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Welcome to Personal Injury Attorney.com
"Personal injury" refers to the area of law that seeks to protect victims who are harmed (caused personal injury or wrongful death) by the negligence of another person or entity. Negligence, in turn, is defined as the failure to act with the prudence that a reasonable person, under the same circumstances, would have exercised. Negligence occurs when a defendant’s conduct imposes an unreasonable risk upon another, which results in personal injury or wrongful death to that person. Every person has a legal duty which requires that he or she conduct himself according to a certain standard, so as to avoid unreasonable risk to others. If someone fails to conform with that duty and causes injury or death to another person, he or she may be liable for the damages caused.
Although we do not provide legal advice online, visitors or family of victims who have been injured due to personal injury, whether from a car or truck accident, dog bite, plane crash, railroad accident, mesothelioma, Fosamax, Ketek, medical malpractice, Gadolinium NSF, wrongful death or a construction accident are free to take advantage of our FREE CONSULTATION PROGRAM.
Simply fill out our free consultation form for the specific area of your interest. The forms are provided at the bottom of each "practice area" page. You may also CLICK HERE for a free PERSONAL INJURY case evaluation from an experienced personal injury lawyer. CLICK HERE for a free WRONGFUL DEATH case evaluation. Provide complete answers to the form questions. Upon submission, your form will be forwarded to one or more personal injury attorneys. That lawyer or lawyers will review your form in accordance with our site’s terms and conditions and may contact you to discuss your legal rights, or refer you to an attorney who may be able to assist you. Please be advised that not all requests get responses.
For a free case evaluation by an experienced personal injury attorney and/or a referral to a personal injury attorney who may be able to assist you with a potential personal injury case, please click below on the field of law which best suits your potential case or click here for the complete directory:
PERSONAL INURY LAWYERS
PERSONAL INJURY LAW
Personal injury lawyers represent clients in "negligence" cases, where it is alleged that another’s conduct imposed an unreasonable risk upon another which results in “personal injury” or "wrongful death" to that person. In order to maintain an action in negligence for personal injury, the plaintiff (the person bringing the claim) must be able to show the following elements:
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Duty: The Defendant had a legal duty requiring him to conduct himself according to a certain standard, so as to avoid unreasonable risk to others. This standard is generally thought of as a “reasonable standard”.
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Breach of Duty: The Defendant failed to conform to the duty or reasonable standard as explained above. This element can be thought of as "carelessness."
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Proximate cause: A sufficiently close causal link between defendant’s act of negligence and the harm suffered by plaintiff. In other words the defendant’s breach caused the harm to the plaintiff.
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Damage: Actual damage suffered by plaintiff, i.e. personal injury, wrongful death, pain and suffering.
PERSONAL INJURY LAWSUITS
Generally, a person owes everyone else with whom he comes in contact a general "duty of care." Normally, you don’t have to worry about this duty – it is the same in all instances, the duty to behave with the care that would be shown by a reasonable person. A personal injury plaintiff must show that defendant’s conduct imposed an unreasonable risk of harm on him. It is not enough for a personal injury plaintiff to show that a defendant’s conduct resulted in a terrible injury. Rather, the personal injury plaintiff must show that defendants conduct, viewed as of the time it occurred, without benefit of hindsight, imposed an unreasonable risk of harm. When determining whether the risk of harm from defendants conduct was so great as to be "unreasonable," courts use a balancing test:
"Where an act is one which a reasonable person would recognize as involving a risk of harm to another, the risk is unreasonable and the act is negligent if the risk is of such magnitude as to outweigh what the law regards as the utility of the act or of the particular manner in which it is done." Thus, the reasonableness of Defendant’s conduct is viewed as an objective standard. The jury must determine, would a "reasonable person of ordinary prudence," in Defendant’s position, have acted the same way? Defendant does not escape liability merely because she intended to behave carefully or thought she was behaving carefully. If Defendant has a physical disability, the standard for negligence is what a reasonable person with that physical disability would have done. The ordinary reasonable person is not deemed to have the particular mental characteristics of Defendant.
Once negligence has been proven the Plaintiff may recover damages--or in cases of wrongful death, the representative of the plaintiff's decedent. These damages, differ by the type of claim (E.g. injury vs. wrongful death) and based on jurisdiction. In any event, personal injury damages may include monetary damages for:
Loss of Functioning: The value of any direct loss of bodily functions. E.g.: Actual monetary compensation for the loss of a leg.
Economic Damages: Out-of-pocket losses stemming from the injury. E.g.: Medical expenses, lost earnings
Pain and suffering: Damages for pain and suffering caused as a result of the injury.
Hedonistic damages: Damages for loss of the ability to enjoy one’s prior life. E.g.: Compensation for loss of the ability to walk, even if loss of that ability has no economic consequences.
Future damages: Plaintiff brings only one action for a particular accident, and recovers in that action not only for past damages, but also for likely future damages.
For an outline overview of personal injury law please click here; or click on the relevant topics below for basic information about selected legal topics:
We strive to offer the general public relevant links and legal resources. If you have any Questions/Comments, please feel free to contact us. We welcome any suggestions on how to improve our site.
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