Legal Guide

Personal Injury Law: Basics, Settlements And How It Works?

Did you know that you can legally claim your personal injuries?

Any injury that affects our physically or mentally is called Personal Injury and the state has laws for compensating the damages. Yet many of us don’t seek legal help because we don’t know how it works.

How Does A Personal Injury Law Works?

If you ever suffer from a personal injury due to someone else’s mistake, you can claim it to the court. The aim of personal injury is to make the injured person “whole again”, by financial or other means.

A personal injury include the following accidents:

  • Slip and fall accidents
  • Car accidents
  • Pedestrian accidents
  • Medical negligence
  • Premises liability (if you get hurt on someone’s property).
  • Product liability (injury due to defective products).

A personal injury does not only allows for physical compensation but mental compensation too.

The Basics Of Personal Injury Law:

The settlement of personal injury depends on the following three basics:

  • Accidents (Unintentional Torts): The injuries that occur due to someone’s negligence or carelessness are called unintentional torts. These include slip and fall injury, car accidents and medical negligence.
  • Intentional Acts: When the defendant intentionally causes harm to the victim, it falls under the category of intentional tort. Examples are wrongful death, assault and battery.

What is the difference between assault and battery?

Where assault is the threat (or an attempt) of harm to the victim, battery is the actual physical impact to the person. An assault can result in mental harm but battery causes physical and mental injury to the victim.

  • Strict Liabilities: In cases, where the defendant is indirectly involved with the physical injury, he/she is charged of strict liabilities like Product liability or premises liability.

How Does The Settlement Works In Personal Injury Law?

No two personal injury cases are similar. That is why the settlement of each case differ from the other. Whilst you can seek experts’ consultation from trustworthy lawyers like Colorado Springs Personal Injury Lawyer, here are some basics of personal injury settlement:  

  1. Hire a personal Injury Lawyer: Though you can go to court and file a case yourself, but a lawyer can only make a fair compensation possible.
  2. Determine the Type of Tort: Your lawyer will determine what type of fault was defendant at? This will decide the liability that should be charged by the law to the defendant.
  3. Calculate The Damages: The lawyer calculates the damages to claim a fair amount for compensation. This does not only include medical bills and lost wages but also mental damages done to you.
  4. Talk For Settlement: You and your lawyer mutually decides that you should either take the amount and agree for a settlement or you want to take the defendant to the court.
  5. File The Case Against Defendant: If you and your lawyer think that you deserve more amount than is proposed to you, you can take the defendant to the court for fair compensation.

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