
Personal injury is said to be an injury that affects the mind, the body, or the emotions. This legal term focuses on damage done to a person instead of damage done to property.
Personal injury can be caused by negligence, reckless conduct, intentional misconduct or gross negligence. Personal injury is an element of civil law covered by the law of torts.
As humans, we owe one another a duty of care not to harm each other, but that isn’t always the case. That is why personal injury is important because it protects people and seek redress for the harm done to them.
In instances where an injury leads to the death of the victim, the deceased’s estate can sue on his behalf and get justice for the harm that was done to him.
To prove that a personal injury has been done, one needs to show that the defendant acted negligently and that negligence has led to an injury and any reasonable person would have also been in that same situation.
Some types of personal injury includes:
- Traffic accidents
- Work accidents
- Assault
- Professional malpractice e.g. medical malpractice
- Product defect accidents.
In other to seek redress, one has to understand what constitutes personal injury in the first place. There are instance where people were not aware that what was done to them can be remedied by law.
LIABILITY UNDER PERSONAL INJURY
There are cases where the plaintiff of a personal injury case will be found partly liable for his own injury by the court and due to this discovery, the compensation due to the person gets reduced depending on the degree of their own liability in the accident.
In cases where the victim is found to be 50% liable for the accident, the victim will no longer be entitled to damages.
ELEMENTS OF NEGLIGENCE IN A PERSONAL INJURY CASE
A person has to prove negligence in a personal injury claim and the main elements includes:
- The defendant owed a duty of care to plaintiff
- The defendant failed to meet that duty of care
- The direct cause of damage was because of the actions of the defendant
- The damage resulted from the defendant’s actions
COMPENSATION
Compensation to a victim might be economic or non-economic.
Economic damages are computed based on the actual loss of the plaintiff. They may include lost wages, rehabilitation costs, out of pocket expenses, medical bills etc.
Non-economic damages are much harder to value e.g. pain and suffering, emotional damage etc.
WHAT YOU SHOULD DO WHEN YOU SUSTAIN A PERSONAL INJURY
- Call the police if you can
- Seek medical help
- Collect information
- Contact your lawyer
- Talk to parties involved in the accident
- Talk to witnesses
The concept of personal injury and law is generally very complicated, that is why it is important to get a good lawyer who will help you navigate the process and get the appropriate damage compensation. You can a good personal injury attorney to help you with this.