If you or someone you love gets injured due to another person’s careless or negligent actions, you may need to seek assistance from an attorney. A Huntington, WV personal injury attorney will be able to examine the facts of your case and work to secure the compensation you deserve. At Tiano O’Dell, we are ready to serve you. Give us a call today to get started on your case.
Why Choose Our Team?
At Tiano O’Dell, PLLC, our attorneys focus on building enduring relationships and working to achieve the best possible results for clients. The Huntington, WV personal injury attorneys at Tiano O’Dell, PLLC are accomplished, and our hard work has been recognized by our peers.
- Firm founders William Tiano and Tony O’Dell have been named as Top 100 Trial Lawyers by the American Trial Lawyer Association.
- Both attorneys have been designated as West Virginia Super Lawyers.
- Tiano and O’Dell are both asked by colleagues to share their expertise at West Virginia and national seminars.
- Both partners serve on the board of the West Virginia Association for Justice.
Our West Virginia personal injury attorneys focus on keeping abreast of rapidly changing injury case law. We use cutting-edge technology, including a medical database used by healthcare professionals across the country, to investigate our clients’ cases.
Huntington, West Virginia
Huntington is the county seat of Cabell County and the largest city in the Tri-State area. This is a historic city filled with commerce and heavy industry and offers a glimpse of what most of America looked like not so long ago. With a population of around 50,000 people, Huntington is the second-largest city in West Virginia.
Huntington is home to Marshall University and the Port of Huntington Tri-State, the second-busiest inland port in the country.
In the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, Huntington offers wonderful natural beauty and is surrounded by extensive natural resources that drive the US economy.
Why Hire a Huntington, West Virginia Personal Injury Attorney?
Types of Personal Injury Cases We Handle in Huntington
- Motor vehicle accidents/collisions: Being in a motor vehicle accident caused by someone or something else entitles you to compensation. Examples of this include rear-end collisions, drunk-driving accidents, distracted driving accidents, and any time you are hit by someone breaking the rules of the road.
- Medical malpractice: Medical malpractice is a relatively common source of injury, as while medical procedures are conducted as safely as possible, mistakes can and do happen. When you experience an injury due to a medical procedure, whether due to negligence on behalf of the doctor or the hospital, you could be entitled to compensation.
- Nursing home abuse: Elder abuse is an increasingly serious public health issue in the United States, and one of the main forms of elder abuse is nursing home abuse. If you or a loved one has suffered from mental, physical, or financial abuse in a nursing home, you could be entitled to compensation for the related damages, and also pain and suffering.
- Workplace accidents/on-the-job injuries: Being injured on the job can entitle you to coverage for the medical bills associated with your injury as well as some of the earnings you lost because of it. In some situations, additional damages might be available to you, depending upon the unique circumstances of your injury.
- Slip and fall accidents: When you are out on the town shopping, or wandering the aisles of your local big box store, you can expect that the premises will be kept safe for you. When you are injured due to an unsafe condition or a failure to warn about an unsafe condition when you are at a retail location, or a sporting event, theater, or other business open to the public, you often will be able to recover your damages through a personal injury claim or case.
- Large truck accidents/18-wheeler crashes: The roads today are increasingly clogged with large trucks, in fact in 2019 alone accidents involving large trucks and buses led to 5,237 deaths, over 121,000 accidents involving injuries and over 400,000 accidents involving property damage alone.
- Wrongful death: If you have lost a loved one due to an accident caused by someone or something else, you and your family could be entitled to compensation. While your loved one can never be returned, the negative financial impact of their loss on your family is recovered through a wrongful death action, including compensation for the loss of your loved one’s financial and emotional contributions to your household.
- Camp Lejeune Claims – Our West Virginia Camp Lejeune water contamination lawyers can help if you have suffered serious illness as a result of living or working at the Marine base.
Will My Personal Injury Case Have to Go To Trial?
The reason that personal injury cases go to trial is that the insurance company was unwilling to
present a fair offer of settlement. An offer of settlement that is less than your damages will leave you and your family covering costs associated with your injuries out of your own pocket in the future. When a settlement is insufficient, a trial may be necessary, although this is not a likely outcome.
As detailed by the United States Department of Justice, just 3% of all personal injury claims end up at trial. When you have a personal injury claim, it is generally far more likely that your claim will settle before the need of a trial. Trials are costly for insurance companies, so they are often motivated to accept a fair settlement offer to avoid the investment of litigation.
It is important to understand that every claim is unique, and driven by the unique facts and circumstances of the accident, and how the law and case precedent applies to these facts. When the insurance company will not be fair with you, working with an attorney to bring them to court can require them to be.
Who Can Bring a Personal Injury Case in Huntington?
Anyone who has been injured due to the negligent actions of another person, business, or entity can bring a lawsuit against the negligent party.
What is the Time Limit to file a West Virginia Personal Injury Claim?
Each state has a statute of limitations for personal injury cases, meaning that victims must file their claims within a certain amount of time or risk losing their right to recover compensation. In West Virginia, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is two years from the time the injury occurred or when it should have been discovered.
This means that if you experience an accident but an injury is not apparent until some time later, the statue of limitations does not begin until the injury is discovered. For example, you might have had a bump on your head that required stitches, but you might not realize that a traumatic brain injury had occurred until symptoms emerge many months later. The statute would begin when your notice the symptoms of the injury.
What Kind of Compensation Am I Entitled to for a Personal Injury?
The purpose of receiving compensation for your injuries is to put you and your family in as close a financial position as possible as though the accident had not happened. This is a concept known as “being made whole”. You may be entitled to various types of compensation for a personal injury case in West Virginia, including:
- Your medical expenses related to the incident
- Lost wages and benefits if you cannot work
- Pain and suffering damages
- Loss of personal enjoyment damages
- Possible punitive damages against those responsible
How Much Is My Personal Injury Case Worth?
The general rule in West Virginia concerning personal injury claims, as discussed above, is that the injured party should recover enough compensation from the at-fault party to be made whole. This means that the full costs associated with your injuries, including medical and occupational expenses, are accurately calculated and claimed. This requires the collection of evidence through follow-up opinions from medical and occupational experts. Your Huntington personal injury lawyer handles your claim every step of the way to ensure that your damages are fully
and completely calculated, then recovered.
Consult a Huntington Personal Injury Lawyer
If you have been in a Huntington, WV car accident or were a victim of medical malpractice in Huntington, the team at Tiano O’Dell, PLLC can help. We offer initial consultations at no cost and no obligation. Call or office at (304) 720-6700 or contact us online to get started.