Personal injury is considered when you suffer actual bodily harm or your reputation is damaged. This mainly arises from negligence, intentional wrongdoing, or malpractice. In the absence of negligence, the aggrieving party acts recklessly. This is the case with assault and defamation.
It is vital to ensure negligence is proven since it will enable your personal injury lawyer to hold the concerned party legally liable for the injury. The case’s outcome depends on the severity of the injury; serious injuries may receive more redress. These may include loss of limbs, severe back injuries that may confine you to a wheelchair, and severe brain damage.
Below we explore what constitutes a personal injury lawsuit.
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Various claims constitute personal injury. The most common involves injuries sustained from motor vehicle accidents. These may result from a collision that results in injury or being knocked down by a motor vehicle.
This constitutes injuries that discreetly occur in the course of work. They result from occupational hazards.
This represents slip and fall accidents that occur with a premise. The injured person may be entitled to redress unless the owner can prove a lack of fault and negligence.
Unlike other personal injury claims, intentional torts such as assault involve intentional harm or injury to others. They also include battery, false arrest, and sexual crimes. They also constitute a criminal case though you may prefer filing a personal injury lawsuit instead. In this case, negligence and carelessness do not have to be proven.
This applies to faulty products that may cause injury. A good example is injuries suffered through an explosion caused by a faulty stove. The liability lies with the manufacturer, distributor, or supplier, depending on who directly links to the fault.
This occurs when a medical practitioner omits or deviates from a standard practice causing injury. This could be a wrong diagnosis, errors in treatment such as wrong medication, and even aftercare. In this case, you have to prove there was a deviation from the standard care, you have suffered an injury, and there are significant medical bills.
This is a claim resulting from exposure to dangerous chemicals and other substances leading to disease. It could be exposure to toxins, defective medication, and industrial chemicals.
These are diseased resulting from a specific occupation. This could be loss of hearing by employees working in a call center due to constant noise exposure. It has to be proven that the disease is prevalent in workers in a specific sector compared to the general population and workers in other sectors.
This means injury to your reputation that may lead to loss of income. Defamation may negatively impact your emotional wellbeing. If no one wants to hire you due to defamation, your financial wellbeing is also affected, which constitutes personal injury.
There are four requirements needed as proof of negligence. Your lawyer has to prove that:
A personal injury lawsuit requires your lawyer to prove three elements for the case to proceed. This is the simple reason why you should preserve as much evidence as possible.
The lawyer has to prove that the defendant committed an act that led to the injuries. This could be overspeeding, selling a defective product, or not being qualified to perform certain procedures.
A personal injury lawyer has to prove that there were actual damages. These may include death, medical expenses, disfiguration, loss of wages, physical pain, mental anguish, loss of earning capacity, and disability resulting from negligence.
This is the defendant’s ability to pay the amount awarded to the plaintiff. Your lawyer has to prove that the defendant is capable of paying you after the judgment. If they are not, you may be advised against the lawsuit since it may end up costing you more.
A personal injury lawsuit involves many aspects, some of which may be ignored by many. A good example is breathing toxins as a result of negligence by a manufacturing plant. If there are costs involved, the manufacturing plant should be liable, not you. If you are in doubt, always consult a personal injury lawyer for more information.
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