Your Personal Injury Guide

Personal injury is incredibly common, and while some accidents only involve minor injuries, some can lead to long-term physical or mental anguish. If you have been injured and want to pursue a personal injury case, you may have a lot of questions. To learn more, keep reading.

What Is Personal Injury?

Personal injury refers to damages you sustained that are the direct result of another person. Some common examples of personal injury include:

• Car accidents
• Dog bites
• Medical malpractice
• Product liability
• Slip and falls

Workplace injuries are often considered personal injuries, but they are handled via workers' compensation insurance, and you can't usually sue for workplace injuries. You can sue if someone purposely hurts you, your employer doesn't have workers' compensation insurance, or it involves product liability.

In addition, while many personal injury cases involve accidents, assault is also considered personal injury. Besides criminal charges, you can file a lawsuit to pay for any related medical bills or pain and suffering.

What Do You Need to Win a Personal Injury Case?

To win a personal injury case, you need to prove the following.

Duty of Care

Duty of care refers to a responsibility a person has to avoid injuring another person. For example, your doctor has a duty of care regarding your medical health, diagnosis, and treatment. However, duty of care also applies in personal injury lawsuits. You have a responsibility to prevent people who visit your property from getting injured by:

• Controlling possibly violent animals
• Keeping structures maintained
• Not putting up traps
• Warning people of potential danger

Negligence

Next, you'll need to prove that duty of care was breached (negligence). If you visited a neighbor and sustained a dog bite, that's negligence. If you attacked the dog before it bit you, the neighbor isn't negligent. Some defendants may claim they were unaware of the hazard, but the courts determine negligence based on what an average person would do. Would an average person have fixed the issue?

Injuries

Finally, you'll have to prove that you sustained some injuries to receive a settlement. Injuries include physical and mental. You'll want to work with your doctor closely to monitor and manage your injuries. You need to continue medical treatment to mitigate your injuries and prevent issues with your settlement.

What Damages May You Be Awarded?

Damages include compensatory and punitive damages. Special compensatory damages include the most obvious costs, such as medical bills, loss of earnings, etc. General compensatory damages include damages like pain and suffering.

Pain and suffering refers to long-term physical or emotional damages. Physical damages include paralysis, nerve damage, scars, reduced mobility, etc. Emotional damages are harder to define but can include anxiety, depression, PTSD, phobias, anger, etc. However, emotional damage can also include loss of enjoyment of life, inability to do old hobbies or activities, or loss of sexual desire.

Depending on the situation, the court may award punitive damages. Punitive damages are usually reserved for cases involving malicious acts or fraud because punitive damages are designed to punish the defendant.

If you lost a loved one due to negligence, you may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit. Only certain family members can file wrongful death claims, such as spouses and parents. Wrongful death damages cover the cost of related medical bills and funeral costs. However, it also includes money for the mental anguish of surviving family members, loss of financial contribution, loss of services/support, and loss of companionship.

If you've been injured from someone's negligence, consider filing a claim, especially if you have expensive medical bills. If you would like to know more about personal injury or if you want a consultation, contact us at Gayheart and Willis P.C. today.