What Is Injury Law?

Lawsuits involving injury focus on civil violations that could cause harm to your body, the mind and your emotions. The aim of a successful lawsuit is to recover money for damages such as medical bills, pain and discomfort.

It's hard to avoid injuries, but you need to protect yourself as much possible. For instance, if will fall backwards, you should turn your head and shield it with your arms.

Negligence

A person who has suffered injuries or other losses due to negligence of another can make a claim for negligence and seek financial compensation. The plaintiff must first prove four elements to establish their case: breach of duty, breach causation, damages and breach of duty.

Negligence is the inability to act in the manner that reasonable people would do in similar circumstances. For example, a motorist should obey traffic laws to avoid injuries and accidents to others on the road. A doctor is required to treat patients in the same manner that an individual with similar training would in similar circumstances. Lawyers can also use expert testimony to prove that the defendant's behavior was far from the norms of the industry.

To prevail in a negligence case the plaintiff must prove that the defendant's failure to perform their duty was a direct cause of their injuries. This is known as legal causation. A good personal injury lawyer will argue that the defendant’s actions were the sole reason for the plaintiff's injuries.

The plaintiff must prove that their injuries caused real financial losses including lost income and medical bills. A more serious form of negligence is gross negligence, which is an unintentional disregard for others' safety. Gross negligence is when a nursing home fails to change bandages on the patient for a number of days. In some states, defendants are able to use a defense called contributory negligence to block the plaintiff from claiming damage.

Statute of Limitations

When someone else's negligent actions or reckless disregard for your safety causes you to be injured and suffer injuries, the law gives you an amount of time to start a lawsuit, which is known as the statute of limitations. This limit is set by the state legislature to ensure timely filing and avoid unreasonable delays.

The time period for filing a claim differs from states to states and depending on the type of injury to the next. In Pennsylvania for instance car accidents are covered for two years to make a claim for personal injury. However, some claims may be subject to what is known as the discovery rule, meaning that the statute of limitations will not start until the injury is discovered or should reasonably have been discovered.

In some instances, like those involving intentional torts, such as false imprisonment and assaults, as well as defamation and intentional infliction emotional distress, the limitation period is longer. A statute of limitations could also be exempted or tolled in some cases, such as when a minor is involved, or an individual is on military duty or in a prison.

If you decide to file a lawsuit after the statute of limitations has expired, your lawsuit could be dismissed without hearing. It is therefore important to speak with an experienced injury lawyer before the statute expires.

Damages

Many costs related to injuries come with cost. Special damages include medical costs, cost-out-of-pocket, injury lawsuits lost wages and the cost of repairing or replacing your property, in addition to other fixed costs. The law does not restrict the amount of special damages you are able to recover.

Other losses don't carry an estimated price and can be difficult to calculate, including suffering and pain, loss of enjoyment from life, and other intangible damages. It is difficult to determine a dollar value for the subjective loss of physical or emotional pain can be a challenge however, attorneys and insurance companies utilize formulas to attempt to quantify the amount.

A person who is a plaintiff in a whiplash case, for example, may have suffered serious injuries that impact their daily life. They might need to seek assistance with household chores, have a different diet, and may be unable to participate in social or engaging in recreational activities. The victim may experience an impairment in enjoyment and this is a redressable loss as general damages.

To determine the value of an action for general damages, attorneys or insurers typically begin by calculating total of medical special damages. They then add the value of any lost income. They will then multiply this number by a number ranging from 1.5 to 5. More severe injuries usually result in greater multipliers.

Liability

In law, the term "liability is a term used to describe a person who is held liable for an injury or damage. This could be due negligence or strict liability. The concept of negligence is the basis for most injury claims. Negligence involves failing to act in a reasonable manner and with care in the particular circumstances. The jury determines what an average person in similar circumstances would do and then decides if the defendant's actions or inactions were in violation of this standard. However, some cases are built on strict liability, like the case where a defective product causes injuries.

Victims may also be entitled to compensation in addition to the economic damages in the event of non-economic damages like pain and discomfort. The amount of these damages is difficult to determine but our expert injury lawyers are adept at maximizing the value of your claim.

Most personal injury lawsuits pit one plaintiff against multiple defendants, but some are multi-plaintiff suits like class actions and mass torts. The plaintiffs could be corporations such as an insurance company or a pharmaceutical company or they could be people like you. In these kinds of cases, several parties could be held responsible based on the evidence provided by each plaintiff as well as the results of an investigation. Contact us right away if you were injured by someone else's negligence or wrongdoing.