Personal injury is an area of legal practice that covers a wide range of topics, from dog bites to medical malpractice to vehicle accidents. However, there are a few things that all personal injury claims have in common, and one of these is the most important thing you can remember when you are struggling with a devastating injury: you have the right to seek compensation for your distress.
What Is Personal Injury?
The concept of personal injury is bound up in the ideas of common law. Hundreds of years ago, societies decided that someone who purposely or negligently caused harm to another should be made to pay for that person’s injuries. Later, court decisions enshrined the concept that negligent parties should also be responsible for the mental and emotional pain they inflict. This meant that a victim could not only sue for the actual costs of an injury but also for an amount decided upon by a judge or a jury to act as compensation for their pain and suffering.
Today, personal injury law has been well codified so that all courts handle these cases in a similar manner. The plaintiff and defendant in a personal injury lawsuit have certain rights and are entitled to be represented by an attorney in these cases. Furthermore, the victim of a personal injury has the right to seek damages in an amount commensurate with the trauma and long-term effects caused by the event, whether that is a hit-and-run crash, a wrongly prescribed medication, or a slip-and-fall accident.
What Is the Most Important Thing To Remember?
The most important thing for any victim of personal injury to remember is that legally, someone else may be responsible for your accident, and should be required to pay you damages for your pain and suffering as well as any expenses you have incurred. No matter what an insurance company or others say, this right is yours and yours alone. No one has the right to talk you out of vigorously protecting yourself and your family.
Personal injury damages can include both actual expenses, such as lost wages and medical bills, and compensatory expenses, such as quality of life reduction or loss of earning ability. You may also be entitled to punitive damages if the person or company who caused your injury acted with extreme negligence or engaged in criminal behavior. A personal injury attorney can help you understand your rights and how to go about seeking damages for your injuries.
At Barber and Associates, we have spent many years working with the victims of all types of accidents and injuries. We have helped our clients recover millions in collective awards. We are here to work for you and to protect your rights if you have been the victim of someone else’s negligence. Give us a call to learn more about how you can protect yourself and your loved ones by pursuing damages in your personal injury case.