Personal Injury Lawyer

Personal injury law, or tort law, provides people with a means to obtain compensation for someone else’s negligence if it causes financial or physical harm. Monetary damages are an important staple to personal injury claims. Without harm, there is no case. Often, these damages are in the form of medical bills and pain and suffering.

How do you know if you have a personal injury lawsuit? Here are four different types of personal injury cases.

Dog Bites

A dog’s owner is responsible for the dog’s actions. When a person suffers a dog bite, the owner normally has to pay medical expenses. In some states, it doesn’t matter if your dog has shown signs of aggression before. If it bites another person, the owner is liable. In other states, there is a one-bite rule. This means that you are only liable after the dog has shown signs of aggression or bites another person.

Defamation

Defamation sometimes confuses plaintiffs because it does not rely on physical injury. Defamation, such as libel or slander, ruins a person’s reputation. These have to be untrue statements made with blatant disregard for the truth. Also, defamation has to cause financial damages. For instance, if you are a business owner and someone’s slander causes you to lose business, then you may have a case.

Car Accidents

Car accidents are the most common type of personal injury cases. If you are in an accident and the other driver was not following the rules of the road or driving carefully given the road conditions, then he or she may be liable for your injuries. When injured by a reckless driver, you have a personal injury claim.

Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice claims occur when a health care professional does not provide healthcare that is up to medical standards and the patient suffers injuries or illness as a result. This is not the same as receiving treatment that does not work. In healthcare, there are always risks that a specific treatment will not cure or treat an ailment. The professional has to have acted negligently for there to be a case.

Personal injury refers to any claim where one person suffers an injury and seeks compensation from the person whose conduct caused the harm. Personal injury suits may be filed for intentional acts or acts of negligence. To find out if you have a case, set up a consultation with a lawyer, like a personal injury lawyer from Hickey & Turim, as soon as possible.