Lifestyle

What to Do If You’ve Been Injured Due To Negligence

Published

3 years ago

October 12, 2022

If you or somebody you know has been injured due to the negligence of another, certain steps should be taken in order to ensure that your rights are protected. The most important thing to do is seek medical attention as soon as possible. Once you have received the necessary medical treatment, you should contact a personal injury lawyer to discuss your legal options.

What is Negligence?

In order to understand when you can sue for negligence, it is first important to understand what negligence is. Negligence is a failure to use reasonable care that results in injury or damage. In other words, negligence occurs when someone fails to take proper precautions and harms another person.

There are four elements that must be met for a finding of negligence: duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages. The first element, duty, requires that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care. The second element, breach of duty, means that the defendant breached this duty by failing to act as a reasonably prudent person would have under similar circumstances. The third element, causation, requires that the plaintiff would not have been injured but for the defendant’s negligent conduct. And finally, damages require that the plaintiff actually sustained some type of injury or losses as a result of the defendant’s negligence.

Steps To Follow After You’ve Been Injured

You may be wondering what to do if you or a loved one has been injured due to the negligence of another. The first step is to understand that you may be entitled to damages. To help you understand this process, our personal injury lawyers have outlined what you need to know about being injured due to negligence.

1. Seek Medical Attention

If you have been injured, it is important to seek medical attention immediately. Even if your injuries seem minor, it is always better to avoid caution and get checked out by a medical professional. In some cases, injuries that initially seem minor can turn out to be much more serious than initially thought.

2. Contact a Personal Injury Lawyer

After you have received medical treatment, you should contact a personal injury lawyer to discuss your legal options. An experienced trip and fall lawyer will be able to advise you on the best course of action, and will fight tirelessly to ensure that you are compensated for your injuries.

3. File a Claim

If you decide to pursue legal action, you will need to file a claim against the negligent party. This claim will detail the injuries that you have suffered and will request compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering.

4. Go to Court (If Necessary)

In some cases, insurance companies will refuse to give victims the compensation they deserve. If this happens, the case will likely go to court, where a judge or jury will determine how much the victim should receive.

5. Get compensated!

After all is said and done, if you’ve been injured due to somebody else’s negligence, you deserve to be compensated for your injuries. By following the steps outlined above, you can help ensure that this happens.

Types of Damages That May Be Recovered

If a plaintiff is successful in proving negligence, they may be able to recover both economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are those that can be quantified with a dollar amount and typically include medical expenses and lost wages. Non-economic damages are more difficult to quantify and may include pain and suffering or emotional distress.

In some cases, punitive damages may also be available. Punitive damages are meant to punish defendants who have engaged in particularly egregious behavior and are only awarded in exceptional cases.

Determining whether or not you have a case can be complicated, and it is always best to consult with an experienced personal injury attorney who can evaluate the specific facts of your situation and advise you accordingly.

Final Thoughts

No one ever expects to be injured due to the negligence of another person or entity—such as a company or government agency. But unfortunately, accidents happen every day, and innocent people often suffer because of them. If you or somebody close to you has been injured due to negligence, it is important that you take immediate action in order to protect your rights. By following the steps outlined in this blog post, you can help ensure that justice is served and that you receive the compensation you deserve.”

Lifestyle

When Seasons Shift: Dr. Leeshe Grimes on Grief, Loneliness, and Finding Light Again

Published

5 hours ago

February 22, 2026

Michelle Langton

Some emotional storms arrive without warning. A sudden change in weather, a holiday approaching, or even a bright sunny day can stir feelings that don’t match the world outside. For many people, the hardest seasons are not defined by temperature; they are defined by what’s happening inside, where grief and loneliness often move quietly.

This is the emotional terrain where Dr. Leeshe Grimes has spent her career doing some of her most meaningful work. As a psychotherapist, registered play therapist, retired U.S. Army combat veteran, and founder of Elevated Minds in the DMV area, she understands how deeply seasonal shifts and unresolved grief can affect people. Her upcoming books explore this very space, guiding readers through the emotional weight that can appear during different times of the year.

What sets Dr. Grimes apart is her ability to see clearly what many people overlook. Seasonal depression, for example, is usually tied to winter months. But she often sees it appear during warm, bright seasons, the times when the world seems happiest. For someone already grieving or feeling disconnected, watching others travel, celebrate, or gather can create its own kind of heaviness. Sunshine doesn’t always lift the mood; sometimes it highlights what feels missing.

The same misunderstanding surrounds grief. Society often treats it as a short-term experience with predictable phases and a clean ending. But in her practice, Dr. Grimes sees how grief keeps evolving. It doesn’t disappear on a timeline. It weaves itself into routines, memories, and milestones. People learn to carry it differently, but they rarely leave it behind completely. And that’s not failure, it’s human.

Her approach to mental health centers on truth rather than pressure. She encourages clients to acknowledge the emotions they try to hide: sadness that lingers longer than expected, moments of joy that feel out of place, and the waves of loneliness that return even when life seems stable. Instead of pushing for quick recovery, she focuses on helping people understand how emotions shift and how to care for themselves through those changes.

Much of her insight comes from her military years, where she witnessed the emotional toll of loss, transition, and constant survival. She saw how people continued functioning while carrying pain that had nowhere to go. That experience shaped her belief that healing requires space, space to feel, to speak, and to move through emotions without judgment.

In her clinical work today at Elevated Minds, she encourages people to build small, steady habits that anchor them during difficult seasons. Journaling helps them recognize patterns and name what feels heavy. Community support breaks the cycle of isolation. Therapy creates a place where emotions don’t have to be minimized or explained away. And intentional routines, daily sunlight, mindful breaks, and calm evenings help rebuild emotional balance.

Her upcoming books expand on these ideas, offering practical guidance for navigating both grief and seasonal depression. She focuses on helping readers understand that healing is not about escaping pain. It’s about learning how to live with it in a healthier way, honoring memories, acknowledging loneliness, and still allowing room for moments of light.

What makes Dr. Leeshe Grimes a compelling voice in mental health is her ability to bring language to experiences that many struggle to explain. She reminds people that emotional seasons don’t always match the weather and that there is no single path through grief. But within those shifts, she believes there is always a way forward.

The seasons will continue to change. And with the right tools, compassion, and support, people can change with them, finding steadiness, softness, and light again, one step at a time.