What is personal injury law?
As is the case with a great many other industries, law is one of those things with a wide variety when it comes to specialism. This is unsurprising to most people, who have seen examples of copyright law, property law, workplace law and so forth. Personal injury law is another very common, very important facet of the legal system, and it’s one of those things that you tend not to appreciate until you need it.
Of course, ideally, it would be nice and never need to make use of personal injury law, and we certainly hope, despite it not being very self-serving to say so, that most people reading this never do need to make use of it. However, accidents happen, be it by sheer chance or by negligence, and when they do, it’s only right that justice be properly served.
Today, we’d like to take a closer look at what personal injury law is, and cite some examples of when you might need to make use of it. Is this a form of punitive law, or simply compensatory? We hope to clear up questions about that as well.
What does personal injury mean, exactly?
While it sounds like it may pertain to violent crime, personal injury law actually refers to any form of physical harm resulting from negligence, accidents, etc. Personal injury law becomes involved in automobile accidents, accidents involving they workplace, or public spaces wherein a customer may suffer harm, or similar various situations that happen on a daily basis across the world.
Generally, personal injury law is only involved when an injury is relatively severe, meaning that lasting damages been done that will take time to heal, and which involves the need for medical attention. This is not necessarily always the case, however, is pretty much anything that results in pain could involve personal injury law should parties choose to pursue it.
What is the goal with personal injury law?
The first and foremost goal with personal injury lawsuits is to ensure that those liable for the injuries compensate victims of said injuries for medical bills, lost wages and any other damages done on a financial, physical and/or psychological level. Punitive damages are usually also pursued in addition to this compensation, the extent of which depends wholly on precedent, the particular case and many other factors.
Should I always pursue personal injury law when an injury has occurred?
If you have suffered an injury which takes any significant time to heal, impact your quality of life during that recovery, and especially in cases where it has required medical attention to properly sort out, then you almost certainly should pursue a personal injury case. In a situation where the injury is truly minor, not impacting your quality of life nor requiring any sort of medical attention, while you are within your rights to pursue a case, it may be considered Patty, and may in fact be thrown out of court by most judges.
If you’re unsure whether or not your situation constitutes a justified case, contact us at Lawlor, White & Murphey, and we will be happy to help you determine this.
