Oshkosh Personal Injury Lawyers

Personal injury victims often face long recovery periods and significant medical expenses that are associated with their injuries. At the law office of Sigman, Janssen, Sewall, Pitz & Burkham, we understand the hardships that injury victims often face and our law firm has nearly 100 years of experience providing legal guidance to Wisconsin individuals and families – including millions in compensation recoveries for our personal injury clients.

If you have questions about your potential lawsuit, we can help to provide accurate, honest answers. There are no upfront fees and we are ready to help you today.

Free Consultation – Ph: (877) 888-5201.

Establishing Liability for Your Injury

You may be eligible to file a damages lawsuit if it can be proven that you were injured as a result of negligence. Commonly, there are four elements required to establish this, including:

• Duty of care – This means the at-fault party had a legal obligation to act in a reasonable way to prevent you from getting hurt. In other words, the at-fault party was required to act like a reasonable person would if he or she was in a similar situation.
• Breach of duty of care – You must establish the other party did not uphold the duty of care that existed in your situation.
• Causation – There must be a direct link between the breached duty of care and your injuries. This means there must be proof you would not have suffered a personal injury without the breached duty of care.
• Damages – You need to prove your injuries caused monetary damages. This could include medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and other damages.

Our Oshkosh personal injury lawyers have a detailed understanding of how to prove the elements of negligence. We can review the situation that led to your injury in a free consultation and determine if you may have a case.

What If I Am Partially to Blame?

According to Wisconsin Statutes §895.045, injury victims may be partially at fault for an accident and still recover compensation. The amount they receive will be reduced by their percentage of fault. This means victims that are five percent at fault and are eligible for compensation, will have their final compensation awards reduced by five percent. You may be able to recover compensation from anyone who is equally or more at fault for the accident than you, but you cannot recover compensation from someone when you are more at fault than they are.

However, every personal injury case is different, and our Oshkosh personal injury attorneys welcome the opportunity to talk to you about the details of your incident. If you have a case, we are prepared to pursue the maximum amount of compensation you may be eligible to receive.

Need some help? Call (877) 888-5201.

Deadlines for Personal Injury Cases

In Wisconsin, many personal injury cases have a three-year statute of limitations. This can include injury cases involving car accidents, slip and falls, truck accidents, dog bites and motorcycle crashes. This means you have three years from the date of your injury to file a lawsuit, otherwise it may be barred.

However, there are possible exceptions to these deadlines. For example, some cases are governed by the discovery rule and they can be filed after the statute of limitations passes. While the statute of limitations for wrongful death cases involving motor vehicle accidents is two years from the date of the accident. When the victim is a minor, the statute of limitations will be extended to his or her 20th birthday.

As each case is unique, we encourage you to contact our legal team today to determine if you are eligible to file a lawsuit and if so, the deadline that applies to it.

Types of Personal Injury Cases We Represent

The attorneys at our firm have helped many injury victims recover compensation for damages. We have experience with many different types of personal injury cases, such as:

Our firm also helps employees recover workers’ compensation benefits after a work-related injury or illness and helps people with disabilities pursue Social Security Disability benefits.

If you have any questions about possible legal options, we can answer them in a free and confidential consultation. We can discuss whether you may have a case, compensation you may be eligible to receive, and how we can assist you if we determine that you have a case.

Complete our Free Case Evaluation form.

Types of Compensation for a Personal Injury

Depending on the circumstances of your injury, there are several forms of compensation you may be eligible to pursue. Compensation is meant to reimburse victims for specific damages they have suffered. This includes physical, financial and emotional damages.

Medical Expenses

You may be eligible for compensation for past, current and future medical expenses related to your injury. This could include:

Lost Wages

If you are unable to return to work after an injury, you may be eligible for compensation for lost wages. An experienced Oshkosh personal injury attorney from our firm can help to determine how much income has been lost since the accident.

Loss of Earning Capacity

Some injuries are so severe that the victim can no longer work in the same job, work in the same capacity as before or work the same number of hours. Victims in these kinds of situations may be eligible for compensation to help make up for the income they will lose because they cannot work the same way they did before.

Property Damage

If your motorcycle, motor vehicle or other personal property is damaged in an accident, you may be able to recover compensation for the cost of repairs or fair market value of your property. This may also include damage to clothing, jewelry, electronics, or other items.

Insurance companies and defense attorneys may try to undervalue your property. However, should you choose our law firm to represent your case, we can negotiate these values on your behalf.

Pain and Suffering

You may also be eligible to pursue compensation for the physical and emotional effects of suffering an injury. These issues can severely hurt your quality of life after an accident and may include:

Establishing the value of these types of damages is complicated because they have no defined monetary value. Their value is based on things like medical records and the victim’s account of life after the injury.

Our personal injury attorneys have detailed knowledge of these damages and how to prove their value. We have successfully obtained significant compensation for injury victims including a $2 million recovery obtained by partner James Pitz for the victim of a highway accident involving driving under the influence of drugs. James has also been able to recover more than $100 million in compensation on the behalf of Wisconsin injury victims.

Loss of Enjoyment of Life

If your injury has impacted your ability to participate in daily activities or hobbies you once enjoyed, you may be able to recover compensation for loss of enjoyment of life. This is often the case when an injury victim loses a limb or becomes paralyzed.

If you have a case for compensation, our attorneys can help you gather evidence to document loss of enjoyment. This may include pictures of you enjoying a hobby and testimony from people in your life about your enjoyment of this activity.

Loss of Consortium

If your injury has affected your personal and intimate relationships with a spouse, partner, family member or another loved one, you may be able to recover compensation for loss of consortium. This could include:

Punitive Damages

The forms of compensation above are intended to compensate victims for some specific harm they suffered. However, punitive damages are meant to punish the at-fault party for their actions and discourage others from behaving in the same way in the future.

According to Wisconsin Statutes §895.043, you may be able to pursue punitive damages if you can prove:

• The other party acted maliciously with intent to harm
• The other party acted with intentional disregard for your rights

If punitive damages are awarded by the court, the amount you receive cannot exceed twice the amount of compensatory damages awarded or $200,000 – whichever amount is greater.

Our Oshkosh personal injury lawyers are ready to discuss your situation. Call (877) 888-5201.

Steps to Take After a Personal Injury

If you have been injured in an accident, you may be unsure about what to do next. Even though each situation is different, there are some things you can do to help protect your claim. The licensed attorneys at Sigman, Janssen, Sewall, Pitz & Burkham can review the steps you took and the information you collected to help determine if you have a case. Your consultation with our firm is always free and confidential.

Seek Medical Assistance for Your Injuries

An important step to take after an accident is to seek medical assistance for your injuries, even if they seem minor. Some injuries are not fully revealed until much later after the incident.

If first aid is available, do what you can to help stabilize your injuries, such as applying a bandage to a cut. If you are still in danger or are in so much pain you are incapacitated, it is recommended you stay right where you are and call 9-1-1. Otherwise, get yourself to a hospital or doctor’s office as soon as possible.

Inform the doctors and first responders that treat you about all your injuries and the symptoms you are experiencing. This will all be documented in your medical record, which is often a critical piece of evidence in an injury claim. Your medical record helps to show the link between your injuries and the accident.

Report the Accident

If you were injured in a motor vehicle accident, call 9-1-1 and report it to the Oshkosh Police Department. An officer can investigate and file a report that serves as an official account of what happened. If you suffered an injury on another party’s property, such as a store or government building, ask a manager or person in charge about filing an accident report. If you were hurt at work, ask your supervisor about the proper steps for reporting a work injury.

Begin Documenting the Scene

The next step is to collect evidence at the scene if your injuries allow and you will not be putting yourself in harm’s way. This includes obtaining the names, addresses, contact information, driver’s license numbers, vehicle plate details, and insurance information from anyone involved in the accident.

You should also get the names and contact information for any witnesses who may have seen your accident. Ask them what they saw and, with their permission, record their comments.

It is also generally a good idea to write down a description of what happened, the location, the time of day, the date and the weather conditions.

If possible, take photographs or video of the accident scene, your injuries, any torn or bloody clothing, property damage and anything else you think is relevant.

Evidence may be lost once you leave the scene so collecting the information discussed above can be vital to your potential case.

Be Careful About What You Say

After an accident, the scene can be chaotic and you may not be thinking clearly. You may be feeling scared, nervous or overwhelmed. This is why it is important to be careful about what you say when talking to others involved in the accident, the police, witnesses and insurance company representatives.

You do not need to provide a detailed statement right after you were injured. You can talk to a licensed attorney about any requests to make a statement. Our Oshkosh personal injury lawyers can explain if and when it may be in your best interest to make a statement and what to include in a statement.

Discuss Legal Options with an Experienced Attorney

If you contact our attorneys, we can discuss your possible options after an accident and if we think it is in your best interest to take legal action. Our firm offers free consultations and works on contingency, meaning that we only get paid if you receive compensation.

For nearly 100 years, our firm has been pursuing compensation for injury victims. We have obtained fair compensation for many victims.

Contact an Oshkosh Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal injury damages claims can often be complex and time-consuming. Many cases benefit greatly when a reputable lawyer is representing the injury victim.

Our Oshkosh personal injury law firm has decades of combined experience working with injury victims throughout the state of Wisconsin. Contact Sigman Janssen today for your completely free, no-obligation consultation. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your claim and answer any questions you may have about the personal injury legal process. There are no upfront fees or out-of-pocket expenses. We do not get paid anything unless we are successful in obtaining compensation on your behalf.

Our legal team is here for you. Call (877) 888-5201.