What Is Injury Law?

Injury law is concerned with civil wrongs that could harm your mind, body and emotions. The goal of a successful injury lawsuit is to secure an amount of money to compensate for damages, such as medical bills and pain and suffering.

It's hard to avoid injuries like this, however it is important to be as safe as possible. For instance, if you are likely to fall backwards, you should turn your head and shield it with your arms.

Negligence

A person who has sustained injuries or other injuries as a result another's negligence can file a lawsuit for negligence and seek financial compensation. To establish their case, the plaintiff will need to establish four elements such as breach of duty, causation and damages.

Negligence is defined as the inability to exercise the level of care that reasonable and prudent people have in similar circumstances. For example, a driver must follow traffic laws to prevent accidents and harm to other people on the road. A doctor has a duty to provide patients with the care that a similarly trained medical professional would offer in similar circumstances. A lawyer can also use expert testimony to prove that the defendant's behavior was short of the standards set by industry.

To win a negligence claim the plaintiff must show that the defendant's breach of duty was a direct cause of their injuries. 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 demonstrate that their injuries have resulted in an identifiable financial loss, like medical bills and lost income. Gross negligence is a more serious form of negligent behavior because it entails reckless disregard for the safety of others. Gross negligence is when a nursing home fails to change bandages on the patient for injury attorneys a number of days. In certain states, defendants can use a defense referred to as contributory negligence to stop the plaintiff from claiming damages.

Statute of Limitations

When someone else's negligent actions or reckless disregard for your safety causes you to be injured in a legal way, the law grants you a limited amount of time to bring a lawsuit, referred to as the statute of limitations. This limitation, set by the legislature of the state, is designed to encourage timeliness in filing and prevent excessive delay.

The time period for filing a claim can vary from one state to another and also depending on the type of injury. In Pennsylvania, for example car accidents, for instance, you have two years to submit a personal injury claim. However, certain claims could be subject to what is called the discovery rule, meaning that the statute of limitations does not begin until the injury has been discovered or should reasonably have been discovered.

In some instances, like ones involving intentional crimes such as assaults and false imprisonment and defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, the limitation period is extended. A statute of limitations can also be exempted or tolled in some cases, such as when a minor is involved, or the person is on military duty or incarcerated.

If you attempt to make a claim after the deadline for filing a lawsuit has passed your case could be dismissed without hearing. It is therefore important to consult with an experienced attorney for injury attorney before the statute expires.

Damages

Many of the expenses related to an injury have costs. Special damages include medical expenses out-of-pocket costs, lost wages and the cost of repair or replacement of your property, in addition to fixed costs. The law limits the amount you can claim in special damages.

Other losses do not have an estimated price and can be difficult to calculate for example, suffering and pain, loss of enjoyment from life, and other harms that are intangible. The process of putting a dollar value on the subjective loss of physical or emotional pain can be a challenge, but attorneys and insurance companies make use of formulas to attempt to quantify them.

For instance, a person who is a plaintiff in a personal injury case for whiplash may have suffered significant injuries that cause lots of pain and difficulty to their day-to-day life. They might have to get assistance with chores around the home, eat differently, and not be able to participate in recreational activities or a social gathering with their family. The victim could suffer the loss of enjoyment that can be compensated through general damages.

To estimate the value of an action for general damages, attorneys or insurers typically begin by calculating the total of medical special damages. They then add the value of any lost income. They then multiply this by a number between 1.5 and 5. More severe injuries usually result in more multipliers.

Liability

In law legal terms, liability refers the party found responsible for injury attorneys an injury or harm. This can be due to strict liability or negligence. The concept of negligence is the basis for a majority of lawsuits involving injuries. Negligence means that you have failed to act with a reasonable level of diligence in the circumstances. The jury decides what an ordinary person in similar circumstances would have done and then decides whether the defendant's actions or inactions were in violation of this standard. Some injury cases are based solely on strict liability. For example, when an unsafe product is the cause of injury.

In addition to the damages for economic losses, victims could be entitled to compensation for non-economic losses like pain and suffering. It's hard to estimate these damages however, our injury attorneys have the experience to maximize your claim's value.

Certain personal injury lawsuits are multi-plaintiff cases, such as class actions or mass torts. These plaintiffs could be companies such as insurance companies or a pharmaceutical firm, or they could be people like you. In these instances, multiple parties could be held accountable based on the evidence submitted by each plaintiff as well as the results of an investigation. Contact us right away if you have been injured by another's negligence or wrongdoing.