Greenville KY Personal Injury LawyerAccident injury lawyer Flora Templeton Stuart, with offices at 105 E Main Cross St. in Greenville and 607 E 10th Ave. in Bowling Green, has served the Central City/Greenville community for decades. For over 44 years, Flora Stuart has represented the seriously injured in car, semi-truck, and personal injury accidents for clients throughout Greenville where she has obtained multi-million dollar settlements. Our law firm has represented hundreds of accident victims in Greenville, Central City, and all of Muhlenberg County, which encountered an 11.7% increase in vehicle crashes between 2012-2016.
With an office on the square, Flora takes pride in being part of the Greenville community where she has been active visiting schools and community events. When you call Flora Stuart Injury Accident Law Firm, you get personal representation from a local attorney who cares. We are always close by to help our injured clients and can get to you quickly after an accident. We often travel to our clients when they cannot come to us, visiting them at our local office, hospital, or home. Getting medical care when you are hurt is crucial, so we refer our clients to excellent physicians while collecting lost wages and getting their medical bills paid. Obtaining maximum recovery is our priority so we investigate accidents with photographs, witness statements, to collect the money our clients deserve.
Learn about our 5-step process for getting you the maximum settlement, and find out what else sets us apart from other injury lawyers.
Our offices are in Bowling Green, Glasgow, and Greenville.
Call Us 7 Days a week, even on weekends at (888) 782-9090
Community Service
As a member of the Greater Muhlenberg Chamber of Commerce, Flora is in your community helping in the schools, charities, and fundraising events. We frequently travel to schools in Muhlenberg County recognizing students for their achievements which include Greenville Elementary and presenting Muhlenberg North Middle School with Poppy’s Leadership Award Grand Prize. If you’ve been out and about, you might have seen her firm mascots, Poppy and Pixie along with Flora making a difference in your community.
There’s one word to describe the feelings after an accident or injury—overwhelming. If you have never heard of a personal injury attorney or making a personal injury case, that’s good news. That means that you have never had to file a personal injury suit. But in the event of an injury, it is important to understand your rights under Kentucky law.
Source: transportation.ky.gov
Every state has certain regulations pertaining to personal injury. In its simplest form, the term personal injury refers to a tort claim in which an injured party has a right to claim damages against an at-fault party. To make a personal injury claim, you must prove two things; fault and damages. Personal injury covers a long list of injuries. At Flora Templeton Stuart, some of the cases we handle include:
Every day, hundreds of Kentucky residents become injured in a motor vehicle accident. These accidents involve cars, trucks, large trucks, motorcycles, and pedestrians. According to the Kentucky Traffic Safety Data Services, the number of total reported collisions consistently tallies at over 150,000. Recent numbers show that over 20 percent of these accidents involve some sort of injury. While there has been a decline in the total number of accidents, these numbers are still too high.
Common injuries after a motor vehicle accident include:
Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers recently represented a Greenville woman who was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident in Muhlenberg County, KY. Our client, Janice, was traveling east on Highway 176 when she was struck in the rear by a negligent driver. Janice’s vehicle was propelled into oncoming traffic and collided with a school bus carrying several children.
We were able to obtain a settlement of over $75,000 on behalf of our client—the policy limits of the at-fault drivers’ insurance. The settlement allowed Janice to pay off all of her medical bills and provided compensation for any wage loss resulting from the accident.
These accidents commonly happen in public arenas including grocery stores, restaurants, and parking lots. However, these accidents can and do happen at private residences. Whether an injury happens at a private residence or a public space, property owners have the same general responsibility. According to the CDC, over 800,000 people are hospitalized every year as the result of a fall. Premises liability laws outline exactly how responsible a property owner is for the safety of their guests, but generally, the owner must provide a place that is safe and free of hazards.
While slip and fall accidents technically fall under the premises liability umbrella, they happen with such frequency that they often get their own billing. When we say premises liability, we often think of the other premises liability cases.
This includes:
Remember, property owners have a legal responsibility to ensure their home or place of business is safe. This includes controlling animals, providing proper safety devices for indoor and outdoor swimming pools, and meeting state regulations regarding fire safety. When a property owner is negligent, they put the lives and wellbeing of others at risk.
It’s hard to separate a “wrongful” death from any other type of death. Every death feels unexpected and wrong. But wrongful death claims cover cases where a person or entity’s actions (or lack thereof) directly result in someone’s death. It’s important to understand that the purpose of a wrongful death suit is not meant to compensate someone for the death of a loved one. There is an unnecessary, and inaccurate stigma that is often associated with wrongful death cases.
The point of a wrongful death suit is to offset the costs of a person’s death from the deceased’s family to the at-fault party. Unfortunately, when someone dies, the family has to consider medical bills, funeral and burial costs, and loss of wages. Whenever someone dies of unnatural causes, it’s important to consider a wrongful death suit.
After an injury, it can be difficult to understand what comes next. Serious injuries can leave you juggling medical bills, car repairs, along with just trying to get better. Thankfully, the law allows you to seek compensation by filing a personal injury suit. Every case is different and every insurer will consider a variety of factors when calculating the value of your case. Some costs are typical with most personal injury matters, including:
Recent data shows that the average hospital stay costs over $10,000. The unfortunate reality is that many cases cost much more than this. And according to the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, a High Tetraplegia spinal cord injury can cost over $2.5 million over the course of a person’s lifetime. Most people cannot afford these costs. The goal of a personal injury case is to recover all reasonable medical costs. In the case of serious injuries, this includes future medical costs, payable in a lump sum payment.
Recent numbers show that workers lose millions of days per year as the result of workplace injuries—somewhere in the ballpark of 70 million. That doesn’t take into account injuries that happen off the job. Just in Kentucky, there were over 34,000 injuries due to motor vehicle accidents in a one year period. Unfortunately, most workers don’t have enough sick pay or savings to allow them enough time off of work to recover from their injuries. A personal injury suit can help you recover lost wages and in the case of serious injuries, future wages.
Any injury is painful. It’s hard to adapt to a new normal. The body and the mind react to injuries in different ways. While these injuries may not have a direct monetary cost, it does not make them any less difficult to deal with. Pain and suffering awards usually depend on the severity of an injury and how much it affects a person’s day-to-day life.
Damages may include:
How much do you think about the things you enjoy every day? What if an accident prevented you from doing these things? Loss of enjoyment is a “soft” cost and will depend on the severity of the loss or more specifically, how the loss affects your quality of life.
Sometimes a defendant’s actions are so egregious that the court finds it necessary to punish that person for their actions. Punitive damages are also used to deter other people from repeating the same actions. These damages are added to your final judgment. Cases where punitive damages may apply include drunk driving, road rage, and homicide.
After an injury, it’s normal to have a lot of thoughts running through your mind. For many people, talking to an attorney is not at the top of their list. However, it is something you should consider. While the law allows you to file a claim against the at-fault party, unfortunately, insurance companies don’t always treat victims fairly. Sadly, most insurance companies offer far less to non-represented parties than those that have an attorney simply because they know they can get away with it. A personal injury attorney can help you fight for your rights and seek a fair and just settlement.
At Flora Templeton Stuart, some of the things we do to help our clients include:
Are you considering consulting a personal injury lawyer as a result of injury or harm you received? Here are some answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about personal injury in Greenville.
Personal injury is a category of law that deals with personal injury or wrongdoing done to you or a loved one by a negligent party. Negligence is a legal concept, meaning that the negligent party failed to exercise the ordinary standard of care a reasonably prudent person would have exercised.
If the negligence was responsible for and caused your injuries, the negligent party is liable for your injuries, meaning that they bear financial responsibility for them.
Negligent parties can be a person or an organization, such as a company, a store owner, or a rental organization.
A personal injury lawyer can help you or a loved one in several ways:
Insurance companies have an arsenal of methods to keep them from paying you as much as your claim is worth. They may try to paint you as the negligent party, rather than their insured. They may state that your injuries are less significant than they are. They can simply delay a claim until you’re desperate, and willing to settle for a low amount.
Conversely, they can offer an early settlement—but one worth far less than it should be—just so you’ll jump at it. They realize that injured people often have medical bills piling up and sometimes cannot work, so their financial situation may cause significant stress. Insurance companies use it to their advantage.
If an insurance company won’t pay a just claim, it is sometimes possible to take them to court. Personal injury suits in court can also be brought against negligence parties, whether an insurance company is involved or not.
If you are eligible for SSDI, you can file the paperwork yourself. However, you can benefit from working with an attorney. SSDI claims are often denied. Sometimes the denials are for relatively minor reasons, such as incomplete paperwork or the wrong form. But the denials mean you won’t get benefits, no matter how relatively trivial the reason. If your case is denied, a lawyer can appeal the denial. If the appeal is successful, you’ll receive benefits.
If you suffered injury or harm, you can schedule a free first consultation with a personal injury lawyer. At that time, the lawyer will take the time to hear what happened, who caused it, and how you were injured. Personal injury lawyers will give you advice on steps to take.
Most of them take cases they believe are winnable, and many work on a contingency fee basis. Contingency means they are paid out of the eventual settlement you receive, so you don’t pay anything unless your case is successful.
Personal injury cases can only be brought if another party caused the injury or harm. If you have evidence of another party causing the harm, take care to bring it to the initial consultation.
Potential forms of evidence include:
Before the initial consultation, write down how you were injured, where, and by whom or what. Describe how the injury has affected you, including your ability to work, your family life, and your ability to do things you enjoy.
Then, tell the lawyer all these things. If you do not have evidence, don’t worry. Lawyers may work with investigators, who can determine the cause of accidents and other harm.
The determinant of a personal injury case isn’t the type of injury, but whether another party is liable for the injuries. Nearly any injury can occur in a personal injury case, including:
Kentucky law allows personal injury victims to receive damage compensation in the following categories.
It’s not possible to predict how much a specific case will receive in damage compensation, because many factors are at play. However, some general observations can be made about how insurance companies and civil courts arrive at damage compensation amounts.
Economic losses are calculated straightforwardly, by adding the amount of economic loss you’ve suffered. Your attorney will add together your medical bills (including necessary transportation), for example, plus any time lost from work and any property damage. Time lost from work is calculated by multiplying the amount of time lost by your average wages.
If you are expected to have economic losses in the future, either from medical bills or wages lost from work, your lawyer will get expert testimony about what the likely figures are. Doctors, for example, testify about the recommended course of treatment for your injuries. Costs are calculated for the treatment. Doctors may also testify about your ability to work, as may your employers.
All these costs, both current and future, are tabulated to arrive at one part of your compensation.
Catastrophic injuries have an immediate, lasting negative impact on the victim’s life. A traumatic brain injury (TBI) or spinal cord injury, for example, can both make the person unable to walk again. Injuries that exert significant and lasting harm to an individual, such as loss of an eye or a limb, may result in higher settlements or judgments.
Courts may award higher amounts than insurance companies. Insurance companies want to protect their profits and their insured, while juries may show more sympathy to you, the plaintiff.
Almost every kind of accident or event has the potential to injure or harm another person. Common causes of personal injury include the following:
Vehicle accidents – A total of 41,884 vehicle collisions caused injuries on Kentucky’s road during the most recent year. Another 1,152 caused fatalities. Seventy-two percent of fatal collisions involved cars, while 9 percent involved trucks and 7 percent involved motorcycles. The Greenville area saw 12 deaths and about 260 injuries in just one recent year.
Pedestrian accidents – Nationwide, 137,000 pedestrians go to emergency departments for injuries every year, and 5,977 pedestrians die in collisions, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Kentucky, more than 1,000 times per year, a vehicle hits a pedestrian—the overwhelming majority of times it causes an injury, and about 10 percent of the time these accidents prove fatal.
Premises liability accidents – Owners and landlords of public premises (stores, malls, rental apartments, hotels, theme parks, sporting arenas and more) have a duty to make sure their premises are safe. If they are not, the owners and landlords can be liable. In Kentucky, if a private homeowner invites you over, they must warn you about any hazards on the property and fix any known issues that can cause harm. means they must warn visitors of hazards on their property and fix any known issues to prevent accidents from occurring.
Premises liability injuries include those sustained while tumbling down poorly maintained stairs, tripping and falling in a store if liquid spills and is not cleaned up or surrounded with warning signs, in swimming pool accidents, from malfunctioning theme park rides, and more.
Dog bites – Dogs bites can do serious harm, especially to small children or to any person attacked by a large, aggressive dog. Kentucky’s dog bite laws operate under strict liability, meaning that a dog’s owner is strictly responsible for injury the dog causes. The victim does not have to prove negligence.
This differs from laws in other states, where liability may depend on whether the dog behaved aggressively before or the owner took reasonable care in controlling the dog. You do not have to prove either of these things in Kentucky; the owner is still liable.
If you are injured in a personal injury case, you must bring a lawsuit within a certain period of time, known as the statute of limitations. Courts will not hear cases filed after the statute of limitations is up.
The standard statute of limitations in Kentucky is one year for personal injury cases. For traffic accidents, it’s two years. The time starts on the date of the injury. In other words, if you were injured on March 2, 2020, you have until March 2, 2021, to bring a case. But don’t wait. During that time, evidence can disappear and memories can fade. The sooner you call us, the better off you’ll make your case.
If a loved one dies as a result of injuries suffered, Kentucky law offers redress in the form of a legal suit known as wrongful death. Essentially, wrongful death relies on roughly the same negligence standard as personal injury—another party must have caused the injuries leading to death—and is tantamount to a personal injury suit, but for a person who is no longer alive to bring a suit.
In Kentucky, a wrongful death suit must be brought by the personal representative of the deceased’s estate. If there isn’t one when the injured person dies, the court needs to appoint one if a wrongful death claim is to be brought.
The compensation, however, is oriented toward surviving family members, generally spouse, children, or parents (if there is no spouse or children). They can sue for damages for the loss of care, companionship, support, and guidance they received from the deceased.
The estate can seek funeral and burial expenses.
If you need more information or advice, call our Greenville personal injury lawyers today.
Nobody knows how they will react to an injury until it actually happens. Unfortunately, most accidents are impossible to predict. They tend to take you by surprise. When an unexpected injury leaves you struggling to understand what comes next, you want someone by your side who you can trust.
At Flora Templeton Stuart, we work to meet all of our clients’ needs. Different people need different things. Sometimes this is a play-by-play status update of the case, and sometimes it’s simply having someone to listen.
Our team understands the difficulties that you face, and we are here to help with what you need. Not many firms can claim the experience we have working with personal injury victims. We know the system, and we know what clients need to achieve results. If you have questions, we’re here to help. Contact our office at (888) 782-9090 or visit us online for a free case evaluation.
Flora Templeton Stuart Accident Injury Lawyers
105 E Main Cross Street
Greenville, KY 42345
(270) 641-0128
