Why You Must File A Personal Injury Lawsuit?

Personal injury is a broad term for an actual injury to the mind, body or emotions, rather than an actual physical injury to physical property. In Anglo-American countries, the word is most often used to describe a kind of civil lawsuit where the plaintiff has actually inflicted physical damage to his/her body or to some part of it. In the United States, the word personal injury is used to describe any harm, damage, loss or pain to the mind, body or emotions of an individual. The term was first used in the English law and it is derived from “personalia”, which means “of one’s own body”. This is the reason why you hear about personal injuries in a court of law rather than on TV or in the movies.

Now that we have made sure you know what personal injury is, let us look at the legal aspects of such a claim. The first thing to bear in mind is that in most instances, the accident need not have occurred within the territorial jurisdiction of the courts of the country in which you reside. So long as you can establish that your physical condition has been caused by an occurrence within the stipulated time limit and that you have sustained an injury, then you have the right to file a personal injury claim within those limits. The event that causes the injury may have occurred outside the bounds of the country, but that does not alter the fact that you have the legal right to file a claim in the designated country.

As regards the matter of liability, the first person who needs to be proved guilty of causing the bodily injury is the at-fault driver. But there is more to a bodily injury claim than proving who is to blame for the accident. A lot depends on the extent of the damage and how the medical treatment is conducted at the time of the accident. And it is for this reason that the insurance companies usually offer better compensation when they consider bodily injury liability than when they consider vehicle liability.

Now we come to intentional injuries. In cases where a person sustains serious injuries due to the carelessness of another person, such accidents are treated as personal injury lawsuits. This means that the party responsible for causing the injuries is liable to pay compensation to the victim for all the losses, whatever they may be. If the party responsible for the injuries happens to be the employer of either the victim or the one who caused the injuries, the employer will also be legally responsible to the victim for any pain and suffering that resulted from the injuries. This applies even if the employer has grounds for appealing the guilty party’s decision to dismiss the case.

Apart from the employers, the wrongfully caused injuries can also be caused by the friends or relatives of the one who has been injured. This too is grounds for applying a case against the concerned person. Another ground for filing a lawsuit against someone is negligence. Negligence on the part of the party is defined as a lack of care or precaution that causes you harm. You can file a lawsuit even though you were only indirectly involved in the incident that caused you harm. A negligent person has to be held accountable for any wrong that he has done.

For example, let us take a situation where you are walking on a road when a car drives right past you and strikes you. You feel slight injuries but manage to walk away. The next day, you visit your family doctor. Your condition worsens but you do not go to a family lawyer to ask for a compensation. Instead, you visit the police station to report the accident.

When you do so, you will have to include details about the car and the driver. If you have been seriously injured, you may have to go to hospital. Your lawyer must then request the OVI (otherwise known as drunk driving) record of the driver at the time of the accident. He must then contact the concerned agency and follow procedures to get his records.

At the same time, your lawyer should call you and demand for your money and other compensations. If you are still willing to claim for damages, your personal injury attorney may also request the courts to order the other person to compensate you. If that happens, then the damages that you have claimed will be granted to you.