Follow this guide to know the exact steps you should take after you experience an unpleasant event.
The first thing to do after an airline incident is to get medical attention if you need it. Make sure that you’re safe and physically OK before anything else. Getting medical attention will ensure that you’re safe and will provide documentation of your injuries.
Once you’ve resolved that issue, you will want to consider whether your injury or misconduct experience is one where a lawsuit is available to you. Airline misconduct and injuries will generally fall under one of three kinds of legal cases:
- Breach of contract.
- Negligence.
- Civil rights violations.
The facts that make up your injury or mishap will determine what kind of complaint you file. A failure to honor your tickets or return your luggage, for example, is probably a breach of contract based on the ticket sale. On the other hand, with an inflight injury, you may have a cause of action for that personal injury and any distress arising from it. Any illegal discrimination based on your belonging to what the law calls a protected class would be a civil rights violation. It’s probably best not to try to resolve this yourself unless you hope to go to small claims court; instead, consult an airplane accident attorney. This individual, who has experience in handling cases like yours, can help you determine whether your mishap or airplane injury is compensable and, if so, how you should proceed. In other words, meeting with an airplane accident attorney is probably the second most important step to take after your injury or experience of airline misconduct.
In planning to contact an attorney, make sure that you have all the documents and evidence you can about your case. Medical reports, photos of the scene, if relevant, and other evidence will be invaluable to your attorney.
You don’t want to wait too long to contact an in-flight injury attorney, because every cause of action has a statute of limitations. That is, your state will have a law that says breach of contract or personal injury cases must be filed within a specified period after the underlying incident. If you miss that deadline, you cannot recover damages. So you should not only contact an attorney, but do so promptly after your incident.
Your attorney will investigate your claim and put together evidence. After investigating and reviewing the evidence, an experienced airplane accident attorney will discuss potential liability and possible damages with you. This case evaluation will be vital to the next steps you take.
Finally, your attorney can relieve you of the burden of dealing with the airlines and insurance companies. Whether by settlement or litigation, your airplane accident attorney can obtain fair compensation for your injuries.
If you have experienced a case of airline misconduct or injury and want to consult an attorney, you can get a free case evaluation at ResQ Legal by filling in the submission form or calling on this number: +1 (800) 300-0001.