Every day, Americans face the risk of personal injury, ranging from car accidents, dog bites, medical malpractice, falls and slips, harm caused by defective products, and workplace accidents. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a reported 25.4 million people visited physicians for consultations related to unintentional injuries in a recent year.
Key Concepts in Personal Injury Cases
Personal injury lawsuits help accident victims seek justice when property owners and businesses prioritize cost-cutting over their obligations to others’ safety. To file a successful personal injury claim in court, plaintiffs must be thoroughly aware of the key concepts of such cases. Most personal injury claims are based on accidental injuries, which are unintentional bodily harm resulting from external forces and go against the normal course of events.
Accidental injuries may constitute torts, which are acts or omissions that cause harm to others and may give rise to the right to file a civil lawsuit. Strict liability torts are cases in which the accused is liable even though they did not intend to harm the victim and demonstrated no negligence in dealing with them. Negligence in personal injury cases is a concept that describes instances in which the defendant has behaved negligently or carelessly to the extent that such negligence resulted in injury to the victim or their property.
Intentional torts refer to situations where the defendant deliberately chose to act or refused to act in a way that resulted in harm to the victim. Examples of intentional torts include assault, battery, slander, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A major part of personal injury cases involves finding the proximate cause of the injuries suffered by the victim.
Assumption of risk is a legal concept that protects some defendants from personal injury lawsuits and limits a plaintiff’s ability to sue for compensation. Not all cases are those where a defendant’s negligence is solely responsible for the injury incurred by the plaintiff. In some cases, both the defendant and plaintiff share negligence. The principle of comparative negligence helps allocate compensation in such cases.
Workers who suffer injuries or illnesses related to their jobs are entitled to compensation under the law. Such workers’ compensation essentially serves as a “disability insurance program” for workers, with affected employees receiving “cash benefits, health care benefits, or both.”
Original reporting: KRDO (Colorado Springs metro) — read the source article.
