Practice Area FAQs
We have over 40 years of experience covering a wide range of cases. Here you’ll find answers to our most common questions related to each area of our most common cases.
Click one of the links below to jump to that set of questions.
Car Crash Questions
What happens if you crash your car?
Car crashes often end with damaged vehicles and injured drivers and passengers. In any such cases, be prepared to deal with the other parties’ insurance companies—and possibly their lawyers.
No matter who was at fault, you don’t want to deal with these people alone. You need a lawyer on your side who can make sure you’re acting in your own best interests.
What do you do if you’re in a car crash?
After any crash, your first priority is the safety of everyone involved. Immediately call 911 and alert them of any injuries or potential hazards (e.g., leaking gasoline or downed power lines).
Read more about the Dos and Don’ts after getting into a car crash in our blog.
How much money do you get from a car crash?
It’s hard to put a dollar amount on potential damages awarded in a car crash case. It depends entirely on the situation and severity of the injuries. There are 3 types of damages:
- Economic damages: awarded as a direct result of financial loss, including medical bills, lost wages, property damage, and more.
- Non-economic damages: includes non-financial hardships like mental distress, pain and suffering, and loss of companionship, reputation or enjoyment of life.
- Punitive damages: includes penalties or fines awarded to the defendant on top of the above damages. These are reserved for particularly egregious or reckless offenses.
Again, any damages awarded are entirely dependent on several different factors. At Lloyd & Lloyd, we take great care to walk you through the process and fight for what’s rightfully yours. If you have questions about whether you even have a valid lawsuit, we offer free consultations as well.
What do you do if you get in a crash with a semi truck?
As with all crash, first make sure everyone’s safe and immediately call 911. A crash with a semi is much more likely to result in serious injury or at least a totaled vehicle.
When you exchange information with the truck driver, make sure you get their name, the name of their superior, and the contact information for the appropriate party or department that deals with traffic incidents.
What is failure to maintain lane?
Failure to maintain lane is when a driver swerves in and out of lanes, drifts between lanes, or recklessly changes lanes without properly signalling. If any of these behaviors lead to a wreck, the driver can get a charged with failure to maintain lane on top of any other traffic offenses.
Who is at fault in a lane-change crash?
In almost all cases, the party who changes lanes or fails to stay within their lane is responsible for any crashes caused. The party who’s traveling straight in their own lane has right of way in that lane.
Read more about lane-change crashes in Oklahoma in our blog post.
Who is at fault in a left-turn crash?
Again, in almost all cases, the party who turns left across oncoming traffic is at fault for any crash caused. The only exception would be if the oncoming traffic were running a red light or stop sign while the left-turning party had right of way.
Learn more about left-turn crashes in Oklahoma in our blog post.
Personal Injury Questions
Is it worth getting a personal injury lawyer?
The legal system is complicated, to say the very least. You absolutely need a lawyer to navigate any personal injury case—even to see if you have a case to begin with. In most cases, the damages awarded more than make up for the cost of a good lawyer.
Lloyd & Lloyd provides free consultations for any case. Contact us today to set up an appointment and see what we can do for you.
What kind of cases do personal injury lawyers handle?
Lloyd & Lloyd handles all kinds of personal injury cases that can result from any of these incidents:
- Traffic wrecks involving cars, semi-trucks, motorcycles, bicycles or pedestrians
- Slip-and-fall accidents
- Work-related accidents and worker’s compensation
- Medical malpractice and wrongful death
- Nursing home abuse and elder abuse
- Product liability
- Dog bites
What qualifies as a personal injury case?
A personal injury case must answer 3 questions:
- Was the incident and injury caused by negligence?
- Is another party at fault, and is the incident within the statute of limitations?
- Did you suffer financial loss or emotional hardship as a result of the injury?
If you can answer “yes” to all 3 questions, chances are you have a viable personal injury case and could be entitled to damages.
For help answering these questions, contact Lloyd & Lloyd today for a free consultation.
For more information about personal injury cases, check out this blog.
Can you get money for pain and suffering or emotional distress?
Insurance Dispute Questions
What’s an insurance dispute?
An insurance dispute arises any time an insurance company and an individual policy holder don’t agree on the terms of an insurance settlement. Insurance disputes can take place between the insurance company and its own policy holder, or between an individual and the insurance company of another party in any type of incident requiring insurance.
Take this textbook scenario for example:
You’re in a serious wreck with someone; it’s not your fault, your car is totaled and you need expensive surgery. The other party’s insurance company says you’re somehow partly at fault, and they’ll only agree to pay you a portion of the costs for the totaled car and medical expenses.
At this point, you can dispute the settlement offer and enter into a protracted battle against the insurance giant’s army of assessors, claims adjusters, and lawyers. You do not want to do this alone.
What can you do when an insurance company refuses to pay?
Insurance companies are notoriously tight with their money. They wear down policy holders and claimants with legal nonsense and underhanded tactics in an effort to minimize their out-of-pocket costs.
In these cases, you need an attorney who can fight the insurance company for you. Don’t let insurance companies bully you into accepting less than what you’re justly owed.
Do you need a lawyer for an insurance dispute?
Technically no, but having an attorney deal with an insurance dispute will make the process so much easier on you—and will probably result in a higher payout to you.
Even after you account for your attorney’s fees, you’ll still net a higher amount with an attorney than you will without one.
For more information about how insurance companies try to trick you, check out this blog.
Why do insurance companies lowball?
Because they’re greedy, and no amount of money in the world can sate them. It’s also because they know you as the claimant probably need the money sooner than later, and thus they can pressure you into accepting something lower now over something more later.
What happens if I accept a settlement offer?
DO NOT accept any settlement offer without first consulting an attorney. If you accept a settlement, it could A) be for much less than you are entitled to and B) prevent you from filing any further claims or lawsuits stemming from the incident.
Nursing Home & Elder Abuse Questions
When can you sue a nursing home for negligence or abuse?
Despite promises by nursing homes to care proper care of its residents, family members might notice indications of a deterioration in care. The nursing home might not be answering a call light quickly enough. The nursing home staff might not be keeping a resident clean, or they might be letting a resident stay in the same position in bed for too long, resulting in skin ulcers.
What can seem at the time like minor lapses of care can be indications of something far more serious. There could be an issue with understaffing, or the nursing home management might not have properly trained the nurses and staff to plan and care for each resident professionally and adequately. Few people are as helpless as those confined to live in a nursing home.
If the nursing home does not have adequate staff, the residents will suffer with the following:
What can I do if I think my loved one is being abused or neglected?
The first thing you should do is talk to your loved one. However, be aware that sometimes abuse victims deny the abuse for fear of the repercussions from the abuser.
If you still have concerns after talking to your loved one, refer to these resources and contact the proper authorities:
- File a complaint directly to the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s Long Term Care Service here (near the bottom of the page, above the Contact Information).
- File a complaint directly to the Oklahoma State Department of Human Services here.
- The Department of Justice’s Elder Justice Initiative provides resources specifically for Oklahoma.
- The National Center for Victims of Crime’s Financial Crime Resource Center can help with identity theft and other financial crimes.
- FINRA has a Securities Helpline for Seniors with investment or brokerage accounts.
- Call Lloyd & Lloyd directly at 918-246-0200 or contact us here and let us help you get the justice your loved one deserves.
Still have questions about nursing home and elder abuse?
We have a specialized practice for nursing home and elder abuse cases: OK Elder Care.
There you can find more information on elder abuse and neglect, as well as resources for you and your loved one.
OK Elder Care is a part of Lloyd & Lloyd with the same great attorneys, so you can trust to handle any case and get results.
Whatever your situation may is, Lloyd & Lloyd has decades of experience helping our clients with personal injury cases of all kinds, and we get results.
We offer free consultations to see if you have a viable claim and what your options are.
Get started by contacting us here or calling us at 918-246-0200.