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This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide legal advice.
Personal injury cases are any type of lawsuit in which one party is claiming damages caused by another party, whether intentional, accidental or through some form of negligence. Personal injury law is a very broad field, and getting in touch with an attorney to go over a few basic details is probably your best bet for determining whether or not you have a valid case.
What is a personal injury?
Personal injury is a rich legal category. In legal language, personal injury is a wide-ranging term that refers to harm that someone (the plaintiff) has suffered, whether it is broken bones or organ damage caused by an accident, illness incurred as a result of misdiagnosis, or emotional damage caused by a traumatic or violent incident.
Types of personal injury lawsuits include:
- Car accidents – This can involve drivers and passengers, and depending on the state you live, it needn’t only be the person who was hit that can sue for damages.
- Medical malpractice – These types of cases usually involve patients suing a doctor for failure to perform their duties of care. Most commonly this involves some form of negligence in an operation or during diagnosis.
- An accident at work – As employers are responsible for the safety of their employees, workplace accident cases generally involve the employee suing their company or the company that owns their workplace for accidents they suffered on the job, particularly if the accident could have been avoided through the company following proper safety protocols or performing necessary maintenance.
- Dog bites – Attack dogs are no joke, especially when an untrained and big dog attacks a pedestrian out of nowhere. Dog bites can easily get infected and rabies, if contracted, is fatal, and many states have very tough laws regarding attack dogs getting out of control.
- Wrongful death – Generally speaking, these suits will be brought by the surviving relatives, usually, spouses or parents of children, against an individual or company alleged to have been responsible for the accidental death.
Personal injury is not limited to bodily harm
A common myth is that personal injury cases only involve physical injuries. There is far more to it than that, with a lot of nuances potentially involved in some of these cases. The truth is, dog bite victims can suffer long after an attack, and not all of this suffering will be physical.
For example, if you were attacked out of the blue and bitten by someone’s dog while walking in the park, you might find yourself easily spooked when returning to that park (or any parks). You might also have felt some shame and humiliation from being attacked and public. Perhaps you have also had trouble sleeping ever since the incident. Every one of those symptoms qualifies as a form of emotional distress, for which you may also be eligible for monetary claims.
Wrongful deaths also involve an obvious degree of personal injury to the person who was killed, but emotional loss also constitutes a personal injury to the loved one. This is very difficult to calculate, and it really requires a good attorney with experience dealing with wrongful death lawsuits and successful track records in having damages awarded to their client.
What are the keys to success in winning a personal injury case?
This is really going to come down to the specific circumstances of your case. Your attorney will need to convince the court, which could be a judge or jury, that the person who wronged you was demonstrably at fault in causing your harm. There are a number of different legal strategies that attorneys may take in a personal injury case.
Providing compelling evidence is crucial to a successful outcome. At the scene of the accident, it is critical to photograph everything that might be of relevance. If police are on the scene, make sure you get the officers’ contact information so you can follow up with getting a copy of the police report.
If your injury is a physical one, medical bills and receipts are essential for calculating your damages and submitting medical reports and the bills as evidence in court. Photographing your injuries is also essential. In general, the more evidence you have going into court, the better.
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This content is brought to you by Maureen Lunde.
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