from being filed against you, it can protect you from personal liability in the event that you cause another person to sustain injuries.

Take Precautions

It’s important to take reasonable precautions to prevent injuries. Although there aren’t set-in-stone guidelines for which precautions are reasonable, there are good guidelines to follow. If you know something’s illegal, you probably shouldn’t do it, especially if you know it could cause someone else to sustain injury. Following common sense safety tips may also be a good way to avoid personal injury claims. For example, if you have a pool in your backyard, you may want to have a fence up to prevent children from getting in the pool and drowning. Following the laws and common-sense safety tips may be a great start to avoiding accidents and mitigating liability.

Check the Weather

When the weather gets nasty, the chances of car accidents goes up. If you know there’s going to be weather related hazards in your area, it may be a good idea to consider working from home. If you absolutely must go out in bad weather, you may need to make sure you’re prepared. Make sure to wear appropriate clothing, such as coats, gloves, and hats. You may also need to pack blankets, salt, snacks, tire chains, and a shovel. What you need for a worst-case-scenario kit will depend on where you’re located. Planning around the weather can help you stay safe and avoid unnecessary accidents.

Yes, You Can Afford an Attorney

At Moxie Law Group we take cases on contingency. This means that you don’t have to pay anything upfront. Instead, we’ll begin working on your case without asking you for anything. Once you receive a settlement or a judgment in your favor, a pre-negotiated portion of your settlement or judgment will cover your legal expenses. This way, you don’t have to pay anything out of pocket to get the compensation you deserve.