What Qualifies as Personal Injury?

The term personal injury might seem self-explanatory since one would assume it means an injury suffered by a person. That is technically true, but in this case personal injury is a legal term with a specific meaning, which is that the personal injury is one that was caused by the negligent behavior of another party. That means the responsible party did not intend to hurt someone, but their careless behavior ended up doing so nonetheless.

When someone suffers a personal injury, they are entitled to receive compensation for the losses they suffered from the insurance company of the responsible party. Those losses could be the medical expenses caused by the treatment for the injuries, lost wages if the victim is unable to work while they recover, and repair or replacement expenses for any property that was damaged in the accident that caused the personal injury. The legal experts at realjustice.com recommend that personal injury victims retain an attorney to help them. A personal injury lawyer will give the victim the best chance of receiving the compensation they need and will do all of the work while their client recovers.

The Elements of a Personal Injury Case

A lot of different kinds of accidents fall under the personal injury umbrella, but in order for something to qualify as a personal injury, the following elements must be present:

• The party responsible for the personal injury owed the victim a duty of care. A duty of care means that a person is obligated to behave in the way a reasonable person would in a similar situation. An example is that a driver owes a duty of care to other people on the road by paying attention to the road and avoiding careless behavior.
  

• The duty of care was violated, which means that someone was being negligent. In the driver example, the motorist would violate their duty of care by texting while they were driving.
  

• The negligence led to an accident. While a violation of the duty of care is always bad, it only becomes a personal injury case if someone gets hurt. So the negligent driver would have to cause an accident that injures someone else for the case to become a personal injury.
  

• The accident led to losses for the victim. That means the accident would have to cause expenses like medical bills or damaged property.

Types of Personal Injury Cases

As stated previously, a lot of different kinds of cases qualify as personal injuries, including the following:

Car Accidents - Any vehicle accident that was caused by negligent behavior such as texting while driving or ignoring traffic signals qualifies as a personal injury if the victim got hurt.

Premises Liability - This means that a property owner is obligated to provide a safe environment for invited visitors, but fails to do so. A common example is a slip and fall that happens in a store because the owner or manager was negligent in cleaning up a spill.

Medical Malpractice - Even though doctors and other medical professionals try to help people, they can sometimes make mistakes that end up hurting their patients instead.

These are some of the most common kinds of personal injuries, but there are many other types as well. If you were injured in an accident and are unsure whether it qualifies as a personal injury or not, then contact a lawyer. Personal injury attorneys provide free consultations so you have nothing to lose by asking; and if your case does qualify as a personal injury, then the attorney can help you to get the compensation you deserve.

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This is a guest blog entry.