What Is Injury Law?

Lawsuits involving injury attorneys focus on civil offenses that cause harm to your body, the mind and your emotions. The goal of a successful injury lawsuit is to recover money for damages like medical bills, pain and suffering.

It's not easy to avoid injuries, but you must take every precaution to protect yourself. If you're likely to fall forward, you should turn your head to protect it, and use your arms to help.

Negligence

A person who suffers injuries or other losses due to another's negligent actions may file a lawsuit for negligence and pursue financial compensation. However, the claimant must first prove four things to prove their case: duty, breach of duty, causation and damages.

Negligence refers to the failure to behave in a manner that a reasonable person would do in similar circumstances. For example, a motorist should obey traffic laws to avoid accidents and injury to other people on the road. A doctor must treat patients in the same manner that a medical professional with the same training would in similar circumstances. Lawyers may also rely on experts to prove that the defendant's behavior was short of the standards set by industry.

To prevail in a negligence lawsuit the plaintiff must prove that the defendant's negligence was the main cause of the injury. This is known as legal causation, and a good personal injury attorney will claim that the actions of the defendant could be the sole cause of their injuries.

The plaintiff must prove that their injuries have caused tangible financial loss including lost income and medical bills. Gross negligence is the most serious type of negligence in that it involves reckless disregard for the safety of others. A nursing home that does not change a patient's bandages over a period of several days is an example of gross negligence. In some states, defendants are able to use the defense of contributory negligence to block the plaintiff from claiming damages.

Statute of limitations

When someone else's negligent actions or careless disregard for your safety causes you to be injured or suffer injury, the law allows a limited period of time to bring a lawsuit, referred to as the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations is set by the state's legislature to make sure that lawsuits are filed on time and to avoid unreasonable delays.

The time period for filing a claim differs from state to state and from one type of injury to the next. In Pennsylvania, for example car accidents, for instance allow for two years to file a personal injury lawsuit. However, certain claims could be subject to what is known as the discovery rule, which means that the statute of limitations does not start until your injury is discovered or ought to have been discovered.

In certain circumstances, such as cases involving intentional torts such as assaults and false imprisonment, as well as defamation and the intentional infliction of emotional distress, the limitations period is extended. A statute of limitations could also be waived or tolled in certain situations, for instance when minors are involved, or an individual is on military duty or in jail.

If you try to file a suit after the statute of limitations has expired, your case could be dismissed without hearing. This is why it's important to speak with an experienced lawyer for injury before the statute of limitations runs out.

Damages

A variety of costs associated with an injury come with a price tag. These are known as special damages and can include medical expenses, out of pocket costs, lost wages the cost to repair or replace your property and other fixed costs. The law does not limit the amount of these damages you are able to recover.

Other losses don't come with any price and can be difficult to calculate such as pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life and other tangible damages. It isn't always easy to put a dollar value on subjective losses such as physical or emotional pain but lawyers and insurance companies make use of formulas to quantify the amount of these losses.

For example, a plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit for whiplash might have suffered serious injuries that have caused lots of pain and difficulty to their day-to-day lives. They might have to get help with chores around their house, eat differently and avoid recreational events or gatherings with friends. The victim might experience a loss of enjoyment and this is a redressable loss as general damages.

To determine the value of a claim for general damages lawyers and insurers usually begin by calculating the sum for medical special damages. They then add on the value of any income losses. Then, they will multiply this by a number between 1.5 and 5. The higher multipliers are generally associated with more severe injuries.

Liability

In law legal terms, liability refers the person who is responsible for an injury or harm. This could be due negligence or strict liability. The majority of injury claims are based on the notion of negligence. Negligence refers to the failure to act with a reasonable degree of care in the context of the situation. Jurors determine what an average person would have done in similar circumstances, and then determine whether the defendant's action or inaction was a violation of this standard. However, some injury cases are built on strict liability, such as when a defective product causes injuries.

Victims could also be entitled to compensation in addition to economic damages in the event of non-economic damages such as discomfort and pain. The amount of these damages is hard to place a value on but our experienced injury lawyers are adept in maximizing the value of your claim.

Most personal injury lawsuits involve one plaintiff against several defendants, but there are some that are multi-plaintiff cases such as class actions and mass torts. The plaintiffs may be corporations, such as insurance companies or a pharmaceutical company, or they could be individuals like you. In these kinds of cases, several parties could be held liable depending on the evidence provided by each plaintiff and the results of an investigation. Contact us immediately if you are injured due to another's negligence or wrongdoing.