Types of Personal Injury

Personal Injury

Personal injury is the term used to describe physical and mental injuries that occur because of someone else's negligence, intentional actions, or strict liability.

Negligence

Negligence means the other party failed to act with reasonable care. For example, imagine you are in your car stopped at a red light when another driver rear ends you because he or she isn't paying attention. If you suffer physical injuries in the crash, those could be personal injury due to negligence. (Any damage to your car is property damage, not personal injury, because the car is an object, not a person.)

Intentional Harm

Intentional harm means the other person set out to hurt you. This includes cases of battery, assault, and false imprisonment.

Strict Liability

Strict liability means that anyone involved in the production, distribution, or sale of a defective product can be held responsible if the product injures someone.

Types of Personal Injuries

There are several common types of personal injuries:

Auto accidents

Motorcycle accidents

Boating accidents

Trucking accidents

Railroad accidents

Slip-and-fall accidents

Medical and dental accidents

Sexual abuse

Dog bites

Injuries that occur because products malfunction or fail

Work-related accidents

Wrongful death

Most personal injuries fall into the category of law known as torts. Torts are a type of civil, not criminal, law. It is a way to hold someone else legally responsible for your injuries.

Negligence

Most personal injury cases involve negligence. To have a valid case, your personal injury attorney must be able to show that your injury was caused by the negligence of another party. To prove negligence, your injury lawyer must prove four separate things:

Duty of care: The negligent party had an obligation to act prudently to avoid injuring the other party

Breach of duty: The negligent party knowingly exposed the injured party to a substantial risk of injury or didn't even realize (but should have) that there was a substantial risk

Direct cause: The negligent party's deliberate acts, or lack of action, caused the injury

Harm: The injured party suffered a financial loss because of the negligent party's negligence (a medical bill, for example, would be a monetary loss)

Additionally, damages are designed to compensate someone for their injury.