Personal Injury Attorney in Dover, DE: 1 of 8 Sharma Law Offices in Delaware

A Dover personal injury lawyer is a Delaware attorney who represents people hurt in Kent County crashes, workplace accidents and other injuries caused by someone else, and who brings their claims to insurers or to Kent County Superior Court at 38 The Green.

The work starts with the facts of one crash or one injury: the police report, the photos, the medical records from Bayhealth or a family doctor, and the insurance policies that apply. A Dover personal injury lawyer then measures the claim under Delaware law, presents it to the insurance carrier, and files a lawsuit when the carrier refuses to pay a fair amount.

At The Sharma Law Firm, Aman Sharma, Esq. (Delaware Bar ID No. 5706) is the responsible attorney for the Dover office. Where those injuries happen around Dover follows a pattern set by the city's roads, which is the next thing to understand.

A Dover personal injury lawyer spends much of the week on two roads. US-13, which locals call DuPont Highway, runs north and south through the city as a commercial strip of shopping centers, gas stations and restaurant entrances.

DE-1 is the other corridor. It is a limited-access toll road east of the city that carries commuters toward Wilmington and, in summer, a steady line of beach traffic headed south to Sussex County. High speeds and sudden slowdowns near the exits cause chain-reaction crashes involving several vehicles and several insurance companies.

Three places change Dover traffic on predictable days:

• Dover Air Force Base, southeast of the city and reached from DE-1, puts shift-change traffic on the road every weekday, including service members whose cars are registered in other states.
• Delaware State University sits on US-13 north of downtown, where students cross on foot and drivers turn in and out of campus.
• Dover Motor Speedway, also on US-13 north of downtown, brings race-weekend crowds, parking lot exits and heavy congestion on US-13 and DE-1.

West of the city, DE-8 (Forrest Avenue) runs west toward Pearsons Corner and Marydel at the Maryland line, and rural Kent County roads carry tractors and grain trucks moving well below the speed limit. The hospital in Dover is Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus on South State Street. Every one of these crash types is governed by the same short list of Delaware statutes, covered below.

A Dover personal injury lawyer works under state law, so the rules in Dover match the rules in Wilmington or Lewes. A handful of them shape almost every Kent County crash claim.

Personal injury protection (PIP). Under 21 Del. C. § 2118, every Delaware-registered vehicle carries PIP of at least $15,000 per person and $30,000 per accident. PIP pays medical bills and lost net earnings no matter who caused the crash. Delaware is not a pure no-fault state, so you keep the right to claim against the at-fault driver for losses PIP leaves unpaid, including pain and suffering.

Modified comparative negligence. Under 10 Del. C. § 8132, your recovery is reduced by your share of fault, and if you are more than 50% at fault you recover nothing. Insurers in Dover often argue that a driver turning into a US-13 shopping center or merging onto DE-1 was partly to blame.

Uninsured and underinsured motorist (UM/UIM) coverage. Delaware's minimum liability limits are $25,000 per person and $50,000 per accident. When the at-fault driver has no insurance, or not enough, your own UM/UIM coverage is often where the rest of the money comes from.

Deadlines. Delaware's general deadline for personal injury claims is two years (10 Del. C. § 8119), but deadlines vary by claim and some notice requirements are much shorter. Talk to us before assuming you have time.

Where the case is filed. A Dover lawsuit is usually filed in Kent County Superior Court at the Kent County Courthouse, 38 The Green, Dover. Once you know which rules fit your crash, the next step is matching it to the kinds of cases our Dover office takes.

The Dover personal injury lawyer at our South Governors Avenue office handles the case types below. Each one links to a practice page where we have one.

A Dover personal injury lawyer at The Sharma Law Firm works on contingency. Our contingency fee is 33.33% of the recovery. No attorney's fee unless we recover, and we advance case costs. If we don't win, you owe nothing. When a case is won, the costs are reimbursed from the settlement or recovery.

The Dover office is open 24/7, and meetings are by appointment only, so call (302) 205-3116 before you drive over. Hablamos español: paralegals Santiago Araujo, Humberto Buitrago and Isaac Durango Figueroa speak Spanish and can take your call or join your meeting.

Here is how a Dover case usually moves:

1. A free case review by phone or at the Dover office.
2. Letters to the insurers, with requests to preserve evidence such as video.
3. Medical treatment continues while we collect your records and bills.
4. We open your PIP claim and track what it pays.
5. We send a demand package to the at-fault driver's insurer.
6. We negotiate, and if the offer is unfair we file in Kent County Superior Court.
7. The case resolves by settlement or trial, and costs and liens are paid from the recovery before you receive your share.

After that first call, the next step for most clients is a meeting at the office on South Governors Avenue.

The Dover personal injury lawyer's office is at 1326 S Governors Ave, Suite 101, Dover, DE 19904. It is in a multi-tenant professional building on South Governors Avenue, south of downtown, and The Sharma Law Firm is Suite 101.

Several other offices share the same street number, so enter the full address with the suite in your map app instead of searching for the firm name. Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus on South State Street and The Green, where the Kent County Courthouse stands, are both north of the office toward downtown Dover.

Meetings are by appointment only. Call (302) 205-3116 to set a time, and mention if you would like a Spanish-speaking paralegal to join. Clients come to this office from towns across central and northern Kent County, listed next.

A Dover personal injury lawyer at this office represents clients from the capital and the communities around it. Next to the city, that includes the Census-designated places of Highland Acres, Kent Acres, Rodney Village, Rising Sun-Lebanon, Riverview, Woodside East and Dover Base Housing, along with downtown Dover and the blocks around The Green.

North of the city, we serve Cheswold, Clayton and Smyrna along the US-13 and DE-1 corridor, plus Little Creek and Leipsic near the Delaware Bay. West of Dover, clients come from Hartly, Marydel, Kenton and the farms along DE-8 and DE-44. South of the city, Camden, Wyoming, Woodside, Viola, Magnolia, Felton and Bowers send us cases from US-13, US-113 and the roads toward the bay.

Harrington, Houston and Frederica sit closer to our Milford personal injury office, which serves those towns. Distance is only one factor, though, in deciding whether a local office is the right fit.

A Dover personal injury lawyer is usually the practical choice when the crash happened in Kent County, when you live nearby, or when your treatment is at Bayhealth Hospital, Kent Campus. A Kent County Superior Court case is heard at 38 The Green, a short drive from our office, and you meet in person without a long trip.

A local office matters less if you were hurt elsewhere in Delaware, because the same Delaware law applies and Aman Sharma, Esq. is the responsible attorney at every Sharma Law office. The questions below cover what Dover callers ask most often.