Personal injury, or tort law, allows victims to sue parties whose actions result in harm. Most lawsuits are based on allegations of negligence.
To successfully win a personal injury lawsuit, you must confidently demonstrate that the defendant violated their legal duty of care and that this violation directly caused your injuries. Causation might be hard to prove.
What is a Personal Injury Case?
In a personal injury case, the wounded plaintiff seeks financial compensation for losses brought on by the recklessness or malice of the other party. Generally, the damages sought can cover expenses such as ongoing medical treatments or lost wages. Periodic payments from a structured settlement can also help cover long-term care and rehabilitation costs.
Unlike other types of law that find their legal rules in statutes, most law governing personal injury cases comes from court decisions and written treatises. The critical legal elements that must be proven to win a personal injury claim are:
- The defendant’s breach of a legal duty
- Causation between that breach and the plaintiff’s injuries
- The damages suffered by the plaintiff
Most personal injury cases are related to accidents but can be based on intentional misconduct such as assault or emotional distress. When it comes to accidents, the most common type of accident is a car accident.
Duty of Care
For a personal injury case to be successful, the victim must prove four separate elements:
- The existence of a duty of care that one party owes to another party in specific circumstances.
- The defendant must breach this duty and cause injuries to the injured party.
- The injury victims must show that they suffered monetary damages from this breach.
For instance, a doctor must legally provide each patient with the medically accepted standard of care. It includes assessing the patient’s medical history, providing adequate treatment, and obtaining informed consent.
The second element is that the defendant must have breached this duty by failing to act reasonably. It means that their actions or inactions caused the injury. Proving this is done by examining what would have been the course of action a reasonably prudent person in the same situation might have taken.
Negligence
Sometimes, it was evident that another person’s careless actions caused an accident and your injuries. In other cases, the evidence might be less conclusive. Personal injury Tampa FL or tort law is designed to compensate victims harmed by another person’s acts or failures to act. A plaintiff must show that the defendant violated their obligation to exercise reasonable care and that this violation directly contributed to their injury to establish negligence.
In addition to establishing the defendant’s negligent acts, the injured victim must also show that they suffered injuries and losses due to those acts. It includes demonstrating the value of their non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering. However, it is essential to note that a plaintiff can file a claim without proving negligence in some cases, such as product liability claims.
Damages
In a personal injury case, the person filing a claim (the “plaintiff”) alleges that the defendant’s negligence or other wrongdoing resulted in an accident and subsequent harm to the plaintiff. Victims can confidently seek legal recourse and obtain compensation for their losses by providing legal remedies for damages under the law.
Economic and non-economic damages can be divided into two groups. The former encompasses the financial losses incurred due to your injuries, including past and projected medical expenses, lost income, and property damage. The latter, called pain and suffering, can be more challenging to estimate.
While many insurance companies use a formula to calculate these costs, these numbers are often highly subjective and vary from individual to individual. Your overall state of mind and emotional well-being can also significantly affect them. That is why you should always work with a personal injury lawyer to determine the total value of your damages. The more accurate your figures, the stronger your claim.