Personal Injury
This brief description is intended to provide general
information about Personal Injury
Law and in no way intends to replace specific information provided by personal injury attorneys or personal injury law firms.
The question "What
is Personal Injury?" can be concisely answered by describing it as the
area of American jurisprudence dealing with injuries to the mind, body or
emotions for which the law will allow compensation paid by the injurer to the
injured. Given the broad definition, personal injuries
encompass many types of cases, including but not limited to: a personal
injury accident such as a car accident,
work accident and/or an accident at home; product defects, dog bites
medical and dental accidents, occupational diseases, assaults, and defamation such as slander
and libel. Fundamentally, if you can prove that another party acted or failed to
act, that it was negligent or willful and that you were injured as a direct
result, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. The amount of compensation greatly depends
on the injury’s severity: the more
serious the injury and the more severe the pain and suffering, the higher the
compensation. In addition, an injured
person can be compensated for the ways in which the injuries, pain and suffering
have affected his/her life.
Personal injury lawyers typically
take cases on a "contingency fee" basis. Very briefly, contingency fee means that the
attorney is paid a fee only if your case is successful by a judgment or a personal injury settlement. You should review a contingency fee
agreement carefully before signing it because some contingency fee agreements still
require the client to pay the attorney’s costs (such as filing fees,
postage fees, fees paid to other professionals, and fees that attorneys
regularly pay to pursue a case), whether or not your case is successful.
Personal Injury is a very complex system governed by state
law and/or federal law, depending on the type of injury, the injurer, the
injured, where the injury occurred and when the injury occurred. In addition, state and federal laws set time
limitations for bringing personal injury lawsuits;
if the suit is not filed within the time limits, your case can be dismissed
even if you have an otherwise rock-solid case. Consequently, if you want to file a successful personal injury lawsuit, you will probably need a lawyer. Your best course of action is to perform a lawyer
search and find a lawyer in your
state who specializes in Personal Injury.
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