Personal injury law deals with the legal rights and litigation options of someone who has been injured as the result of another’s negligence or intentional wrongdoing.
What is negligence?
In its most simple definition, it means that someone was careless and as a result of being careless, someone else was injured. Negligence serves as the basis for a personal injury lawsuit. Negligence is any conduct that falls below the recognized standards of behavior established by law for …
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What does the term "liable" mean?
The term liable generally means that a court has determined individual, company or some other entity caused, and is responsible for, another person's injury. When a defendant is found liable, he or she is generally obligated to compensate the injured party for their damages. The …
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What does the term "reasonable person" mean?
A person has acted negligently if he or she has departed from the conduct expected of a reasonably prudent person acting under the same or similar circumstances. The hypothetical reasonable person provides an objective by which the conduct of others is judged. Using the truck driver example …
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What does 'duty' mean in a lawsuit for injuries?
When talking about negligence, duty is the legal obligation that the law imposes on us to protect and respect the safety of others around us. That means doing something that a reasonably prudent person would do under the same circumstances. For example, when we drive a car, we owe a duty to drive …
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What is contributory negligence?
The term “contributory negligence” is used to describe the actions of an injured person that may have also caused or contributed to his injury. For example, if you were hit by a bike while crossing the street, but you jumped into the street without looking first then your carelessness …
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What is comparative negligence?
Comparative negligence works on a percentage basis to assign a degree of fault for the injuries suffered. For example, in a case where a person slips and falls on a wet supermarket floor and is awarded $100,000, the supermarket is found to be eighty-percent responsible for the accident because of …
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What is the "assumption of the risk" doctrine?
If you have knowingly and voluntarily assumed the risk inherent in a particular action that caused an accident, you cannot sue the other person for negligence if you get hurt. For example, if you see a sign that says “do not touch – hot” but you touch the object anyway and burn …
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What is strict liability?
Some persons or companies may be held “strictly liable” for certain activities that harm others, even if they have not acted negligently or with wrongful intent. Under this theory, a person injured by a defective or unexpectedly dangerous product, for instance, may recover …
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