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Personal injury law (or tort law), commonly referred to as tort law, encompasses accidents that cause physical injuries. Most often, an injured party (the plaintiff) sues an individual or corporation (the defendant).
Most personal injury lawsuits include claims for damages. Damages may either be special or general: special damages include tangible costs like medical expenses and lost income while general damages include intangible costs such as pain and suffering or loss of consortium.
Negligence is at the core of most personal injury lawsuits. Negligence is one form of tort, or civil wrong that arises when another’s actions cause stress or harm to someone else. While criminal cases must be filed in criminal court, torts are handled through private legal processes like lawsuits; examples include car accidents, wrongful death suits and medical malpractice.
In order to establish negligence, the plaintiff must demonstrate that a duty of care was owed them from a defendant in a certain circumstance – this may include professional responsibilities like being a doctor or even everyday ones like acting reasonably while out and about in public spaces. Furthermore, they must demonstrate that this was breached through unreasonably negligent or careless behaviour on their part.
Finally, the plaintiff must demonstrate that the breach of duty by the defendant directly caused their injuries. This is often known as causation and can be proven using different means depending on your case. For example, if a bus driver ran a red light and hit your vehicle, you would need to demonstrate their actions directly caused your injuries; additionally, in most instances you must also show that these injuries led to pecuniary loss such as medical expenses and lost wages in order to claim damages from them.
No matter the cause, victims of personal injury accidents are entitled to financial compensation for their losses. This area of tort law seeks to make whole injured parties and restore them back to where they were prior to an accident through a monetary award that can include objective economic damages and subjective non-economic damages.
Economic damages (or special damages), also referred to as special losses, refers to tangible out-of-pocket expenses with specific dollar values attached such as medical bills and lost wages. They also encompass projected future costs incurred from injuries like medications, physical therapy sessions and surgeries.
Non-economic damages attempt to compensate victims for losses that don’t have a set dollar figure attached, like pain and suffering or emotional distress. Proving non-economic damages usually requires medical records or psychological assessments as proof. They provide evidence of how injuries have directly impacted victims and form the basis of claims made by victims against negligent parties. Punitive damages (intended to deter others from engaging in similar behavior) may also be awarded in cases of fatal accidents caused by an individual.
Personal injury cases frequently involve several parties. If an accident was caused by product failure, various entities within the supply chain such as manufacturer, distributor and retailer could all potentially be held liable. Both parties and their attorneys often meet to discuss and resolve the matter or take their cases to trial for judgement.
Liability in personal injury claims typically rests upon negligence; you must show that the at-fault party breached their duty of care and caused your injuries. However, certain situations require alternative legal theories like Strict Liability; in these instances you must prove that their actions caused your injuries rather than intent or mental state at the time of an act being perpetrated against them.
Punitive damages may also apply in cases involving outrageous behavior that qualify you for punitive damages, which are meant to punish wrongdoers and deter similar behavior in future. A plaintiff must show extreme negligence, willful misconduct, or malice to receive this form of relief.