Wayne Personal Injury Lawyer

Respected Personal Injury Lawyers Serving Clients in Wayne and Throughout Delaware County

Wayne is unlike many other areas in and around Philadelphia. With home values averaging around $650,000, Wayne is known as one of the more affluent cities in the Philadelphia area. However, Wayne also sees a significant number of preventable accidents each year. This is largely because of Wayne’s location between two major highways, I-76 and I-476, known for traffic and frequent construction. Additionally, Wayne is home to many hospitals, shopping centers and other businesses, each of which presents certain risks to visitors.

An accident can change your life in a matter of seconds. Whether it is a car accident, slip and fall, or a workplace accident, the injuries you sustain in an accident seriously interfere with your ability to work and live your life the way you want to live it. A Wayne personal injury lawsuit is a way for you to obtain the compensation you deserve after a serious accident. At MyPhillyLawyer, our dedicated team of Wayne personal injury lawyers proudly represents accident victims and their families in all types of accident-related claims. We have over a century of experience handling every stage of the process, so you can focus on what’s important—recovering from your injuries and getting your life back on track.

What Is a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

A personal injury lawsuit is a civil claim brought by an injured party. The purpose of a personal injury claim is to secure financial compensation to offset the economic and non-economic costs brought about by an accident.

Most personal injury cases fall under the larger umbrella of “negligence.” To successfully bring a negligence claim, an accident victim must establish four elements:

1. The other party owed the victim a duty of care;
2. The other party breached (or violated) the duty of care owed to the accident victim;
3. The other party’s actions were the cause of the accident victim’s injuries; and
4. The accident victim suffered legally recognizable damages as a result of the other party’s actions.

Types of Wayne Personal Injury Accidents

Accident victims can bring a personal injury case after any preventable incident that resulted in their injuries. While there are no laws explaining the specific types of Wayne personal injury cases a party can bring, most fall into one of the following categories:

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Car, truck, motorcycle and pedestrian accidents are a leading cause of injury in Wayne. Each day in Pennsylvania, there are over 285 car accidents. These collisions result in about 168 injuries and three deaths each day.

Although Wayne is not as crowded as many other nearby cities, there are still many serious and fatal traffic accidents. For example, in 2020, there were nearly 400 Wayne motor vehicle accidents, resulting in over 175 serious injuries and eight deaths. While the number of injury accidents is roughly in line with the city’s population, the rate of fatal traffic accidents is significantly higher in Wayne. This is likely because Wayne sits at the intersection of two notoriously dangerous highways, I-76 and I-476. Some of the most common causes of Wayne car accidents include:

• Distracted driving
• Impaired driving
• Aggressive driving
• Drowsy driving
• Equipment malfunctions
• Reckless driving

Regardless of the cause of a Wayne car accident, accident victims can pursue a personal injury claim against the at-fault driver.

Slip and Falls

Falls are another leading cause of injury, resulting in more than 800,000 hospitalizations per year across the country. Slip and falls refer to injuries occurring on another’s property, usually caused by the owner’s failure to maintain the property. All landowners, including businesses, individual homeowner’s and government entities, have a legal duty to ensure a reasonably safe location for all invited guests. The extent of an owner’s duty to their guests depends on the nature of the guest’s visit. For example, customers and anyone else on another’s land for commercial purposes are owed the highest duty. Business owners must take the necessary steps to eliminate any known hazards and warn guests about those dangers the owner could not fix. Additionally, a property owner must conduct regular inspections to discover potential hazards that may not be immediately apparent.

Slip and fall accidents can occur at any location, including the following:

• Apartment complexes
• Doctors’ office
• Government buildings
• Grocery stores
• Parking lots and garages
• Shopping malls
• Sidewalks

At MyPhillyLawyer, we have significant hands-on experience litigating all types of Wayne premises liability cases. We understand the duties that property owners owe to their guests and how to effectively negotiate with insurance companies to ensure our clients are fairly compensated for their injuries.

Workplace Accidents

Most Wayne residents work outside the home. Those who do work spend a significant part of their day at work, so it is no surprise that many accident cases occur at work. Employees injured on the job have two ways to secure compensation after an accident: a workers’ compensation claim and a personal injury claim.

The workers’ compensation system provides an expedited system for injured employees to obtain limited compensation after a Wayne workplace accident. The workers’ compensation system is a no-fault system, meaning you do not need to prove that your employer or anyone else was responsible for your injuries to obtain benefits. You can even pursue a workers’ comp claim if your injuries were due to your own negligence. However, the downside to workers’ compensation claims is that you can only recover compensation for your medical expenses and lost wages; you are not entitled to recover for your non-economic damages.

On the other hand, a personal injury claim enables injured workers to recover compensation for their economic and non-economic damages. However, as noted above, personal injury cases require you to prove that another party caused your injuries. Additionally, because a workers’ compensation claim is an injured worker’s sole remedy against their employer in most cases, most personal injury cases based on a workplace accident are filed against negligent third parties rather than against employers. For example, the following may be situations in which a Wayne third-party personal injury lawsuit is appropriate:

• You were injured in a car accident caused by another driver while on the clock;
• You were injured at work due to the negligence of a contractor, sub-contractor, customer, supplier or another party who was not your employer; or
• You were injured at work due to a piece of dangerous or defective machinery or equipment.

Dangerous and Defective Products

Product liability is the body of law that governs a manufacturer’s obligations to those who come into contact with their products. Under Pennsylvania law, manufacturers can be held strictly liable in the event their product causes another person’s injuries. In most cases, these cases involve customers who purchased the product; however, being a purchaser of a product is not a requirement. For example, if you were injured in a Wayne truck accident caused by a defective vehicle, you could sue the vehicle manufacturer. You must do so because naming only the truck driver in this situation could result in the truck driver shifting blame onto the manufacturer, which would leave you without any means of recovery.

Medical Malpractice

The Philadelphia area is home to some of the most well-known hospitals in the country, including:

• Wayne Memorial Hospital
• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)
• Jefferson Hospital
• Bryn Mawr Hospital
• Paoli Hospital
• Wynnewood Hospital

However, even the best doctors occasionally make mistakes that permanently impact a patient’s life. According to some estimates, medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, behind cancer and heart disease. When a doctor, nurse, surgeon, pharmacist, dentist or other medical professional fails to provide a patient with the appropriate care, they may be liable through a Wayne medical malpractice lawsuit. Some common types of medical malpractice claims include:

• Emergency room negligence
• Labor and delivery errors
• Medication mistakes
• Misdiagnoses and delayed diagnoses
• Misreading test results
• Providing poor follow-up care
• Surgical errors

Damages in a Wayne Personal Injury Case

After suffering injuries in an accident, it can feel like your life—and your finances—are spinning out of control. Your injuries may not only result in significant medical bills but also in your inability to work. However, through a Wayne personal injury lawsuit, you may be able to recover meaningful compensation to help you overcome some of the financial challenges brought about by the accident.

In Pennsylvania, successfully bringing a personal injury lawsuit allows you to recover compensation for your economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages provide you with compensation for the actual expenses you incurred as a result of the accident, including:

• Past medical bills
• Future medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Decrease in earning capacity
• Property damage
• Any necessary modifications to your home to accommodate your ongoing disability

Non-economic damages are slightly different in that they compensate you for the accident’s emotional and psychological effect on your life. Because accidents impact victims’ lives in many ways, non-economic damages are more subjective and vary significantly between cases. However, some of the more common types of non-economic damages include:

• Emotional anguish
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Loss of companionship
• Permanent disfigurement or disability

Given the importance of both economic and non-economic damages to a full and fair recovery, it is important accident victims work with an experienced Wayne personal injury lawyer to identify the full extent of their damages. This way, you can rest assured that at the end of your case, you will recover exactly what you deserve—and nothing less.

Do I Need a Wayne Personal Injury Lawyer?

After an accident or instance of medical malpractice, it may not be clear what your options are or how to pursue them effectively. At the same time, this is often an incredibly stressful period for accident victims, given everything they are dealing with. Thus, although you do not need to have a lawyer represent you in a personal injury case, most accident victims find that the assistance of an attorney makes the process much easier.

A 2014 study conducted by the Insurance Resource Council found that accident victims who were represented by an attorney recovered, on average, 3.5 times more in compensation than unrepresented accident victims. While accident victims can pursue a claim on their own, they often find that they are outmatched by the highly skilled and experienced attorneys employed by the insurance company. The result, unfortunately, is that unrepresented accident victims end up accepting inadequate settlements or having their claims denied altogether.

Contact a Wayne Personal Injury Attorney at MyPhillyLawyer for a Free Consultation

If you or a loved one recently suffered serious injuries in an accident, contact the Wayne personal injury lawyers at MyPhillyLawyer to schedule a free consultation. Our attorneys have over a century of combined experience helping accident victims who found themselves in situations similar to the one you are experiencing. We understand the challenges that you face when trying to move on with your life after an accident and provide custom-tailored representation designed to accomplish your unique goals. To learn more and schedule a free case evaluation with a Wayne personal injury attorney at MyPhillyLawyer, give us a call at 215-227-2727. You can also reach MyPhillyLawyer through the firm’s online contact form.