Personal Injury Law: What It Is and What It Is For

The public has some grave misconceptions when it comes to personal injury law. Due to movies, jokes, and a few high profile cases (most of which have been largely misunderstood themselves), people picture ambulance chasers and people trying to cheat the system to get rich quickly. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Do examples of the above exist? Perhaps, in very limited amounts, but to think of the entire field with those prejudices is painting with an extremely broad and unfair brush. Here is what the field is and why it is necessary.

Concept

Personal injury law concerns accidents that result in injury or death because of someone else's negligence. Negligence doesn't have to mean that the other party caused the accident to happen intentionally or that they failed to help the person who was hurt. It just has to be proven that there were steps the party could have taken to prevent harm and they failed to do so. The injured party has the right to file suit for damages, covering hospital bills, lost wages, and other financial and emotional losses.

Lawsuits

A lawsuit is not to be confused with criminal charges. Personal injury law isn't about putting anyone in jail. If there is criminal negligence present, it will be up to the state to bring charges if they deem fit. A lawsuit is filed in civil court and the goal is a financial judgment or settlement. Often, a settlement is exactly what happens as neither party wants to engage in a long, drawn out trial and take a risk with an unpredictable jury.

Types

Personal injury law is a specific field with a number of variations. Lawyers who practice in the field may take car accident cases, workplace accidents, defective product cases, and more. All that needs to be present to make a case happen is a plaintiff who was injured and a responsible party. There should also be some degree of concrete financial loss that can be pointed out. While pain and suffering can be tacked on by a jury in some cases when reaching a judgment, it's a tough sell when there are no hospital bills or other obvious financial losses that can be pointed out.

Statute of Limitations

In many areas, personal injury law comes attached with a statute of limitations. For instance, if you were injured in a car accident, you may not be able to come back and sue in ten years for hospital bills that were incurred at the time. Each state has a different set of limitations for different circumstances.