You can be doing everything right and still end up hurt because someone else was careless. Then come the doctors’ appointments, the medical bills, the missed work, and the constant calls you weren’t prepared for. A personal injury lawyer in Arlington can help take some of that pressure off.
At Kitchel Injury Law, we know most people have never needed an injury attorney before. You probably have questions about medical expenses, the insurer, whether you have a case, and what to do next.
Our attorneys bring 28 years of combined experience to every case. Your consultation is free, and we want to understand how what happened to you impacted your life. Call us today to talk through your options.
How an Arlington Personal Injury Attorney Can Help
A serious injury claim involves much more than sending medical records to an insurance company. We will investigate how you were hurt, identify the responsible party, review available insurance coverage, and document what the injury has cost you financially and personally.
These are some ways we have helped Arlington clients:
- Our client was a junior at Washington Liberty High School who was rear-ended on the 395 on-ramp from GW Parkway. The driver fled the scene, leaving her with a traumatic brain injury. She missed most of her junior year. We helped her family take advantage of their own insurance coverage to provide her with a substantial financial settlement – her family didn’t even know they had coverage that would help her.
- A newly retired client was on an evening walk on a pedestrian path in Crystal City. She was hit by a car in the crosswalk, and the police cited her for crossing against the light. Allyson lives in Arlington and investigated the scene; she used video footage of the light cycle to prove our client could not have been at fault. We obtained the driver’s entire insurance coverage plus her own insurance coverage to compensate her for severe injuries. Just because you are blamed for an accident doesn’t mean you don’t have a case.
What we do depends on what our clients need. It can mean tracking down witness statements, photographs, video, vehicle data, medical records, employment information, or other evidence. We live and work in Arlington and take our duty to get the job done right seriously – when we see you grabbing dinner in Shirlington or on the soccer field or bike trail, we take pride knowing we’re taking care of our own. But don’t take it from us – here is what one client said:
Your Arlington personal injury lawyer can also help you understand what comes next. You should know what evidence we need, why we need it, and where your case stands. Good legal representation should give you answers without making you learn a second language just to understand your own claim.
Personal Injury Cases Our Arlington Lawyers Handle
Personal injury cases can look very different from one another. Someone rear-ended in a Clarendon parking garage could face months of treatment for whiplash or a sprain, while a pedestrian hit on Route 50 (why? Why aren’t there more pedestrian bridges? Why?) station could require emergency surgery and a stay at Cherrydale Rehabilitation before returning to work.
Our Arlington personal injury practice includes clients with modest injuries, as well as catastrophic:
- Arlington bicycle accident lawyers: Cyclists can suffer devastating injuries when negligent drivers turn across bike lanes, open doors into their path, or fail to yield at intersections. Clavicle fractures are probably what we see the most. We can examine video, witness accounts, vehicle damage, and the road layout to determine what happened.
- Arlington car accident lawyers: Rear-end accidents, T-bone accidents, head-on accidents, sideswipe accidents, rollover accidents, and hit-and-run accidents can leave people with injuries that last far longer than the tow-truck ride. We will investigate fault, insurance coverage, and the losses connected to the crash.
- Arlington truck accident lawyers: Commercial vehicle accidents can involve the driver, trucking company, vehicle owner, maintenance records, cargo loaders, and several insurance policies. A serious truck crash requires a close look at who made the decisions that put an unsafe vehicle or driver on the road.
- Arlington motorcycle accident lawyers: A motorcyclist has very little protection between their body and another vehicle. We investigate crashes involving unsafe lane changes, distracted driving, failure to yield, speeding, and drivers who claim they simply did not see the motorcycle.
- Arlington pedestrian accident lawyers: Pedestrian accidents can cause brain injuries, fractures, internal injuries, and long rehabilitation periods. We’ll look at traffic signals, crosswalks, witness statements, video, and driver behavior when determining fault and liability.
- Arlington catastrophic injury lawyers: Traumatic brain injuries, spinal injuries, severe fractures, and other catastrophic injuries can affect your work, independence, family responsibilities, and future medical care. The claim needs to account for what life looks like months or years later.
- Arlington wrongful death lawyers: Losing someone because another person was careless leaves a family dealing with grief alongside financial and legal questions they never expected to face. We approach wrongful death cases with the time, sensitivity, and personal attention they require.
We also handle medical malpractice claims involving serious medical errors. These cases may involve the standard of care, meaning what a reasonably careful medical professional should have done, as well as testimony from qualified expert witnesses.
What Makes a Personal Injury Claim in Virginia?
Most personal injury claims begin with the same basic question: did someone fail to use reasonable care, and did that decision cause your injuries? That could involve a negligent driver, a medical error, or another situation where someone’s actions caused serious harm.
Many clients wonder, “What if I was partially at fault?” Call us anyway. The reason you may think you are at fault, or that the police thought you were at fault, may not be a legal reason for fault. Police reports are often wrong.
From there, the details become more specific. An insurer or other responsible party might dispute how the injury happened, whether certain medical treatment was necessary, or how much income you lost because you could not work.
Those arguments are why details count. Our Arlington personal injury attorneys can connect the evidence with your medical care, employment losses, medical records, and other information that helps explain what happened and what the injury has cost you.
Evidence Can Change the Direction of an Injury Claim
You may know exactly what happened, but that does not mean everyone else will agree. Another person, business, medical professional, or insurer may give a different account or question how serious your injuries really are.
Depending on the legal circumstances, we might review a police report, witness statements, medical records, phone records, surveillance footage, photographs, employment records, expert opinions, vehicle data, repair estimates, or information about vehicle maintenance.
Some evidence is easier to obtain early. Video can be deleted, records can become harder to locate, and witnesses may be more difficult to reach as time passes. Talking with a lawyer sooner gives us a better chance to preserve information that could help your claim.
Your Medical Treatment Becomes Part of the Case
Your first concern after an injury should be getting appropriate medical care. Some injuries are obvious immediately. Others become harder to ignore after the adrenaline wears off and you discover that turning your head, climbing stairs, concentrating at work, or sleeping normally is suddenly difficult.
Treatment might include emergency care, follow-up appointments, diagnostic testing, surgery, physical therapy, rehabilitation, or care from specialists. Keep your medical records and follow the treatment plan your doctors give you.
Your case is not just a stack of medical records. If the injury has changed how you work, sleep, drive, exercise, or care for your family, those changes are important for us to understand.
What Compensation Can an Arlington Injury Claim Include?
Medical expenses are usually one part of the financial picture. Depending on your injuries and how they have affected your life, a personal injury claim can include several types of losses.
Compensation may include:
- Medical bills and future medical expenses: These damages can include the costs of emergency care, follow-up appointments, surgery, physical therapy, rehabilitation, and other medical treatment connected to your injuries.
- Lost wages and lost earnings: If you miss work or cannot return to the same job or schedule, your claim may include income you have already lost, as well as future earning losses.
- Property damage: After a vehicle accident, compensation can include the cost to repair or replace your vehicle and other damaged property.
- Other economic damages: Depending on the circumstances, your damages can also include additional financial losses caused by the injury.
- Pain and suffering: Non-economic damages can address physical pain, emotional distress, and changes in your ability to enjoy normal activities or participate in family life.
In cases involving conduct that goes well beyond ordinary carelessness, punitive damages could also become an issue. They serve a different purpose than compensatory damages and are not available in every claim, so whether they apply depends heavily on the underlying facts.
Be Careful When an Insurance Company Calls
Insurance calls can start early, sometimes before you have had a chance to understand how badly you are hurt. You may still be sore, waiting on test results, or trying to get through the workday when an adjuster wants a detailed account of what happened.
Those questions are not coming from someone responsible for protecting you. The insurer represents its own financial interests, and anything you say could later become part of an argument about your injuries or your responsibility for the accident.
This is one of the things we can take off your plate. Your personal injury lawyer in Arlington can deal with the insurer, review any settlement offers, send supporting documentation, and respond if they start challenging your injuries or trying to argue that you were partly responsible.
Virginia’s Contributory Negligence Rule Can Affect Your Case
Virginia uses a strict contributory negligence rule. In most personal injury claims, if your own negligence contributed to the accident, you are barred from recovering damages. Virginia courts continue to recognize contributory negligence as a defense that can completely prevent recovery.
An insurer or other responsible party may try to put some of the blame on you. Depending on the case, they might question what you did before the injury, whether your actions contributed to what happened, or whether someone else shares responsibility.
Because Virginia’s rule is so strict, an allegation that your actions contributed to the injury can become a major issue in the claim. That is why your lawyer needs to understand exactly how the injury happened and be ready to challenge attempts to shift responsibility onto you.
How Long Do You Have to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Virginia?
Under Virginia Code § 8.01-243, most personal injury lawsuits must be filed within two years after the injury. A separate five-year period generally applies to property damage claims. Other claims can have different deadlines and exceptions.
Wrongful death cases have their own rules. Virginia Code § 8.01-244 generally requires a wrongful death action to be brought by the personal representative within two years after the injured person’s death.
You should not wait until the statute of limitations gets close before speaking with a lawyer. Waiting can create evidence problems long before the legal filing deadline arrives, especially when video, witnesses, vehicles, or other records could become harder to find.
What Should You Do After an Accident in Arlington?
Get medical treatment when you need it, and keep whatever information you have about how you were hurt. If you were involved in a motor vehicle accident, call law enforcement when appropriate, exchange information, photograph the scene, and save any dashcam footage before it is recorded over.
Try to keep the records tied to what happened. Hospital bills, medical records, repair estimates, lost-wage documentation, and messages from insurance companies can all become important later. A simple folder works fine. The goal is to keep those things from getting lost.
Then talk with a lawyer before making major decisions about your compensation claim. A free case evaluation can help you understand whether you have a claim, what Virginia law could mean for it, and what information your attorney would want to preserve.
Why the Relationship With Your Lawyer Actually Counts
You should not have to introduce yourself every time you call the firm handling one of the biggest problems in your life. At Kitchel Injury Law, clients know their lawyers, and their lawyers know them. That is intentional.
The details outside the medical records matter to us too. We want to know if work is harder, if your family is picking up more at home, or if you are forcing yourself through a normal routine because you do not have much choice.
We also believe you should know what is happening without calling three times to get an answer. We’ll stay in touch, explain what is happening, and make sure you know what we need from you and what we are handling.
Talk With a Personal Injury Lawyer in Arlington
If someone else’s carelessness left you injured, you do not have to figure out the insurer, Virginia law, medical documentation, and financial losses while trying to keep the rest of your life running.
Allyson Kitchel has been licensed to practice law in Virginia since 2005, and our team knows Arlington and Northern Virginia. At Kitchel Injury Law, you will work directly with attorneys who will take the time to understand what happened and what you need now.
Contact a personal injury lawyer in Arlington for a free consultation. We handle injury cases on a contingency fee basis, so you do not pay us unless we win your case. Come with your questions. We will help you understand what comes next.
