Grand Rapids Injury Attorneys

Personal Injury

If someone else injured you, you may have a basis to sue for damages. Most often, the damages will be compensatory, meaning that their purpose is to put you back in the position in which you would have been had you not been injured. In Michigan, you need to bring a personal injury claim within three years to avoid being barred by the statute of limitations. In most cases, the three-year period starts running on the accident date, but sometimes the clock will start running on the date that you discover that you were injured. Most personal injury lawsuits are based on negligence. This means that your Grand Rapids injury attorney will need to prove that the defendant owed you a duty of care, they breached the duty, and your injuries were a direct result.

Car Accidents

Michigan uses a no-fault system for car accident cases. In other words, Michigan drivers are supposed to buy no-fault insurance. After an accident, they must first turn to their own insurance for compensation for economic losses. Generally, no-fault policies cover replacement services up to a certain sum, including lost wages and necessary medical costs. You can only sue an at-fault driver in civil court for your noneconomic damages if you suffer a serious impairment of a bodily function. In other words, you will need to have suffered injuries to a bodily function that truly undercut your capacity to lead a normal life. Alternatively, if you have a closed head injury or you were disfigured in a car accident, you can file a lawsuit, even if you cannot meet the statutory requirement of a serious impairment.

Medical Malpractice

When you go to a Michigan doctor, you trust that you will be treated competently. However, doctors and nurses do make mistakes that can cause serious harm. In order to recover damages for medical malpractice, an injury attorney in the Grand Rapids area will need to prove that a professional standard of care was owed, there was a breach of the professional standard of care, and the patient suffered harm as a result. The professional standard of care will be comprised of the practices or procedures used by similar medical professionals to treat a patient who is similarly situated and who is suffering from a particular medical condition or illness. While there is no cap on economic damages for medical malpractice, tort reform has placed severe restrictions on what victims of medical malpractice can recover in terms of noneconomic losses. You only have about two years from the conduct that you believe was medical malpractice to bring your claim.

Products Liability

If you were injured by a defective product, you may be able to bring a product liability lawsuit for compensation. Each state handles product liability lawsuits differently. The Michigan Product Liability Act requires you to prove certain elements in order to pursue a defective product case. There are different types of issues that are actionable: negligent design, negligent failure to warn about an aspect of the product, fraud, or misrepresentation. You can also hold a manufacturer accountable for a breach of an implied or express warranty or negligent manufacturing. You will need to show that the product that harmed you was unreasonably dangerous when it left the manufacturer’s control.

Nursing Home Negligence

When you put a beloved family member in a nursing home, legal issues may arise. Nursing home negligence and abuse occur when a nursing home or its staff fail to treat a resident with the reasonable care expected from a caregiver under the circumstances, such that the resident is injured. Negligence may involve a failure to supervise a resident in the shower or bath, a failure to turn immobile residents to prevent bedsores, a failure to monitor nutrition and hydration, verbal abuse of residents, a failure to obtain appropriate medical care, and chemical restraints. If you notice that your loved one has bedsores, infections, unexplained fractures and bruises, personality changes, or other disturbing symptoms, you should consult a Grand Rapids injury lawyer to find out if you may have a claim.

Family Law

Often, divorces are heated with regard to issues such as property distribution, child custody, child support, or alimony. When there is a controversy about one or more of these matters, it is very important to retain an experienced family law attorney. If you file for a divorce in Michigan, either your spouse or you need to have lived in Michigan for 180 days before filing the divorce complaint. One of you needs to have also lived in the county where you are filing for the 10 days immediately before filing. You can file for a no-fault divorce in Michigan. In this type of divorce, a spouse must believe that there has been a breakdown of the marriage, such that the marriage’s purpose has been destroyed, and there is no chance that the marriage may be fixed. Even so, property distribution and alimony may be affected by fault on the part of one or both spouses. When no kids are involved, there is a 60-day waiting period before the divorce is granted.

Retain Our Grand Rapids Attorneys for Dedicated Representation

Whether you have been injured on the job, on the road, or in a nursing home, you should consult an experienced injury lawyer in the Grand Rapids area about whether you have a claim. At McCroskey Law, we are proud of having strong ties to the community. We help residents of Grand Rapids and people who live in other areas of Michigan. We have substantial resources and proven legal acumen, recovering millions for clients each year. Call our attorneys in Grand Rapids at 616-364-6607, Muskegon at 231-726-4861, or Battle Creek at 269-968-2215, or contact us through our online form.