subject: Personal Injury Lawsuit A Basic Understanding [print this page] Personal injury law deals with the rights of an individual to recover for injuries that occurred because another person or businesses failed to act with the standard of care that was required at that moment. Personal injuries caused by nursing home mistreatment or medical malpractice, workplace accidents or defectively designed or manufactured products entitle the victim for money damages. Personal injury law also explains the nature and amount of damages that can be claimed, the proof you need to prove causation and so on.
Personal injury law covers many different situations and allows the sufferer to sue the person responsible for his injuries. Personal injury laws are also referred at tort laws and cases are handled in civil courts instead of criminal ones. Though the convicted person can face both civil and criminal charges for the same action, but the key difference is there is a lesser burden of proof in civil cases and penalties are often charged with money damages to the injured party.
Types of personal injury cases.
Personal injury cases can include matters like medical malpractice claims, car accident claims, defamation and libel claims, intentional tort claims, dog bite claims, slip and fall or premises liability claims, toxic tort cases. All these cases have something in common -that legal duty was breached and it further caused harm.
Proving personal injury claim.
When an applicant wishes to prove personal injury, he needs an evidence specific to his claim. For instance, a medical malpractice tort requires the testimony of an expert witness how the medical institution provided care at lower standards than expected. Similarly in a car accident claim, a plaintiff needs to present the witness to the accident or the testimony of an accident reconstruction expert to show how the actions of the driver fell short under those particular conditions.
Though, there are significant differences in exactly how things are proven, generally in every personal injury claim. the applicant has to prove more likely than not that:-
A legal duty existed: A legal duty means a person is legally responsible to act in that particular condition. Every individual has a duty to act responsibly so that they are not harming the other. For example, drivers have the duty to be careful while operating their vehicles.
A legal duty was breached: If the defendant didnt use as much caution as he would have generally used, the defendant breached the duty of care.
The breach was the proximate/ direct cause of harm: In a general sense this means, whatever the defendant did either caused direct harm to the victim or was a factor in whatever caused the injury.
There was harm: This involves proving damages that may include costs, lost income, damages for pain and suffering and some other kind of damages.
If the applicant fails to prove these things he loses his claim to defend.
Damages
A plaintiff who successfully makes personal injury claim is generally entitled to past and future medical costs, lost income, pain, suffering and emotional distress compensation. Often personal injury claims are settled out of court when the victim receives a certain amount of compensation. But when this doesnt happen, he can make it to the judge or jury.
