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Personal Injury Law

Like any other area of law, personal injury law can be complex. If you have been injured, and you believe it was the result of another person or entity’s negligence, you have a legal right to pursue financial compensation. Here are some frequently asked questions to help get you started in your search for information and pursuing a case.

What is Negligence?

Negligence is a crucial aspect of your personal injury case. Simply getting hurt is not enough to pursue a claim. You have to be able to prove that your injury was the result of negligence, or failure to take proper precautions and reasonable care to prevent injury to another person.

What Are Compensatory and Punitive Damages?

Personal injury cases award two types of damages—compensatory and punitive. Compensatory damages aim to make you ‘’whole’’ again by providing financial compensation for your injuries and the issues that resulted from them. Factors taken into account when calculating compensatory damages include the extent of your injury, medical bills, lost income, future earning capacity, emotional distress, pain and suffering, loss of sexual function and property loss.

Punitive damages are designed to punish defendants whose negligence was particularly egregious and hopefully deter other parties from acting in a similar manner in the future. Punitive damages are not always awarded, and in many states, there is a cap to the total amount.

What is the Role of Fault in My Case?

Whether you played a role in causing the injury will almost always be taken into account, except in a handful of states where fault on the part of the plaintiff is not considered. Most states operate on the premise of ‘’comparative negligence’’ where the amount of damages is reduced by the percentage you were found at fault. Typically, you need to be 50 percent or less at fault to have a case at all, but that is not always the case. Then, there are a few states that adhere to ‘’contributory negligence,’’ where any degree of fault may leave you unable to pursue compensation.

In addition to contributing to the accident, you may be ineligible for compensation, or get reduced compensation, if after the accident, you somehow contribute to the worsening of your injury, by either doing things to aggravate it or failing to take actions meant to facilitate healing, such as getting therapy or using certain medications.

How Much is My Case Worth?

There is no easy answer to this question and be wary of any attorneys who make any sort of guarantees. Of course, based on previous experience with similar cases, many attorneys may be able to give you a ballpark figure. So many individual factors come into play, it is nearly impossible to come up with any solid estimates. It will depend on a variety of factors, from the severity of your injury to whether you can continue working.

Insurance companies have a basic formula they use to calculate awards. First, all the medical expenses are added up and this serves as the base number for an award. Depending on the nature of the injury, this number is multiplied anywhere from 1.5 to 10. How this multiplier is determined is not an exact science but the insurer has guidelines to go by. Then, lost income is added. And, if you are believed to be at fault to some degree, the award will be reduced by that percentage.

Will My Case Go to Trial?

Most personal injury cases get settled without ever getting to the trial phase. And, even then, many that get to that point get settled before fully trying the case and getting to a jury. The one exception is medical malpractice cases; physicians and their insurance companies have a lot to lose, and they are more willing to take their chances at a trial.

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