Image commercially licensed from Unsplash
Going about your daily business only to be involved in a serious accident that leaves you with injuries which must be treated is a jarring experience. In some cases, it can be such a jarring experience that you forget to hold the person responsible for your injury accountable. When a person or organization acts with pure negligence in regard to their behavior, only for you to suffer as a result, it’s entirely possible that you may have a personal injury lawsuit on your hands. Learn everything there is to know about this type of civil suit to determine whether you should reach out to an attorney as soon as possible.
What is a Personal Injury Lawsuit?
For those unfamiliar with the term, a personal injury lawsuit refers to the situation in which one party files a civil lawsuit against another party for the purpose of redressing a wrong that has been done to them. The goal of this is to have the party being sued compensated the party doing the suing in such a way that they are made whole following the incident.
A common misconception regarding personal injury lawsuits is that they only involve one person suing another person. However, a personal injury lawsuit can involve a person suing a company, multiple people suing people, or even multiple people suing a company.
Common Types of Personal Injury
Learning the definition of a personal injury lawsuit is one thing but understanding what it actually looks like in the real world is another. Below are some of the most common types of personal injury lawsuits that are seen today:
- Medical Malpractice: Medical malpractice is one of the most serious forms of personal injury and occurs when a healthcare professional does not treat a person in either the way the person expected or the way they were promised. For example, if a doctor is performing surgery on a person and decides to perform another surgery while the patient is under, it would qualify as medical malpractice. These types of personal injury lawsuits tend to have the highest settlement amounts.
- Off-leash Animal Attacks: While family pets are beloved by all, some owners choose to allow their animals to roam off-leash when they are not full trained. An unfortunate side effect of this is the occasional animal attack that occurs. Due to the owner’s negligence of leaving their animal off-leash, it’s possible that they could have a personal injury lawsuit filed against them.
- Vehicle-on-Vehicle Collisions: Car crashes are typically handled through insurance, but this doesn’t mean that they can’t also qualify for a personal injury lawsuit. Should a person be injured in a car crash that another person caused due to negligence, such as texting while driving, they may be held liable in court.
- Vehicle-on-Pedestrian Collisions: Along the same line of thinking as the above example, a driver who hits a pedestrian due to negligence can be held liable in a personal injury lawsuit.
- Slip-and-Fall Accidents: A unique form of personal injury lawsuits occurs via slip-and-fall accidents. These happen when one person falls in an area where it was not obvious or stated that they could have such an accident. A common example could be an employee mopping up a floor and then falling to put a “wet floor” sign down to indicate caution.
The Four Foundations of a Personal Injury Case
For anyone considering pursuing a personal injury lawsuit with the help of a lawyer, it’s beneficial to know what needs to be proven in court. The following four foundations of personal injury law are a great place to start:
Duty of Care
The first item to prove in a personal injury lawsuit is that the defendant had a duty of care to act in a manner which would keep the plaintiff from harm. For example, pet owners have a duty of care to ensure their animal is well-trained and able to be around other people without posing a danger to those people.
Breach of Duty of Care
Secondly, it must be shown that there was a breach of the aforementioned duty of care due to negligence on behalf of the defendant. If a person who owns an animal with a history of aggressive behavior chooses to allow their animal off-leash, especially in a non-off-leash zone, this would potentially qualify as a breach.
Causation with the Accident
Following this, the court needs to see that the accident would not have happened if not for the breach of duty on behalf of the defendant. Sticking with the same example, if the pet owner had kept their animal on a leash instead of letting it off, then it wouldn’t have run over and attacked the plaintiff, meaning causation is present.
The Existence of Damages
Finally, the plaintiff needs to show that the damages they are requesting the defendant be assigned align with the injuries they suffered. After all, the plaintiff can’t sue the defendant for injures they received in an unrelated accident.
How Much Can You Win from Personal Injury Lawsuits?
The median award for personal injury lawsuits is as high as $31,000, though this value fails to take fees and other expenses associated with court into account. Keep in mind, however, that this value can fluctuate greatly depending on a specific case, with personal injury lawsuits revolving around medical malpractice, as an example, often having far higher settlement amounts. Depending on the severity of what occurred, the amount that can be won from a personal injury lawsuit will change greatly.
Contact an accredited personal injury lawyer
Rather than choosing to live with the injuries you have sustained as a result of another person’s negligence, take action by pursuing the matter in court to make yourself whole. An accredited personal injury lawyer can help anybody go over the facts of their case in order to determine how much money they are possibly leaving on the table by not pursuing a lawsuit. Don’t hesitate to reach out to an attorney experienced in matters of personal injury law.
