Campbell Personal Injury Lawyers

Our Team is Backed by Over 85 Years of Experience

When you’ve been injured in a serious, life-altering accident, you may need significant financial resources to cover your medical bills and find a new path forward. At Caputo & Van Der Walde LLP, our personal injury lawyers have over 85 years of combined experience helping Campbell injury victims recover fair compensation from negligent parties.

By limiting our practice exclusively to personal injury, we’re able to dedicate all our time, attention, and resources for injury victims—and over the years, this approach has earned us many awards and accolades from organizations like the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC), Martindale Hubbell®, Super Lawyers®, and more. Whether you need help filing a car accident claim or pursuing a defective product lawsuit, it’s our ultimate goal to help you heal.

To schedule a free case review, contact our Campbell personal injury attorneys at (800) 900-0863.

The more information that you know about a personal injury claim before you start your own, the more comfortable and confident you can feel early on in this process. For this reason, we want to give you an overview of important personal injury claim concepts now. Of course, if you have any other questions about the basics of a claim after reviewing this quick list, please call (800) 900-0863 to speak with a member of Caputo & Van Der Walde LLP.

Important Terminology in a Personal Injury Claim

• Claimant: The claimant is the person who has been injured or wronged and wants to use legal action to seek a remedy. In a personal injury claim, the remedy will specifically be monetary compensation.
• Defendant: The defendant in a personal injury claim is the party that has been accused of harming the claimant, and who will be expected to provide the remedy to the claimant depending on how the case resolves.
• Negligence: In legal terms, negligence occurs when someone acts in a way that another reasonable person would not have acted in the same situation. For example, a drunk driver is negligent because a reasonable person would not drive after drinking alcohol.
• Liability: Liability is the legal form of “fault” or “blame” for an accident or incident. The claimant will try to prove that the defendant is liable for the harm that has happened, and, therefore, should be accountable for their losses or damages.
• Damages: A damage in a personal injury claim is a type of harm or loss that the claimant has suffered, most of which relate to a financial cost or expense. For example, a claimant can seek damages that pay for medical costs and lost wages. Non-economic damages relate to less tangible losses, though, like pain, suffering, and hardship.
• Statute of limitations: A statute of limitations is the amount of time that a claimant has to file a claim against a defendant for an accident or loss. In California, the standard statute of limitations for personal injury claims is two years beginning on the date of the accident. When a statute of limitations expires, the court will most likely reject any claim filed after.

What is the Personal Injury Claims Process?

The personal injury claims process in California can look a bit different from one case to the next because every case is unique. However, the overall process to start and pursue a compensation claim will look similar in all cases.

The personal injury claims process will typically involve these steps in some form:

1. Review the basics of your case with a personal injury attorney who can determine if you have the right to file a claim or lawsuit.
2. Calculate how much compensation the liable party or defendant owes you for the accident or injury that they caused.
3. Send a demand letter to the defendant to give them a chance to provide compensation without involving the legal system.
4. Create a complaint or claim to file in the right court if the defendant does not want to answer the demand letter in your favor.
5. File the complaint with the court to officially begin the legal process of demanding compensation from the defendant.
6. Negotiate for a settlement out of court, which can be done confidentially; settlement negotiations can be attempted any number of times and at any point in this overall process.
7. Prepare for litigation by reviewing evidence, finding more evidence through discovery, and other typical trial preparation steps that an attorney can handle.
8. Litigate in court if all negotiation or mediation efforts fail to reach a fair conclusion.

A Campbell personal injury attorney from Caputo & Van Der Walde LLP can help you in many different ways. We are here to take care of the entire legal process on your behalf, so you don’t have to feel overwhelmed by legalities and regulations. We are also here to provide moral support and put your worries at ease. We view our roles as personal injury lawyers as truly comprehensive in this way.

Types of Injury Claims We Can Help With

At Caputo & Van Der Walde LLP, our trial attorneys take pride in serving California residents with a winning combination of compassionate counsel and aggressive legal advocacy. We understand it can be daunting to bring a lawsuit against another party, especially when you are worried about covering medical expenses and lost wages. That’s why our team works on a contingency fee basis: Unless we are able to successfully recover damages in your case, you will not have to pay us a fee.

Our firm has successfully handled cases including:

• Car accidents
• Bicycle accidents
• Pedestrian accidents
• Motorcycle accidents
• Premises liability claims
• Truck accidents
• Bus accidents
• Wrongful death
• Catastrophic injury cases
• Dog bites and animal attacks
• Construction accidents
• Food poisoning
• Toxic chemical exposure

Helping You Pursue Maximum Compensation

To file a personal injury claim, you must be able to show your accident was caused by the negligence, carelessness, or intentional wrongdoing of another person or group. You must also show that you suffered substantial financial and/or emotional losses as a result of the accident.

If you suspect that negligence or wrongdoing played a role in your accident, we invite you to contact our personal injury team as soon as possible. In the state of California, you only have two years to file most personal injury claims; in some instances, you only have six months. Beyond that point, it is very unlikely that you will be able to revisit the case later and get the compensation you deserve. We do not want to see you miss your chance to recover compensation.

You could be owed significant compensation that helps pay for these losses and more:

• Past and future medical treatment costs and hospitalization
• Past and future lost wages and reduced income
• Pain, suffering, and traumatization
• Hardships caused by permanent disability
• Reduced enjoyment of life
• Shortened life expectancy

Committed and Trial-Tested Advocacy

Most personal injury claims can be settled out of court, but that doesn’t mean you won’t need a trial attorney by your side. Because some claims can require extended litigation, it’s important to have counsel who truly cares about the outcome of your case and has the skills to represent you in a trial.

With nearly a century of collective experience and a passion for justice, our personal injury attorneys in Campbell, CA at Caputo & Van Der Walde LLP will see your case through to the final outcome, advocating for your needs every step of the way.

Get started with a free case evaluation today when you call us at (800) 900-0863. We serve personal injury victims in Campbell.