Personal injury cases cover any form of physical harm or mental anguish caused by someone else.
Personal injury lawsuits usually stem from negligent behavior and require meeting certain criteria in order to file suit.
Damages
Damages in personal injury law refer to monetary compensation awarded to victims for injuries suffered as a result of another’s actions or inaction, typically divided between compensatory damages and punitive damages.
Compensatory damages are calculated based on actual expenses incurred as a result of injury. These can include medical costs, property damages and lost wages; as well as intangible losses like pain and suffering, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment in life.
Quantifiable expenses can usually be easily verified with receipts or invoices; proving non-economic damages is more complicated. A victim’s attorney may need to use an estimation formula such as multipliers in order to ensure a fair amount is awarded in compensation for all of their damages.
Statute of Limitations
Each state has a statute of limitations that specifies a timeframe within which an injury claim may be filed in court. Failing to do so before its deadline will result in its dismissal by the judge without hearing it, as well as forfeiture of any legal remedies available to the plaintiff.
Statute of limitation periods vary based on both state law and specific types of injuries. While some states impose shorter deadlines, others provide longer grace periods in cases like medical malpractice or motor vehicle accidents.
No matter the statute of limitations in your state, it is critical that you seek legal advice as soon as you’ve been injured. Documenting the incident and injuries carefully as well as taking photographs and gathering witness information will strengthen your claim against government entities and help strengthen it further. Furthermore, certain claims require additional requirements like filing a notice of claim within 90 days.
Expert Witnesses
Expert witnesses provide judges and juries with clarity when faced with complex or nuanced issues. Their specialized knowledge is combined with professional opinions derived from their expertise in fields related to your personal injury claim.
Medical experts provide accurate assessments of your injuries and the expected impact on future health, while accident reconstruction specialists use their training to reconstruct details that might otherwise not be easily understood by juries. Furthermore, economic or life care planners offer projections of financial and personal costs related to an injury from lost wages to long-term care expenses.
Expert witnesses must possess extensive education, professional certifications and experience within their field. Furthermore, they must act impartially and without bias so as not to compromise credibility or effectiveness of testimony given in court proceedings. A Middletown personal injury attorney can advise on which are the most suitable expert witnesses for you case.
Liability
Your injury’s responsible party or company should pay damages to cover your physical, emotional and financial losses. In most personal injury cases, liability can be proven through the legal theory of negligence: to demonstrate this form of responsibility you must show that they had an obligation to act responsibly under certain circumstances and failed to do so by breaching their duty – which directly caused you injuries.
Other personal injury claims based on strict liability are more complex. This theory of tort law applies when someone engages in dangerous activities which place others at high risk, such as storing toxic chemicals, using explosives to break rocks apart or participating in risky sports activities.
In some instances, you may be entitled to claim both special and general damages. Special damages refer to tangible costs such as medical expenses and lost wages, while general damages tend to encompass pain and suffering, loss of consortium and defamation as less quantifiable categories of loss. Your lawyer can help calculate the value of these damages.
