What Is Injury Law?

Lawsuits involving injury are concerned with civil infringements that can affect your body, mind and even your emotions. The aim of an injury lawsuit is to collect monetary compensation for damages like medical bills, suffering and pain.

It's hard to avoid injuries, but you must take every precaution to protect yourself. If you're prone to falling forward, tilt your head to shield it, and use your arms to help.

Negligence

Anyone who suffers injuries or other losses as a result of another's negligent actions can file a negligence lawsuit and seek financial compensation. However, the claimant must first prove four elements to prove their claim: breach of duty, breach of duty, causation and damages.

Negligence is defined as the inability to exercise the level of care that reasonable prudent people would be expected to exercise in similar circumstances. For instance, a driver must adhere to traffic laws to avoid accidents and injury to others on the road. A doctor is obliged to provide patients with the same care that a similarly trained medical professional would provide in similar situations. Lawyers may also rely on expert testimony to prove that the defendant's behavior was in line with industry standards.

In order to win a negligence case the plaintiff must show that the defendant's breach was the main cause of the injury. This is known as legal causation. A good personal injury lawyer will argue that the defendant’s actions were the sole cause of the plaintiff's injuries.

The plaintiff must prove that their injuries caused an actual financial loss, for example medical bills and lost income. Gross negligence is the most severe form of negligence since it is an unintentional disregard for the safety of others. Gross negligence is when a nursing house fails to change bandages on patients for a period of time. In some states, defendants may use a defense called contributory negligence in order to keep the plaintiff from claiming damages.

Statute of Limitations

If someone else's negligence or reckless disregard for your safety leads injuries to you or suffer injury, the law allows the victim with a certain period of time to file a lawsuit, called the statute of limitations. This limit, set by the state legislature, is meant to encourage timely filing and to prevent unreasonable delay.

The time period for filing a claim can vary from one state to the next and also depending on the type of injury; more tips here, and kind of injury. For instance in Pennsylvania personal injury cases such as car accidents, you typically have two years from the date of the accident to file claims. However, certain claims could be subject to what is called the discovery rule, meaning that the statute of limitations will not start until your injury is discovered or should reasonably have been discovered.

In certain circumstances, such as those involving intentional torts, such as false imprisonment and assaults and defamation and intentional infliction emotional distress, the limitation period is longer. A statute of limitations can be exempted or tolled in some circumstances, for injury example, when minors are involved or an individual is on military duty or in jail.

If you decide to file a suit after the statute of limitation has been reached, your case may be dismissed without hearing. This is why it is important to speak with an experienced attorney for injury before the statute of limitations expires.

Damages

Many of the costs that result from an injury come with an associated cost. Special damages can include medical expenses, cost-out-of-pocket, lost wages and the cost of the repair or replacement of your property, among other fixed costs. The law does not restrict the amount of special damages you can recover.

Other losses don't carry a price tag and can be difficult to calculate for example, the pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment in life and other intangible damages. It isn't easy to assign a dollar value on subjective losses like physical or emotional pain, but insurance companies and attorneys use formulas to quantify their losses.

A person who is the plaintiff in a whiplash case, for example, may have suffered serious injuries that impact their daily life. They may have to seek help with household chores, eat differently, and miss out socializing or enjoying leisure activities. The victim may experience an absence of enjoyment, and this is recoverable as general damages.

To estimate the value of general damages claims, lawyers and insurers typically start with calculating the total for medical special damages and add the value of any income losses. They will then multiply this figure by a number that ranges from 1.5 to 5. More severe injuries usually result in higher multipliers.

Liability

In law legal terms, liability refers the person found to be responsible for an injury or harm. It could be due to strict liability or negligence. Negligence is the basis for most lawsuits involving injuries. Negligence is the failure to exercise with reasonable care in the circumstances. Jurors evaluate what reasonable people would have done in similar circumstances, and then decide if the defendant's actions or inaction broke this standard. Certain injury cases are based solely on strict liability. For example, when defective products are the cause of injuries.

Victims could also be entitled to compensation in addition, to economic damages as well as non-economic losses such as pain and discomfort. It's hard to estimate these damages however our injury lawyers have the experience to maximize the value of your claim.

Some personal injury lawsuits are multi-plaintiff like class actions or mass torts. One or more of these plaintiffs could be an entity such as a pharmaceutical firm or an insurance company or it could be an individual like you. In these kinds of situations, multiple parties can be held liable depending on the evidence provided by each plaintiff and the outcome of a thorough investigation. Contact us immediately if you have been injured by another's negligence or wrongdoing.