Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer

Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer

When an accident leaves you seriously injured, everything changes overnight. Medical bills begin piling up. You may not be able to work. Insurance company representatives are calling, pressuring you to settle quickly for far less than your case is worth. In moments like these, you need more than just a lawyer; you need a fighter.

At Pagano Law, our Philadelphia personal injury attorneys have spent decades standing up for injured victims and their families across Pennsylvania. We know how insurance companies operate, we know how to build a case that wins, and we know how to make sure our clients receive the full compensation they deserve, not just the minimum the other side is willing to pay.

Your consultation is free. You pay nothing unless we win. Call Pagano Law today at 215-636-0160.

What Is a Personal Injury Claim in Philadelphia?

A personal injury claim is a civil lawsuit or insurance claim filed by someone who was hurt due to another person’s or entity’s negligence. At its core, the legal principle is straightforward: if your injury was caused by someone else’s careless, reckless, or intentional conduct, that party should be financially responsible for the harm they caused.

Personal injury law covers an enormous range of accidents and circumstances — car crashes, slip and falls, medical errors, defective products, dog attacks, and more. What all of these cases share is the same fundamental question: was there negligence, and did that negligence cause your injury?

To succeed in a personal injury claim, four elements must generally be established:

• Duty of care — The at-fault party owed you a legal duty. Drivers owe other road users a duty to drive safely. Property owners owe visitors a duty to maintain a reasonably safe environment.
• Breach of duty — The at-fault party violated that duty through negligent, reckless, or intentional conduct.
• Causation — That breach directly caused your injuries. It is not enough that someone acted carelessly; their carelessness must be the reason you were hurt.
• Damages — You suffered real, measurable harm — physical injuries, financial losses, emotional suffering — as a result.

 Pennsylvania follows a modified comparative negligence rule, which means that even if you were partially at fault for the accident, you may still recover compensation — as long as your share of the fault is less than 51%. However, your total compensation will be reduced in proportion to your percentage of fault. For example, if you are found 20% at fault for a car accident, your recoverable damages are reduced by 20%.

This is one of the most important reasons to have an experienced personal injury attorney on your side from the beginning. Insurance companies routinely attempt to inflate your percentage of fault in order to reduce their payout. A skilled attorney will investigate the facts, gather evidence, and counter those tactics aggressively.

Pennsylvania also has a two-year statute of limitations for most personal injury claims. This means you generally have two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit in court. There are limited exceptions — such as for minors or cases involving government entities — but waiting too long almost always forfeits your right to recover anything at all. Contact Pagano Law as soon as possible after your injury to make sure your rights are protected.

Personal Injury Cases We Handle in Philadelphia

Pagano Law represents injured victims across a wide range of accident types throughout Philadelphia and the surrounding Pennsylvania counties. Each case is handled with the same commitment: thorough investigation, aggressive advocacy, and a determination to recover maximum compensation.

Car Accidents

Philadelphia is one of the most congested cities on the East Coast. With millions of drivers navigating I-95, the Schuylkill Expressway, Roosevelt Boulevard, and dense city streets every day, serious car accidents are a constant reality. When a driver causes a crash through distraction, impairment, speeding, or outright recklessness, the physical and financial consequences for victims can be devastating.

Car accident injuries commonly include whiplash and soft tissue damage, broken bones, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, internal organ damage, and in the most severe cases, permanent disability. What makes these injuries particularly difficult is that symptoms are not always immediately apparent. Adrenaline can mask pain in the hours after a crash, and some injuries — including certain traumatic brain injuries and spinal conditions — may not fully manifest for days or weeks. This is why it is critical to seek medical evaluation immediately after any accident, even if you feel relatively fine at the scene.

Pennsylvania’s auto insurance system adds another layer of complexity. The state uses a choice no-fault system: depending on which coverage option was selected on your insurance policy, you may be required to seek compensation from your own insurer first through Personal Injury Protection (PIP) before pursuing a claim against the at-fault driver. If your injuries are serious enough to meet a legal threshold, however, you retain the right to step outside the no-fault system and file a claim directly against the responsible driver.

At Pagano Law, we handle every aspect of a car accident claim — from gathering accident reports and surveillance footage to consulting accident reconstruction experts and negotiating with insurance adjusters who are trained to minimize payouts. We know the tactics insurers use, and we know how to counter them. 

Truck Accidents

Crashes involving tractor-trailers, semi-trucks, and other large commercial vehicles are among the most catastrophic accidents on Pennsylvania roads. The physics are unforgiving: a fully loaded tractor-trailer can weigh up to 80,000 pounds. When one of these vehicles collides with a passenger car, the results are frequently fatal or permanently disabling.

Truck accident cases are also far more legally complex than typical car accident claims. Multiple parties may share liability — the truck driver, the trucking company, the cargo loader, the vehicle manufacturer, or a third-party maintenance company. Federal regulations from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) govern hours of service limits, vehicle maintenance requirements, and driver qualification standards. Violations of these regulations are powerful evidence of negligence, but identifying and preserving that evidence requires acting quickly.

Trucking companies and their insurers deploy rapid response teams immediately after serious accidents. These teams begin building a defense, preserving evidence favorable to the trucking company, and sometimes destroying or allowing evidence to lapse. Black box data from the truck’s Electronic Logging Device (ELD), driver logs, maintenance records, and cargo manifests all need to be secured as quickly as possible.

Pagano Law moves fast on truck accident cases. We send preservation letters to preserve critical evidence, work with accident reconstruction specialists, and are prepared to pursue claims against every liable party. The damages in these cases are often substantial — and we fight to recover every dollar.

Motorcycle Accidents

Motorcyclists face dangers that other road users simply do not. Without the protective frame of a car, even a relatively low-speed collision can result in severe road rash, broken limbs, head trauma, or spinal injuries. In Pennsylvania, motorcycle fatalities are consistently disproportionate to the number of registered motorcycles on the road.

What makes motorcycle accident cases particularly challenging is the bias motorcyclists often face. Insurance adjusters and even some jurors may harbor assumptions that a motorcyclist was riding recklessly, regardless of the actual facts. Defense attorneys exploit these stereotypes to minimize settlements and deflect fault onto the rider. At Pagano Law, we prepare our motorcycle accident cases with this dynamic in mind — presenting clear, evidence-backed narratives that put the true cause of the accident on record and counter any attempts to unfairly blame the rider.

Common causes of motorcycle accidents include drivers failing to check blind spots before changing lanes, left-turn collisions at intersections, distracted driving, and road hazards that would be minor inconveniences to a car but deadly to a motorcyclist. We investigate every angle, and we ensure our clients are treated with the seriousness and respect their injuries deserve.

Slip and Fall / Premises Liability

Property owners in Pennsylvania have a legal obligation to maintain reasonably safe conditions for visitors. When they fail in that duty — whether through negligence, cost-cutting, or outright indifference — and someone is injured as a result, they can be held legally responsible.

Premises liability cases arise in a wide variety of settings: wet or slippery floors in grocery stores and restaurants, uneven pavement or broken sidewalks, inadequate lighting in parking garages and stairwells, snow and ice left untreated on commercial properties, falling objects in retail stores, and unsafe conditions in apartment buildings. The seriousness of slip and fall injuries should never be underestimated. A fall can result in fractures — particularly hip fractures in older adults, which are associated with significant long-term health consequences — as well as traumatic brain injuries, spinal damage, and torn ligaments.

One of the key challenges in premises liability cases is proving that the property owner knew — or should have known — about the dangerous condition and failed to correct it or warn visitors. This is called constructive notice. Evidence may include incident reports, surveillance footage, maintenance logs, prior complaints, and witness testimony. Gathering this evidence quickly is essential, as surveillance footage is often overwritten and records may be lost or destroyed.

Property owners and their insurers routinely argue that the hazard was obvious, that the injured person was not watching where they were going, or that the condition existed for only a brief period of time. Pagano Law is experienced at dismantling these defenses and building the evidence-driven case your claim requires. 

Construction Accidents

Philadelphia is in a period of intense construction and development. With active job sites across the city and surrounding counties, construction accidents remain a serious and far-too-common cause of severe injury. Falls from scaffolding and ladders, being struck by falling objects, electrocutions, trench collapses, machinery accidents, and exposure to hazardous materials are among the leading causes of construction site injuries in Pennsylvania.

Construction accident cases involve a complex web of potential liability. The general contractor on a job site has a broad duty to maintain safe working conditions. Subcontractors and equipment manufacturers may also bear responsibility. Even property owners can face liability in certain circumstances. Pennsylvania’s workers’ compensation system provides some protections for injured workers, but workers’ comp benefits are limited — they do not compensate for pain and suffering, and the benefits often fall short of what a seriously injured worker actually needs.

Critically, if a third party (someone other than your employer) contributed to your injury, you may have both a workers’ compensation claim and a separate personal injury claim. Pagano Law evaluates every avenue of recovery for construction accident victims, including third-party claims that can yield substantially greater compensation than workers’ comp alone. Our attorneys understand both the legal landscape and the occupational safety regulations that govern Pennsylvania job sites, and we use that knowledge to hold negligent parties accountable.

Dog Bites

Pennsylvania law makes dog owners liable for injuries their animals cause, and the consequences of a dog attack can be far more serious than many people initially assume. Beyond the immediate physical injuries — puncture wounds, lacerations, infections, and scarring — dog bite victims often experience significant psychological trauma, including post-traumatic stress, anxiety, and a lasting fear of dogs that can affect their daily life.

Under Pennsylvania’s dog bite statute, owners of dogs classified as ‘dangerous’ are strictly liable for damages when their dog injures someone. Even outside the strict liability framework, dog owners may be held liable under negligence principles when they knew or should have known their dog posed a risk and failed to take appropriate precautions.

Pagano Law handles dog bite and animal attack cases with particular sensitivity to the trauma our clients have experienced. We handle the legal process so you can focus on your physical and emotional recovery, and we fight to recover compensation not just for your medical treatment but for any lasting psychological harm the attack has caused.

Medical Malpractice

We trust doctors, nurses, surgeons, and hospitals with our lives. When that trust is broken — when a medical professional fails to meet the accepted standard of care and a patient is harmed as a result — the consequences can be life-altering or fatal. Medical malpractice cases include surgical errors, misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis, medication errors, anesthesia mistakes, birth injuries, and failures in post-operative care.

Medical malpractice litigation is among the most complex areas of personal injury law. Pennsylvania requires plaintiffs to file a Certificate of Merit signed by a medical professional who has reviewed the case and confirmed that the treatment fell outside the accepted standard of care. Expert witnesses are almost always required to establish both negligence and causation. The defense will have its own team of medical experts, and healthcare systems have the resources to fight these cases aggressively.

Pagano Law works with qualified medical experts to review the facts of your case, identify where the standard of care was breached, and build a compelling case that can withstand scrutiny. If you suspect that a medical error caused you or a family member serious harm, we will give you an honest assessment of your claim and the path forward.

Wrongful Death

Losing a family member because of someone else’s negligence is an unimaginable experience. No legal claim can undo that loss — but Pennsylvania law does provide a mechanism for surviving family members to hold responsible parties accountable and recover compensation for the economic and personal losses caused by their loved one’s death.

Pennsylvania’s Wrongful Death Act allows eligible family members — including spouses, children, and parents — to recover compensation for medical and funeral expenses, loss of the deceased’s financial support and earning capacity, and loss of companionship and guidance. A separate Survival Action may also be brought on behalf of the deceased’s estate to recover damages the deceased themselves suffered prior to death, including pain and suffering.

These cases require thoughtful, thorough legal handling at one of the most difficult times in a family’s life. Pagano Law approaches wrongful death cases with the care and compassion families deserve, while also bringing the full force of our legal experience to hold negligent parties accountable.

What Compensation Can You Recover?

One of the first questions injured victims ask is: what is my case worth? The answer depends on the specific facts of your situation — the severity of your injuries, their impact on your life and livelihood, the clarity of the other party’s liability, and the available insurance coverage. What we can tell you is that Pagano Law pursues every category of available compensation on your behalf.

Medical Expenses

Compensation for medical expenses includes everything you have already paid or owe as a result of your injury: emergency room visits, ambulance transport, hospitalization, surgery, diagnostic imaging, specialist consultations, physical therapy, prescription medications, and medical equipment such as wheelchairs or braces. Critically, your claim should also account for the cost of future medical care if your injuries are ongoing or permanent. Failing to include future medical costs is one of the most common ways injury victims leave money on the table when they settle too quickly or without proper legal guidance.

Lost Wages and Lost Earning Capacity

If your injuries caused you to miss work, you are entitled to recover the income you lost during your recovery period. But the impact on your earnings often extends far beyond the initial recovery. If your injuries are serious enough to affect your ability to perform your job long-term — whether by limiting your physical capabilities, requiring extended leave, or preventing you from returning to your previous occupation entirely — you may be entitled to compensation for diminished future earning capacity. This is calculated with the help of vocational experts and economists who can project the long-term financial impact of your injuries.

Pain and Suffering

Not all damages are economic. Pain and suffering encompasses the physical discomfort, emotional distress, anxiety, depression, sleep disruption, and diminished enjoyment of life that often accompany serious injury. These are real, significant harms — and Pennsylvania law allows injury victims to seek compensation for them.

Calculating pain and suffering damages is not as straightforward as tallying medical bills. Insurance companies frequently attempt to minimize these damages, using formulaic approaches that undervalue what a victim has actually endured. Pagano Law builds a comprehensive picture of your pain and suffering through medical records, mental health documentation, personal journals, and testimony from people who know you — ensuring that the full human cost of your injury is reflected in your claim.

Property Damage

In accidents involving vehicles or personal property, you are entitled to compensation for the repair or fair market replacement value of your damaged property. This includes your vehicle, as well as personal items damaged in the accident such as electronics, clothing, or mobility devices.

Punitive Damages

In cases involving especially reckless, malicious, or outrageous conduct, Pennsylvania courts may award punitive damages in addition to compensatory damages. Punitive damages are not about making the victim whole — they are designed to punish the at-fault party and deter others from similar conduct. Drunk driving cases, intentional misconduct, and certain cases involving corporate negligence are situations where punitive damages may be available. Pagano Law will evaluate whether punitive damages apply to your case and pursue them aggressively when they do.

What to Do After an Accident in Philadelphia

The steps you take in the hours and days following an injury can have a profound effect on the outcome of your case. While we understand that the aftermath of an accident is overwhelming and chaotic, preserving your legal rights from the start is critically important. Here is what our attorneys recommend:

1. Seek Medical Attention Immediately

Even if your injuries seem minor at the scene, go to an emergency room or urgent care facility right away. Some of the most serious injuries — including traumatic brain injuries, internal bleeding, and certain spinal conditions — may not produce obvious symptoms immediately. Delayed treatment is also one of the most common arguments insurers use to dispute the seriousness of your injuries. A prompt medical evaluation creates an official record linking your injuries to the accident, which is foundational to your claim.

Follow your doctor’s treatment plan carefully and attend all follow-up appointments. Gaps in treatment are another common point of attack from defense attorneys who will argue that if your injuries were as serious as claimed, you would have sought more consistent care.

2. Report the Accident

Make sure the accident is officially reported to the appropriate parties. For car accidents, call the police and ensure a police report is filed — this creates an independent record of what happened. For slip and falls in stores or businesses, report the incident to a manager and request a copy of any incident report that is created. For workplace accidents, report the injury to your employer as soon as possible. Official reports create a documented record of when and where the accident occurred, which can be invaluable later if the other party disputes the facts.

3. Document Everything

If you are physically able to do so, use your phone to photograph the scene of the accident, the hazardous condition that caused your injury, any visible injuries, and the surrounding environment. Photograph damage to vehicles, ice or debris on a walkway, poor lighting conditions — anything that tells the story of what happened and why. If witnesses are present, get their names and contact information. Over time, memories fade and witnesses become harder to locate.

In the days following the accident, keep a personal journal documenting your pain levels, limitations on daily activities, emotional state, and how your injuries are affecting your work, relationships, and quality of life. This contemporaneous record can be powerful evidence of your pain and suffering.

4. Do Not Give a Recorded Statement to the Other Party’s Insurer

After a serious accident, you will almost certainly receive calls from the at-fault party’s insurance company. They may seem helpful and sympathetic. They are not. Their job is to limit the company’s financial exposure, and a recorded statement — even one that seems harmless at the time — can be used against you to challenge your account of events or minimize your injuries.

You are not legally required to give a recorded statement to the other party’s insurer. Politely decline and tell them to direct any questions to your attorney. Once Pagano Law is representing you, all communication with insurance companies goes through us.

5. Do Not Accept a Settlement Offer Without Legal Counsel

Insurance companies often move quickly to offer a settlement shortly after an accident — sometimes before you even know the full extent of your injuries. These early offers are typically a fraction of what your case is actually worth, and once you accept a settlement and sign a release, you permanently forfeit your right to seek additional compensation, even if your injuries turn out to be far more serious than initially understood.

Before you sign anything or accept any payment, speak with a Pagano Law attorney. A consultation is free, and understanding what your case is truly worth costs you nothing.

6. Contact Pagano Law as Soon as Possible

The sooner you involve an attorney, the better positioned your case will be. Critical evidence — surveillance footage, accident scene conditions, witness memories, vehicle data — begins to deteriorate or disappear quickly. Pennsylvania’s statute of limitations gives you two years to file a claim in most cases, but waiting near that deadline limits your attorney’s ability to build the strongest possible case.

Pagano Law will handle every aspect of your case from initial investigation through settlement negotiation or trial. You focus on your recovery. We handle the rest.

Get a Free Consultation from a Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer

If you or a family member has been injured because of someone else’s negligence, you deserve straightforward answers and experienced representation. At Pagano Law, we will review your case, explain your options honestly, and tell you what we believe your claim is worth — at no cost and with no obligation.

We represent personal injury victims on a contingency fee basis. That means you pay no attorney’s fees unless and until we recover compensation for you. There is no financial risk in reaching out.

Serving Philadelphia, Montgomery County, Bucks County, Delaware County, Chester County, and throughout Pennsylvania and Delaware. Contact Pagano Law today!

Frequently Asked Questions About Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyers