The Basics of Personal Injury Law
The most basic aspect you need to understand about Personal Injury Law is that it allows any injured person to file a civil lawsuit in a court in an effort to get compensated for damages incurred resulting from possible losses due to an incident or accident. In this blog we are going to provide you with insight as to the types of personal injury cases, the origins of personal injury law, and details on the process involved in a Personal Injury case.
There are many types of Personal Injury
Personal Injury law cases cover a wide variety of situations in which the safety and well-being of a person or persons gets compromised, but the most common seen by Personal Injury lawyers are accidents in which a third party acts negligently and carelessly causing harm to others. This can include car accidents, slip and falls or medical malpractice. Another circumstance where Personal Injury laws apply, are those from intentional acts in which there’s direct intention of harming someone. This includes assault and battery. Similarly, there is an indirect type of harm covered under Personal Injury law which can from defective products, the malfunction of a vehicle component, a consumer product defect, medical device defect, pharmaceutical mishaps, or damages incurred by any other product defect or recall. All of these types of Personal Injury can lead a person to file a lawsuit and a Personal Injury lawyer will be needed.
Where does the Personal Injury law come from?
We can track Personal Injury law back to “common law rules”(link) made by judges opposing laws created by legislature or from bills and statutes because when a judge decides on a given case it then serves as a precedent for other “lower” cases. Applying what the first judge decided, eventually became a precedent that creates a “common law”, but common laws differ from state to state so Personal Injury laws may vary across the U.S. Additionally, state laws apply in Personal Injury given statutes of limitation which refers to the time a person has to file a lawsuit in the person’s state’s civil court system.
What is the process of a Personal Injury case?
Accidents are never the same so Personal Injury cases are all different too, but there do exist similarities in the way in which most Personal Injury cases play out. In a PI lawsuit, one’s given situation determines the legal duty of the defendant. For instance a driver has a duty to exhibit a certain level of care while operating a motor vehichle, doctors are responsible for treating their patients within a high standard of medical standard of care, and manufacturers are responsible for ensuring the products they sell to the marketplace are not defective or dangerous. If found the defendant is responsible for damages he/she or the insurance company that represents him would make a monetary offering to compensate the injured person given the plaintiff agrees to the settlement of the case; however, if not the latter the case can go to court where a PI lawsuit is filed to determine the defendants liability in this matter.. In doing this, a negotiation would begin in an effort to come to an agreement which can take time. A settlement can occur at any time after the civil lawsuit has been filed.
In any case, the recommended first step you should take if you are thinking about filing a Personal Injury lawsuit is to discuss your case and situation with a Personal Injury Lawyer. We at Gonzalez Torres Law Firm are experts on Personal Injury matters. We can guide you and provide you with options to get the best results. Call us at 1 (678) 408-2869 or fill out your information here so one of our lawyers can contact you to discuss your case.
