Those who have experienced a personal injury in South Carolina may be eligible for compensation by filing a personal injury claim. Types of personal injuries in South Carolina include those caused by auto accidents, slip and fall, motorcycle accidents, truck accidents and more.
As long as you can provide enough evidence which proves the accident that caused your injury was not your fault you should be eligible to file a South Carolina personal injury claim for compensation from the person or entity which caused your accident.
How Do I File a Claim in South Carolina?
If you wish to ensure your South Carolina personal injury claim is successful you need to provide enough evidence that proves who caused the accident. This may include a police report particularly if it was a motor vehicle accident, photos taken at the accident scene showing how the accident occurred, footage retrieved from nearby surveillance cameras, eye witnesses written reports of the accident, your physician’s medical report describing the injury and how it took place.
When you have gathered all the necessary evidence, you should contact a South Carolina personal injury attorney who can arrange mediation between you and the insurer of the person who caused your injury. Most personal injury cases are settled without the need to go to court but if a favorable compensation settlement through mediation cannot be reached, the next step is to file a lawsuit in court. To speed up the court process it is important to get personal injury help in South Carolina from a personal injury attorney.
What is the Statute of Limitations in South Carolina?
Every state throughout the country has a "statute of limitations" for personal injury claims and South Carolina allows 3 years for personal injury claims to be filed. If a claim is not filed within this time limit the victim of an injury will have no chance of winning any compensation.
How Do I Prove Negligence in South Carolina?
The first element for proving negligence is that the defendant owed a duty of care to the accident victim. This means that there was some kind of relationship between the victim and the defendant who owed you this duty of care.
One example is a vehicle driver who owes a duty to other road users to drive both responsibly and safely. If the driver drives negligently and injures another road user then he or she has breached the duty of care. The injured victim has to prove that the injury is as a direct result of the breach of duty.
South Carolina follows modified comparative fault law, which means compensation can be reduced if the person is found to be to some degree at fault for his or her own injuries. The amount of compensation is reduced by the percentage of fault shared by the injured person.
What Kind of Compensation Can I Receive in South Carolina?
In South Carolina an injured person can claim the cost of the following economic and non-economic damages in a personal injury claim:
- cost of damage to property;
- lawyer’s fees;
- loss of consortium, which typically means loss of some of the advantages of a family relationship caused by the accident or injury;
- lost wages until a return to work takes place;
- all medical treatment for the injuries caused in the accident, including prescribed medications;
- out of pocket expenses such as taxi rides for medical treatment;
- pain and suffering;
- physical therapy, if needed;
- punitive damages.
In South Carolina, non-economic damages related to medical malpractice are limited to a maximum compensation amount of $350,000 per injured party or an amount of $1.05 million overall. These amounts are not applicable to personal injury cases such as premises liability, or negligence.
Another South Carolina damage cap law applies to personal injury cases and that relates to punitive damages, which is compensation awarded to an injured person which is intended to punish the person or entity which caused the injury if he or she was deliberately negligent. In South Carolina, punitive damages in personal injury cases are limited to the greater of 3 times the amount of real damages, or $500,000.
How Do I Get Personal Injury Help in South Carolina?
The best way to get personal injury help in South Carolina is to request a free evaluation from a personal injury lawyer who can assess your case and determine if you have a good chance of winning a successful personal injury claim. Complete the Free Case Evaluation above to get in touch with an independent, participating personal injury lawyer who subscribes to the website.
