What Is Injury Law?

The law of injury deals with civil infringements that can cause harm to your body, mind and emotions. The goal of a successful lawsuit is to get the amount of money you paid for damages like medical bills and discomfort and pain.

It's difficult to avoid injuries like this, but it's essential to protect yourself as much as you can. If you're about to fall forward, you should turn your head to shield it and use your arms.

Negligence

Someone who suffers injury or other losses due to negligence of another's may file a lawsuit for negligence and pursue financial compensation. To prove their case, the plaintiff must prove four things that are: breach of duty, causation and damages.

Negligence is when a person fails to act in a way that reasonable people would act in similar circumstances. For example, a motorist should obey traffic laws to prevent accidents and harm to others on the road. A doctor has a duty to provide patients with the same care similar to that a similarly trained medical professional would provide in similar situations. Lawyers can employ expert testimony to show that the defendant's conduct was short of the industry standards.

To prevail in a negligence case the plaintiff must show that the defendant's failure to perform their duty was the direct cause of their injury. This is called legal causation. A good personal injury attorney will argue that the defendant's actions could be the sole cause of their injuries.

The plaintiff must prove that their injuries caused a verifiable financial loss, like medical bills and lost income. A more serious form of negligence is gross negligence, which is the complete lack of concern for others' safety. Gross negligence is when a nursing house is not able to change bandages for a patient for several days. In some states, defendants may use a defense known as contributory negligence to block the plaintiff from claiming damages.

Statute of limitations

If the negligent actions of another or careless negligence for your safety cause injuries to you and suffer injuries, the law gives you a limited amount of time to make a claim, also known as the statute of limitations. This time limit, set by the legislature of the state, is intended to encourage speedy filing and prevent excessive delay.

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 injuries, such as car accidents, you typically have two years from the date of the accident to submit a claim. However, certain claims can be subject to the discovery rule. This means that the statute of limitation does not start until the injury is discovered, or could have been reasonably discovered.

In some instances, like those involving intentional torts, such as assaults and false imprisonment as well as defamation and the intentional infliction of emotional distress, the limitation period is extended. A statute of limitations could be waived or tolled in specific circumstances, for example, when minors are involved or the person is serving in the military or incarcerated.

If you decide to file a suit after the statute of limitations has expired, your case may be dismissed without hearing. This is why it's essential to consult an experienced injury attorney well before the statute of limitations expires.

Damages

Many expenses associated with injuries come with a price tag. Special damages include medical costs, out-of-pocket costs, lost wages and the cost of fixing or replacing your property, as well as other fixed sums. The law does not limit the amount of specific damages you can recover.

Other losses are hard to quantify, including pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment life, and a variety of other intangible harms. It isn't easy to assign an exact value on subjective losses such as physical or emotional discomfort however, attorneys and insurance companies employ formulas to quantify these losses.

For Injury Attorney example, a plaintiff in a personal-injury case for whiplash could have sustained serious injuries that have caused lots of pain and a lot of difficulty in their day-to-day lives. They may have to seek help with chores around their home, change their diet and not be able to participate in recreational activities or spending time with family. The victim might experience a loss of enjoyment and this can be recouped as general damages.

To estimate the value of the claim of general damages, lawyers or insurers typically begin by calculating total of medical special damages. They then add the value of any income loss. Then, they multiply this number by a number between 1.5 and 5. More severe injuries usually result in more multipliers.

Liability

In law, the term liability is a term used to describe a person who is found to be liable for an injury or harm. This could be due to negligence or strict liability. Most injury claims are based on the concept of negligence. Negligence is the failure to exercise with reasonable care under the circumstances. The jury determines what a reasonable person in similar circumstances would have done and then decides if defendant's actions or inactions were in violation of this standard. Some cases involving injuries are solely based on strict liability. For instance, when defective products are the cause of injury.

Victims could also be entitled to compensation in addition to economic damages, for non-economic losses such as discomfort and pain. It's hard to estimate these damages however, our injury attorneys are skilled in maximizing the value of your claim.

Most personal injury lawsuits involve one plaintiff against multiple defendants, but there are some that are multi-plaintiff cases such as class actions and mass torts. One or more plaintiffs could be an entity like a pharmaceutical corporation or an insurance company, or it could be an person like you. In these cases, several parties may be held responsible based on the evidence submitted by each plaintiff and the findings of an investigation. If you've suffered injuries due to the negligence of someone else or due to a wrongdoing and you are injured, call us immediately to discuss your case.