Hurt in Houston | Personal Injury Lawyers - The Salazar Law Firm

At the Salazar Law Firm, we will not pretend to be aggressive dogs or destructive tools to try to get your business. We know that is the approach some law firms take, but we have a different approach to law. Those lawyers approach personal injury law like it is about destruction. Use them to destroy the opposing side. It focuses on what you are going to do to the other party.

At the Salazar Law Firm, we see our job as construction. We are here to help you rebuild your life after someone has destroyed it. We are here to focus on you. Of course, sometimes, we have to get tough to do that. When we get tough, we are not reckless or out of control but laser-focused on maximizing your recovery. Our job is not just about winning but about getting the best resolution for each client.

Getting the best resolution means always being prepared to go to trial. Too many personal injury firms are settlement-only firms that farm out the cases they cannot settle. While most lawsuits will settle, you are not in a good bargaining position if the opposing team thinks you are scared of trial. So, we always prepare as if we will be going to trial, even while working towards a settlement.

Sometimes settling a case makes people think they are not getting as much as they should. You hear about extremely high jury awards and wonder if your case is worth that much money. However, those really high awards make the news because they are unusual. Often, the circumstances behind them are so shocking that a jury wants to punish a wrongdoer.

The reality is that most people will not get a $100 million jury award. You should be worried about any personal injury firm that says most of their clients get huge awards. They may be telling the truth. However, if all of their clients are getting millions of dollars, they are turning away clients who need the help of an attorney but may not have a million-dollar claim.

In other words, they are turning away everyday people who are hurt and need help. At the Salazar Law Firm, we are here for the little guy, and we will not turn you away just because we will not make millions off of you.

To determine what your case is worth, we look at settlements and jury awards for similar injuries. We consider several factors, including

• What type of injury you have
• Your income
• Your age
• Your physical ability
• Whether you have dependents
• Whether the defendant was negligent or reckless

If we need to take your case to trial, we also have to consider some other factors, such as

• Who will be on the jury?
• What do they think of insurance companies?
• How likable will they think you are?
• How likable will they find the attorneys on both sides?

While it may not seem fair, juries consist of people who bring their biases into every case, including personal injury cases. Part of an attorney’s job is to understand those biases and how they might impact your case.

So, lawyers on both sides have a good idea of the range someone is likely to get for a particular injury in a specific courtroom. You want a settlement in the high end of the range, and the other party wants payment in the low end of the range. Fair settlements are often somewhere in the middle.

To us, at a minimum, a fair settlement compensates you for your damages. That should include

• All medical bills
• Future medical care
• Lost wages
• Lost future earning capacity
• Expenses that are the result of the accident
• Pain and Suffering
• Property Damages

We head to trial if we cannot negotiate a fair settlement for you. If we head to trial, we handle it in-house or work with some of the biggest personal injury firms. The goal is to ensure that you get the same level of personal attention from consultation to the conclusion of your case.

To help you understand the difference between us and our competition, we want to tell you about our average client. They are probably a lot like you.

Most of our clients are working-class people who have suffered injuries because of someone else’s negligent or reckless behavior. Because of those injuries, they may be unable to work, and they do not have the financial cushion to survive many months without a work income. Many of our clients live paycheck to paycheck. A severe injury threatens their whole family, not just the person who was hurt.

Most of our clients also worry about paying for healthcare. Even with health insurance coverage, it can be expensive to get good healthcare. Depending on your plan, you may have huge deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. Many of our clients do not even have health insurance and cannot get healthcare. They are hurt, often unable to work, and unable to get treatment.

All of those factors make our average client vulnerable. They feel pressured to settle their claims for much less than they are worth because they need the money. We often hear of people getting lowball offers because insurance companies or opposing counsel think they do not have any other options. It is a frustrating and dehumanizing way to treat people, and our job is to ensure they do not get away with treating you like that.

If you find yourself in that position, you may think about revenge. That is what some other lawyers try to sell you in their ads. They call themselves tough names and promise revenge like they are taking on schoolyard bullies, not sophisticated insurance companies. It makes for a catchy commercial, but it is not very helpful to you.

At Salazar Law Firm, we are not interested in a battle of egos. We know right from wrong, and it is not our job to lecture insurance companies about doing the right thing. Instead, we make them do it.

If you are hurt, and out of work, you need an attorney who gets the job done. We do the work, whether fighting aggressively in the courtroom or working cooperatively with opposing counsel to negotiate a fair settlement.

You also need someone who cares. You need someone who will

• Help you find medical care
• Connect with organizations that can provide financial help while you await the outcome of your legal case
• Be there for you 24/7
• See you as a person, not just a case file

You need us.