Friday, November 23, 2007

The Grounds for Filing a Personal Injury Claim

Here one must know about “Tort Law” . All personal injury claims filed in either the insurance companies or the civil courts comes under this law. It serves as the main and standard basis on how should a case be given verdict. Its provisions, however, can be complicated on the part of the petitioners or the claimants victimized by the various types of misconduct. Hence, consulting a lawyer is very much needed here. Doing this move certainly increases their chances of having a successful claim case. However, it is very much important to determine on which category their cases fall before filing it accordingly.

There are two major categories of personal injury litigation, negligence and intentional acts. Let us understand the difference between the two:-

Negligence

Negligence is a very cause of personal injury cases. When an individual fails to exercise cautiousness in performing his or her duties resulting to unintended harm or injury to other people it comes under negligence. In negligence cases, the injured victims must then prove these four elements:

A) The accused has the obligation to provide them rational care or standard medical treatment for health care providers.
2) The accused has defied the accepted manner of exercising their duties.
3) Their injuries are a result of such defiance.
4) Their injuries are logically probable to cause harm to them.

For example, a Cab driver has the obligation to secure the safety of passengers and to maintain his control to the cab at all times. Any mistake or carelessness may result in tragic accidents causing severe injuries to the passengers or any other people on the road. Then, if this scenario happens, the injured victims have their strong points of arguments that the cab driver who performs such neglectful acts is legally liable and should pay monetary damages to cover their physical injuries and all other expenses that may come along with it.

Intentional Acts

Intentional torts are wrongful actions done intentionally which resulted in injury of other people. However, it is often hard time using this line of reasoning in pursuing a personal injury claim. This is because intentional wrongful acts are not guaranteed by most policies of the insurance companies. Nevertheless, intentional acts may be used as bases for civil or criminal offenses. Assault, character defamation, mental torture, child abuse, is some of the considered intentional acts.

Things you Should know about personal injury

Not everyone who gets personal injury in an accident, file a lawsuit. The injury could have been due to person’s own act or brought about by a fortuitous event. It is not always easy to determine who is at fault when someone is injured, especially in complicated cases where many parties are involved.

If you have a personal injury claim, answer these easy questions and only then can you determine if your claim is indeed a viable one.

1. How did you got injured? Was it a slip and trip case? Did you used your appliance according to instructions and still it caused you injury? Personal injury covers a wide range of claims, from medical malpractice, defective products liability and wrongful deaths due to accidents, workers compensation and construction liability.

2. Whose fault is it anyway? Was it your fault or was it an accident? Was it caused due to an unavoidable circumstance like a cat crossing the road? Or it is due to others fault? Personal injury claims can be based on the recklessness, negligence, malpractice, or inaction of others. It will be the basis of your claim. Your claim will be evaluated based on the liability of the guilty party.

3. What is the severity of your injuries? Were you hospitalized or not. What are your other injuries? Personal injury is any injury to the body, mental trauma. This also includes the embarrassment you might have suffered because of the injury and the psychological pains it has caused you, including emotional distress.

4. What are your other losses? Did you fail to go to work because of that injury? If you successfully prove your claim for personal injury are: actual damages which represent the cost of hospitalization; compensation for loss of income; compensation for permanent disability; and other damages that can be awarded by reason of the injury like nominal and consequential damages.

5. Do I really have a claim? If your case falls in one of these categories, then you may have a claim: vehicle accidents; wrongful death claim; brain injury claim; premise liability claim; animal attack; product liability claim; slip and fall injury; general negligence; spinal cord injury; medical malpractice claim; and construction liability.

6. Do you have a lawyer? If you have a claim, or you think you do, the best way to proceed is through a lawyer. Many law firms specialize in personal injury cases. They could prove to be lot of help, especially if you are seriously injured.

Once you have gone through these, you can proceed further. Now the next thing is to choose a lawyer who could represent your case really well.