Personal Injury Law refers to the legal actions and defenses that are involved in civil lawsuits that are often brought forward as a result of wrongful conduct.

Personal Injury Law mainly involves tort actions, and unlike criminal law, cases described as tort do not include the government in the prosecution of the wrongdoer.

Cases of private injury involve a private attorney (the plaintiff) requesting for compensation (which is usually money) to resolve the harm caused by the actions of the defendant.

Causes of Personal Injury

Negligence

The majority of cases involving personal injury are often as a result of negligence.

Negligence essentially requires the members of the society to act in a responsible manner, which significantly reduces the risk others are being exposed to.

Examples of negligent situations that might result in personal injury include Car accidents as a result of drunk driving, dog bites as a result of letting it roam freely, medical complications as a result of the carelessness of the physician.

Intentional Torts

These are the injuries that are caused by the defendant, as a result of the intent to cause harm to the plaintiff.

Examples of such situations include assault, battery, theft, emotional distress.

Strict Liability

This refers to the situations where the defendant tried to do everything possible to avoid causing the damage, to no avail.

Examples include transporting hazardous materials and demolishing buildings.

Injuries as a result of defective products

The liability in cases such as this involves the manufacturer of certain products being negligent about the product, by designing unsafe products and putting them up for sale, such that the plaintiff becomes harmed.

Personal injury often attracts a considerable sum of money as compensation for damages caused.

For this reason, the defendants try to avoid paying, and if such cases can be filed as a lawsuit, they could attempt to:

• Discredit the plaintiff by arguing that the plaintiff was the negligent one, and was either partially or entirely responsible for the damage.
• Discredit the plaintiff by claiming that risk was assumed when the plaintiff volunteered to participate in the activity despite its dangerousness.  
• Claim that the plaintiff permitted them to take the action that resulted in causing harm to the plaintiff.