What Is Injury Law?

Injury law focuses on civil wrongs that can cause harm to your body, emotions and mind. The goal of a successful lawsuit is to recover money for damages such as medical bills, discomfort and pain.

It's difficult to avoid injuries like this, but it's important to ensure you are protected as much as possible. For instance, if are about to fall backwards, make sure to turn your head around and protect it with your arms.

Negligence

Anyone who suffers injuries or other losses as a result of an act of negligence by another person may file a negligence lawsuit and pursue financial compensation. To prove their case the plaintiff will need to establish four elements: duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages.

Negligence is the failure to act in the manner that reasonable people would do under similar circumstances. For instance, a driver must adhere to traffic laws to avoid injuries and accidents to other people on the road. A doctor is required to treat patients in the same manner that medical professionals with similar training would in similar circumstances. Lawyers may also rely on expert testimony to show that the defendant's behavior was below industry norms.

In order to win a negligence case, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant's breach was the main cause of the injury. This is referred to 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 show that their injuries resulted in real financial losses like lost income and medical bills. A more serious form of negligence is gross negligence, which is a complete lack of concern for the safety of others. A nursing home that does not change a patient's bandages for injured a period of time is an example of gross negligence. In certain states, injured defendants may be able to use a defense known as contributory negligence to block the plaintiff from claiming damage.

Statute of limitations

If the negligence of someone else or careless disregard for your safety causes you to be injured or suffer injury, the law allows an amount of time to bring a lawsuit, referred to as the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations is determined by the legislature of the state to ensure timely filing and avoid unreasonable delays.

The time limit for filing a claim varies from states to states and depending on the type of injury to the next. For instance in Pennsylvania personal injury cases such as car accidents, you generally have two years from the date of the accident to submit a claim. However, certain claims could be subject to what's called the discovery rule. This means that the statute of limitations doesn't begin until your injury is discovered or ought to have been discovered.

In other cases, such as those involving intentional torts, like assaults, false imprisonment, defamation, and deliberate infliction or damage to emotional distress the statute of limitations is extended. A statute of limitations could also be extended or waived in certain circumstances, for example, when a minor is involved or a person is on military duty or in a prison.

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

Damages

Many of the costs caused by injuries have the potential for a cost. These are known as special damages. They could include medical expenses, out-of-pocket costs, lost wages the cost of repairing or replace your property, and other fixed sums. The law does not limit the amount of specific damages you can claim.

Other losses don't have an estimated price and can be difficult to calculate such as the pain and suffering, loss of life enjoyment and other harms that are intangible. In determining a dollar amount for personal losses such as emotional distress or physical pain can be difficult, but attorneys and insurance companies employ formulas to determine the value of these losses.

For instance, a defendant in a personal injury suit for whiplash could have sustained significant injuries that bring plenty of pain and stress to their daily life. They might be required to ask for help with household chores, change their diet, and may be unable to participate in social or participating in recreational activities. The victim may experience an impairment in enjoyment and this can be recouped as general damages.

To estimate the value of general damages claims lawyers and insurers usually begin by calculating the total for medical special damages and then add the value of any income loss. They will then multiply this amount by a number ranging from 1.5 to 5. The more severe injuries usually result in higher multipliers.

Liability

In law, the term liability refers to a person who is held liable for harm or injury. It could be due to strict liability or negligence. Most injury claims are based on the idea of negligence. Negligence is the failure to exercise with reasonable care in the circumstances. Jurors decide what an average person would have done under similar circumstances and decide if the defendant's act or inaction broke this standard. However, certain injury cases are determined by strict liability, for instance, when a defective product causes injuries.

Victims may also be entitled to compensation, in addition to damages for economic loss for non-economic losses, like pain and discomfort. It's difficult to quantify these damages, but our injury lawyers are experienced in maximizing the value of your claim.

Some personal injury lawsuits are multi-plaintiff cases that include class actions or mass torts. One or more of these plaintiffs could be a corporation like a pharmaceutical corporation or an insurance company or it could be another individual like you. In these situations, several parties could be held accountable according to the evidence presented by each plaintiff and the findings of an investigation. If you were injured by someone else's negligence or wrongful act and you are injured, call us immediately to discuss your case.