At Galine, Frye, Fitting & Frangos, we have spent years fighting for our clients' rights and have recovered millions of dollars for victims of accidents and their families. We have handled a wide range of unique accidents and issues. Now, our San Mateo personal injury attorneys want to assist you in every phase of your case.
Our firm focuses on cases that involve catastrophic, life-changing injuries that leave massive impacts on victims and their families. We also frequently represent family members in wrongful death lawsuits due to the tragic loss of a loved one.
We understand the stress that victims and families face on physical, emotional, and financial levels from the exceptionally high stakes in cases involving catastrophic injuries and deaths. Our firm is dedicated to helping them put their lives back together.
How a San Mateo Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help You Recover Compensation
Serving people throughout San Mateo, we can assist you in every phase of the claim and litigation process if an accident seriously injured you or took the life of a loved one. You need a strong advocate on your side who will work hard for what you deserve.
Recovering fair compensation requires a personal injury law firm with the necessary resources, skills, and legal knowledge to pursue a prompt and effective settlement or verdict in your case.
If you suffered an accident or injury, we urge you to contact our law firm as soon as possible. Our attorneys at Galine, Frye, Fitting, and Frangos can the lead in negotiating a fair settlement and are eager to accommodate your goals and needs throughout the process. Our San Mateo Office is conveniently located off of the J. Arthur Younger Freeway at 411 Borel Ave. #500. If you have limited mobility or capacity to travel, we can also meet you in your home, office, or hospital room.
Personal Injury
To recover compensation for their injuries, a victim usually needs to prove the defendant’s negligence. This means the defendant failed to act with the appropriate level of care in the situation and injured the victim as a result. Proving negligence is a highly fact-intensive task since the standard of care varies depending on the circumstances. Our San Mateo personal injury attorneys understand how to gather and present the evidence needed to establish liability.
Catastrophic Injuries
Our firm has helped victims across San Mateo bring claims based on brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations, severe burns, organ damage, and other catastrophic injuries. The stakes are high in these cases since the victim may never fully recover from these injuries. Thus, the lives of the victim and their family members may change forever. In many cases, expert testimony from doctors, vocational experts, and other professionals can explain the scope of the victim's injuries and their impact on the victim's future.
Catastrophic injuries cause devastating, long-term, and often irreversible effects on an injured victim's life. Victims of catastrophic injuries often require decades of rehabilitative therapy, medical care, and invasive surgeries. Catastrophic injuries can include traumatic brain injuries, disfigurement, spinal cord injuries, and third-degree burns.
Catastrophic injuries can cause permanent disabilities and reduce a victim's ability to obtain employment and live an independent life.
Wrongful Death
After a tragic accident claims a victim's life, their family members may not know where to turn. California law allows certain people to bring a wrongful death claim in these situations, including a surviving spouse, domestic partner, or child. In addition, certain people who financially depended on the victim, such as the victim's parents or stepchildren, may bring claims.
The victim's estate may recover certain damages, while the victim's family may recover other damages. For example, the estate may recover compensation for the victim's medical bills, lost income, and burial and funeral expenses. In contrast, family members may recover compensation for the loss of their loved one's financial and moral support, affection, and guidance. The personal injury attorneys at our San Mateo firm will fight for the full range of damages you deserve.
Car Accidents
Careless driving causes serious car accidents each day in the Bay Area. For example, a driver may fail to yield at an intersection, speed recklessly, text while driving, or drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs. When a driver fails to take the proper precautions to protect the safety of people around them, a victim can hold them liable for damages. This usually includes compensation for the victim's medical bills and lost income, in addition to their pain and suffering. You may recover future losses in many cases.
Truck Accident
The weight of a commercial vehicle results in a devastating impact when it strikes a passenger car. A victim of a truck accident can sue the truck driver who caused the accident, and they often can hold a trucking company accountable as well. You may hold a trucking company liable for a crash if it failed to train or supervise the driver properly or if it retained an unfit or unqualified truck driver. Moreover, you may hold a trucking company indirectly liable if the crash occurred while the driver was working. The personal injury lawyers at our San Mateo firm will identify and bring all the at-fault parties into the litigation after a truck accident.
Motorcycle Accidents
Motorcyclists have an equal right to use the road, but drivers of standard vehicles often fail to respect this right. A driver may fail to yield to a motorcyclist at an intersection or maneuver aggressively in the presence of a motorcyclist, among other dangerous behaviors.
Sometimes a driver or their insurer will blame a motorcyclist for an accident. We know how to fight back against unfair allegations of negligence by a motorcyclist and fully preserve their right to compensation.
Bicycle Accidents
Bicycles offer an environmentally friendly and frequently enjoyable way to travel around the Bay Area. Like motorcycle riders, however, bicyclists have no protection from the elements. They tend to suffer especially serious injuries when a careless driver strikes them. For example, a driver may fail to check their blind spots for bicycles or fail to notice a bicyclist when they turn. You should promptly consult our San Mateo personal injury lawyers if you suffered injuries in a bicycle accident so that we can start building your claim.
Pedestrian Accidents
Drivers must yield to pedestrians in California at any marked or unmarked crosswalk. They also need to exercise reasonable care when they see a pedestrian to avoid a collision. The human body is not built to withstand the impact of a car or truck. These cases can result in significant compensation for a broad range of catastrophic physical, emotional, and financial harm. If a victim dies from their injuries, their family members may pursue a wrongful death claim.
Bus Accidents
People trust bus drivers to operate their vehicles carefully as part of their job. However, bus drivers are human and can make careless mistakes, such as failing to check blind spots, making improper turns, speeding, or driving while distracted. Passengers on the bus and people in other vehicles struck by the bus may have claims against the driver and the entity that operated the bus. While private entities operate some buses, the government operates many, and special requirements apply to claims against the government. The personal injury attorneys at our San Mateo firm can navigate these obstacles for you.
Boat Accidents
The Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay provide many opportunities for recreation on the water. If a boat operator fails to handle the vessel properly, serious injuries can result. Errors by inexperienced, poorly trained, distracted, or intoxicated operators can lead to a collision, sinking, or tipping.
In other cases, a defective component of a boat may cause a fire or other accident. When this happens, a victim may file a claim against the part manufacturer.
Construction Accidents
The construction industry poses an elevated level of risk to people who work in it. Construction workers may fall from heights, suffer crushing injuries from heavy equipment, or sustain blows from vehicles or falling objects. If the accident occurred on the job, a construction worker can recover workers' compensation benefits, which provide medical coverage and partial wage replacement. In addition, a victim may pursue a third-party personal injury claim with the assistance of our San Mateo personal injury lawyers if someone other than their employer caused the accident. A third-party claim can result in additional compensation, such as damages for pain and suffering.
Spinal Cord Injuries
Many car accident victims suffer from whiplash and herniated discs, common spinal cord injuries that a sudden impact may cause. More serious cases may paralyze victims. Paraplegia paralyzes the body below the waist, while quadriplegia paralyzes the body below the neck. The personal injury attorneys at our San Mateo firm provide compassionate representation to victims who must cope with these life-altering injuries.
Brain Injuries
Diagnosing a brain injury often requires a physical examination and possibly PET scans, CT scans, and MRIs. Different brain injuries include penetrating head injuries, closed head injuries, and blast injuries.
Blast injuries happen due to explosions. Closed head injuries leave the skull physically intact. Penetrating head injuries fracture the skull against the ground or a foreign object.
Severe brain injuries can permanently damage physical and cognitive capacities. Many people suffer so-called mild traumatic brain injuries and never lose consciousness, but they can still experience lasting effects.
Burn Injuries
Burn injuries can result from contact with toxic gases, radiation, chemicals, heat, and electricity. Severe burn injuries destroy nerves, muscles, bones, and skin tissue. They inflict enormous pain and suffering, and treatment can cause thousands of dollars of medical bills.
Carbon Monoxide Death
Many people unknowingly inhale tasteless, odorless carbon monoxide gas.
Burning wood, coal, natural gas, and kerosene will produce carbon monoxide.
Exposure to carbon monoxide gas can damage internal organs, including the brain. Carbon monoxide death occurs when carbon monoxide poisoning damages the heart, brain, and other vital organs.
Dog Bite Injuries
Dog bites can require immediate medical attention if a bite breaks through the skin. Many dog bites can cause permanent disfigurement, puncture wounds, deep lacerations, fractures, and infection, among other injuries and complications, including rabies.
Children are more at risk for dog bites than adults, and dog attacks often occur when a child is playing with a dog. Nobody can predict when a dog bite will occur, and dog owners should pay for injuries their dogs cause.
Electric Scooter Accidents
The use of shareable e-scooter accidents is on the rise in many cities throughout the United States. Thousands of individuals rent e-scooters, and distracted drivers may harm these e-scooter riders by striking them with motor vehicles. Some drivers follow e-scooter riders too closely and cause riders to crash and suffer catastrophic head, neck, or back injuries.
Nursing Home Injuries
Physical, emotional, and sexual elder abuse is common in many nursing homes and assisted living facilities in San Mateo. Physical abuse can involve restraining an elderly or disabled person or inflicting physical suffering and harm on an elderly or disabled person.
Neglect is a common form of abuse in nursing homes. Nurses and certified nursing assistants may fail to administer medications to patients. Nursing home employees may also leave patients in the same position on a hospital bed for long periods, causing bedsores.
Other Vehicle Accidents
Driving a motor vehicle is inherently dangerous. Advanced technology and engineering cannot put a complete stop to property damage, physical injuries, and fatalities caused during motor vehicle accidents. Rear-end accidents, sideswipe collisions, and intersection crashes are some of the most common motor vehicle accidents.
Motor vehicle accidents are one of the primary causes of personal injury in San Mateo. Spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, and fractured bones all frequently occur during motor vehicle accidents.
Premises Liability
Premises liability injuries occur when an injured victim suffers an injury while on someone else's property. These accidents often happen due to negligent property owners. Property owners must make premises safe for visitors, but slip and falls, inadequate security, property construction, hidden electrical wires, and dangerous work activities are all common causes of premises liability injuries.
Premises liability can involve many different owners and occupiers of property, including nightclubs, apartment complexes, restaurants, and gyms. These complex injury claims often involve many different areas of the law.
Product Liability
Product liability cases involve inherently dangerous products, design defects, or manufacturing defects. Product liability cases typically involve many different responsible parties, including large corporations, which can make them challenging to pursue.
Stairway Accidents
Slip and fall accidents can cause serious injuries, but falls on stairways may increase the likelihood of a victim suffering a costly and life-changing injury. The injured victim can strike his or her head or spinal cord with great force. Stairway accidents cause serious bodily injury, and many injured victims require long-term care and medical assistance to recover from these types of injuries.
Your Personal Injury Questions Answered
How Much Is My Injury Claim Worth?
Many factors contribute to the overall value of a personal injury claim, which can compensate you for injuries you suffered due to the negligent acts of another party.
Total medical bills and treatment costs will help determine the value of any personal injury claim. You can receive compensation for past and future medical treatment, including any rehabilitative therapy you need to help you recover from your injuries.
You may also recover lost income and lost future earnings through a personal injury claim. If you can return to work, but only in a lower-paying position than you occupied before, you can receive the difference between your income before and after suffering your injuries.
Additionally, injured victims can recover financially for the pain and suffering they experience and the emotional distress they endured due to their injuries. The actual numerical value of these damages will vary in each case.
An attorney can obtain the necessary paperwork and calculate how much financial compensation you can recover. If you don't hire a professional to help you perform this task, the insurance company may attack your damage claims and suggest that you unrealistically inflated your calculations.
Do I Need a Lawyer for a Personal Injury Claim?
Many people ask if they need to seek out a personal injury attorney following an accident. The answer to this question is yes—hire a personal injury attorney as soon as possible after an accident. You want to hire an attorney to communicate directly with the insurance company.
Insurance companies can deny your claims, delay responding to your claim, and send you low settlement offers. A personal injury attorney can prevent insurance companies from using these tactics early on during your case.
Having a professional communicate with insurance companies will notify them that you are serious about recovering the financial compensation you deserve.
If you suffered injuries in an accident, you must deal with many different things simultaneously. You must seek medical treatment, request time off work, and file paperwork with your insurance company.
You do not have to fight against the insurance companies by yourself. A personal injury attorney can help you recover the monetary compensation you deserve without charging you excessive retainer fees or hourly fees.
Should I Accept an Insurance Settlement Offer?
No, you should never accept any insurance settlement offer before consulting a personal injury attorney. Insurance companies do not want to take personal injury cases to court. Most insurance companies will review your case and send you a settlement offer.
Never accept a settlement without speaking to a personal injury attorney first because you may deserve more financial compensation. Initial settlement offers are often too low, and they do not take into account future losses or pain and suffering.
You may negotiate a better settlement offer, and a personal injury attorney can pressure the insurance company to do that.
You need a trained professional on your side to communicate with insurance companies. By hiring a personal injury attorney, you let the insurance companies know that you are serious about your injuries and recovering the financial compensation you deserve.
What About My Future Medical Costs?
Personal injury victims often require ongoing medical care that can extend for years. These costs will vary depending on the victim's injuries. Future treatment may include testing, hospice care, doctor visits, and surgery.
A personal injury attorney can communicate with medical specialists, doctors, and physical therapists to determine how much future medical treatment will cost based on the injured victim's age, treatment goals, and life expectancy.
An attorney may determine if medical costs will increase in the future due to market fluctuations or changes in treatment procedures. A permanent disability will affect an injury victim's lifestyle, and a personal injury attorney can determine methods used to calculate how this disability affects the patient's life financially.
A personal injury attorney will also consider additional costs created by specific personal injuries. Some injuries may require numerous surgeries over several years. A personal injury attorney can account for these costs in your settlement.
What if I Cannot Work Due to My Personal Injury?
You may not know what to do if you suffer personal injuries during an accident and you can no longer work. You deserve compensation for lost income, the costs of your medical bills, and other damages.
A part-time employee can recover lost income and lost future earnings. You may claim money for the dollar value of missed overtime hours, vacation days, and the money you could have made from important projects, interviews, and commissions.
You will need a personal injury attorney to help you demonstrate to the court that you missed work due to another party's negligence. Also, you need to calculate how much money you would have made if you had not suffered your personal injuries.
Your personal injury attorney can collect paperwork from your employer to calculate the damages you suffered due to lost pay and lost future earnings and fight to recover that money from the at-fault party.
What to Do After an Accident in San Mateo
Accidents can, unfortunately, strike when we're least prepared for them. No one expects to suffer a devastating injury or its associated pain and losses. At Galine, Frye, Fitting, and Frangos, we want you to achieve the best possible outcome, and we're here to support you.
Hopefully, you received prompt medical attention to treat your injuries. Following this, you will likely need to continue to follow your healthcare provider's recommendations, which may include further treatments, surgeries, or lifestyle modifications while you heal.
As soon as you can, contact our San Mateo personal injury attorneys. Should you decide to file a personal injury claim, our lawyer can get to work and begin collecting information and data to build your case.
Following your accident and throughout the claim, be discreet with regard to your case and the accident. For example, never post on social media about your situation. Never attempt to negotiate your settlement with an insurance provider on your own. After reviewing your case, our attorneys can advise you as to your options and handle these conversations and proceedings for you.
With your case safely in the hands of our competent personal injury lawyers, you can turn your attention to the rest and recovery that you need and deserve. Our attorneys can handle the rest. Contact us right now—we’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year—at (650) 345-8484, so we can start helping you right away.