New Hampshire and Massachusetts Personal Injury Lawyers

Our team of New Hampshire and Massachusetts accident attorneys and personal injury lawyers are some of the premier trial attorneys in Nashua, Manchester, throughout southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts. We have even built a reputation throughout Massachusetts of being aggressive advocates and skilled negotiators. We pride ourselves in practicing with professionalism and empathy. Our reputation was not gained over night.

We have a foundation of several decades of jury trial experience. That experience was first forged in the criminal courtrooms of Brooklyn, NY as a felony level prosecutor. Our track record of several multi-million-dollar results speak to our proficiency as personal injury lawyers in high stakes litigation in Nashua, Manchester, and throughout southern New Hampshire. You can see those results by clinking the link below:

Case Results | Nashua Personal Injury Lawyers Granite Law Group (granite-law-group.com)

Below are some of the practice areas that our New Hampshire and Massachusetts accident lawyers and personal injury attorneys specialize in:

• Car Accidents
• Truck Accidents
• Motorcycle Accidents
• Dog Bites
• Medical Malpractice
• Wrongful Death
• Products Liability

Negligence:

The vast majority of accident and personal injury claims are based on the common law theory of negligence.  The New Hampshire and Massachusetts Civil Jury Instructions define negligence as “the failure to use reasonable care. Reasonable care is the degree of care which an ordinary, prudent person would use under the same or similar circumstances.” A plaintiff must prove four elements to establish negligence: Duty, breach, causation, and damages.

Our accident lawyers and personal injury attorneys explain that negligence is the underlying cause of action in a car accident case or a wrongful death case. By and large, the same principles apply.

First Element of an Accident Case – Duty:

The first element is duty. Consequently, the defendant owes the plaintiff a duty of reasonable care. A duty is established when there’s a reasonably foreseeable expectation of harm, a special relationship, or when you create a dangerous condition. A motorist travels along a highway. The teacher takes her students on a class trip. A painter erects a rickety scaffold. These are all examples of a duty.

Second Element of an Accident Case – Breach:

The second element is breach. Significantly, a breach is established when the defendant fails to use reasonable care. If a defendant fails to use reasonable care, the duty is breached. A motorist is speeding and texting which causes a highway collision would be an example. The teacher fails to count all her students on the class trip and one of the students goes missing. The painter assembles a makeshift scaffold out of pieces of bent metal which causes it to collapse. These are all examples of a breach. Some tough liability cases fall into a grey area.

With this in mind, most mediocre accident lawyers and personal injury attorneys are only going to take “slam dunk” liability cases. Conversely, the good personal injury attorneys are going to identify that an injustice has been done and operate within the grey area of a tough liability case.

Third Element of an Accident Case – Causation:

The third element is causation. Indeed, causation is established when the breach plays a major role in causing the injury. A breach doesn’t have to be the sole cause of the injury. There can be multiple factors that cause the injury. The breach just needs to be a major factor. For example, if the defendant does not speed there is no crash. What if the plaintiff was drunk and drifted into the lane of the speeding motorist? Under those circumstances, there would be no causation.

Fourth Element of an Accident Case – Damages:

The fourth element is damages. Evidently, damages come in several different forms. A plaintiff is entitled to compensation for his medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and pain and suffering. Another key point is the defendant must “take a plaintiff as they find him.” As an illustration, suppose the plaintiff has a pre-existing condition that caused him to undergo a deadly cardiac arrest after being rear ended? The motorist who caused the crash is liable for wrongful death. A defendant is only liable for the “aggravation of a pre-existing injury”. If a plaintiff with a spine fusion gets T-boned, the motorist is liable for how much worse the spine becomes.

Pain and Suffering:

While it is true that medical bills and lost wages are fixed numbers. It happens to be that pain and suffering is not fixed. It’s subjective. So, how do you quantify pain and suffering?

It is important to realize that it depends on the type of injury. The insurance companies can draw from a vast collection of data that gives them a guideline of what this type of claims settle for in the past. Notably, every case is different. And every personal injury lawyer is different too. All things considered, it is up to the personal injury lawyer to advocate on behalf of the injured party and drive up the value of the case. Ultimately, a jury decides what pain and suffering is worth, not an insurance adjuster. What separates good New Hampshire accident lawyers from mediocre accident lawyers, is their ability to convince a jury. And what separates mediocre Hew Hampshire accident lawyers from bad accident lawyers, is their ability to leverage the threat of a big verdict to obtain a high “risk-free” settlement offer for the client.

Burden of Proof:

In brief, the plaintiff’s accident lawyer and personal injury attorney must prove these elements by a preponderance of the evidence. In contrast, the burden is beyond a reasonable doubt in a criminal case. Comparatively, the burden in a criminal case is harder to prove.

Notwithstanding the low burden, it is incumbent of the plaintiff’s attorney to prepare the case like it is going to trial from the very beginning. After all, the plaintiff’s attorney has to retain the correct liability experts to prove there was a breach. In addition, the plaintiff’s attorney has to retain the correct damages experts to prove there was causation. Most importantly, the plaintiff’s attorney has to construct a story of the case that the jury will adopt. There is certainly an art to effective advocacy that must be developed with pain staking focus.

As a matter of fact, we highly recommend that potential clients in Nashua, Manchester, and throughout southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts watch the short video linked below which provides an overview of our New Hampshire accident lawyer and personal injury attorney’s approach in the “Art of the Case.”

Video | Nashua Personal Injury Lawyers Granite Law Group (granite-law-group.com)

Links:

Car Accident Lawyer FAQ | Granite Law Group (granite-law-group.com)

New Hampshire Car Accident Lawyers | Granite Law Group (granite-law-group.com)

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