Legal Remedies for Accidents and Injuries
Personal injury law, also known as tort law, is a body of law that allows an injured individual to sue another in civil court. The purpose of personal injury law is to allow a victim to be compensated financially or "made whole" when he suffers a legal wrong.
The Basics of Personal Injury Law
There are a wide variety of different situations where personal injury laws apply:
1. Personal injury laws apply in situations where someone acts in a negligent manner and causes harm through careless actions. Examples of this type of personal injury case include medical malpractice, slip and falls, some toxic tort cases and car accident cases, among others.
2. Personal injury laws apply in situations where a defendant intentionally behaves badly and causes harm. Examples of this include assault, battery and murder, among others.
3. There are a few situations where a defendant can be found liable for injury he causes in a personal injury case without any negligent or intentional wrongdoing on his part. Examples of this include dog bite claims under some state laws and certain types of product liability claims.
4. Personal injury laws apply in cases of defamation of character. Examples include libel and slander.
All of these situations have something in common: a victim has suffered some kind of loss that he or she shouldn't have to suffer because of the defendant. Personal injury laws allow that injured victim the legal right to recover those losses.
What Do Personal Injury Laws Do?
Personal injury laws serve several purposes in the United States:
- They impose a legal duty on all people and companies within the United States to act with a certain minimum level of care in their dealings with others.
- They act as a deterrent to bad behavior and to encourage good behavior.
- They allow a private citizen to require a defendant to go to court to answer for his bad behavior.
- They provide compensation so that an injured victim doesn't suffer out-of-pocket losses or become dependent on the state to provide care.
These laws, therefore, serve an important public purpose as well as allowing a plaintiff to avoid financial loss.
Who Makes Personal Injury Laws?
Many personal injury laws date back to old "common law rules." Common law refers to law made by judges, as opposed to laws made by legislatures or passed in bills and statutes. When a judge hears and decides a case, his decision on that issue of law becomes binding precedent on all other courts in the state that are "lower" than his court. These other courts then have to apply what the first judge said, and eventually, all of this binding precedent creates a body of "common law."
Common law can and does differ from state to state, so the rules for personal injury law may not be uniform across the country. Much of the common law has been collected into something called the Restatement of Torts, which is sort of a guidebook that explains what the rules are, and a lot of states draw guidance from this on personal injury matters.
Common law is not the only source of personal injury law. Some legislatures have passed formal legislation or statutory law that deals with personal injury issues. In some cases, these rules can lead to dramatic changes or limitations on personal injury law. For example, when legislatures passed worker's compensation laws, they essentially took all cases of work-related injuries outside of the realm of personal injury cases and made it so injured workers cannot file personal injury claims against their employers.
Knowing all of these different laws related to your situation is important so you can make sure you understand how your personal injury case will unfold. It is also important to make sure you comply with things like the statute of limitations, which is the time limit you have under the law for filing a personal injury claim in the court system.
How Does a Personal Injury Case Work?
No two accidents are exactly the same, so every personal injury case is slightly different. However, there are some general steps associated with personal injury cases. Usually, such cases unfold as follows:
A Defendant Does Something to Injure a Plaintiff
This can be almost any bad act on the part of the defendant, with the exception of contractual breaches, which are handled under a separate body of law known as "contract law".
Plaintiff Determines that the Defendant Breached a Legal Duty
What exactly the specific breached duty was is going to depend upon the cause of the injury. For example, other drivers have a duty to behave with the level of care any reasonable person would exhibit while on the road. Doctors have a duty to act with a level of competence that any reasonable professional would show in their position. Manufacturers and distributors have a duty not to put dangerous drugs on the market.
Settlement Talks May Occur
If it is clear to all involved that the defendant breached a legal duty, then the defendant (or the insurance company representing him or her) may wish to resolve the matter outside of court. This would involve making an offer of monetary compensation to the injured victim in exchange for that victim making a legally binding promise not to file a lawsuit based on the events surrounding the injury.
If a plaintiff agrees to a settlement, the case ends. If not, the plaintiff may continue with the steps of a personal injury case. The settlement negotiations can also continue and a settlement can be reached at any time up to the point where a jury or court actually comes back and announces a verdict in the personal injury case.
