Every person is at the risk of being involved in a situation that will bring harm to them. Either by the negligence or wrongful doing unto them by others. When this happens, then it is good to know that there are laws in place that protects you. It is your right then to seek protection and compensation where necessary from the other party that wronged you. In order to achieve this, first and for most you need to understand the law protecting and this leads you to the personal injury law. Personal injury law refers to the legal remedies and defenses involved in civil lawsuits brought as a result of wrongful conduct.
Therefore it is important to understand the various situations that can lead to a case being determined as a civil lawsuit requiring the personal injury law to be implemented. Cases involving personal injury lawyers are mostly referred to as tort which in Latin means twist, wrong or harm. Tort action in contrast with criminal law does not involve the government persecuting the defendant rather it involves a private complainant seeking compensation for the harm caused by the defendant which is usually in monetary terms.
In this article we are going to discuss situations that personal injury law can be applied to.
- Negligence.
Negligence requires every member of the society to be responsible for their actions and avoid putting others at risk. This is to say that most of the personal injuries are based on the doctrine of negligence although the doctrine also recognizes that some accidents are unavoidable. To establish a case, the complainant must prove without reasonable doubt that a prudent person could have acted differently under the circumstances. Some examples of negligence include car accidents caused by a drunk driver, medical complications or death caused by a doctor’s carelessness or even say a bite from a dog which is vicious and its owner allowed it to roam free and the owner ignored the risk it poses to others and the complainant got injured as a result.
- Common torts.
Other than negligence, there are other causes encompassed in personal injury. Many of them fall under international torts umbrella. In this cases, the defendant acts on purpose to harm the complainant. Some of these include, battery, assault, false imprisonment, theft, trespass and infliction of emotional stress.
There are also other situations which a defendant will be held responsible even though they did everything they could to avoid harming anyone. These situations are referred to as strict liability. An example of this is in a case the defendant is engaging in a dangerous and high risk activity even though the activity is legal. Transporting of hazardous materials and demolition of buildings are examples of such case.
To conclude, it is very important for a complainant to hire legal counsel to avoid losing a tort case. Having a lawyer will help to avoid the unfortunate circumstance of violation of limitations of a statute.