What do I need to know about Personal Injury Law

Before you go any further, we should probably define personal injury. To put it simply, personal injury occurs when someone is injured or harmed due to something that was someone else’s fault. The person or party at fault could range from companies to private landowners, and almost anything in between. In any case, they either neglected their duties or did something else; putting them at fault for your suffering.

Is my case legitimate?

This is a popular question for people learning about personal injury law for the first time – most likely they have experienced an incident and want to know if it is a legitimate reason to file a lawsuit. Regardless of what happened specifically, you or your lawyer is going to need to know all the details about the laws and the incident itself, the facts with proof, and how the processes all work with such cases.

If the incident has put you in a situation that is genuinely impacting your life in a negative way, it is worth looking into. Contact an attorney who has dealt with this type of case before and see if what happened to you is enough to file a lawsuit. You can often get a free evaluation from an experienced attorney, so don’t be afraid to check into it.

Act now

It’s always a good idea to act sooner rather than later when it comes to personal injury claims. This is simply due to the fact that there is something called a “statute of limitations” which only allows you a certain amount of time to file the suit. Texas allows two years from the moment of injury (or the discovery of said injury), assuming the case is regarding injuries to a person. If it is a sex crime or something dealing with slander or libel, you would have five years.

If you live in a different state, it would be a good idea to do some research and find out what your local statute of limitations is for your specific type of case. When it doubt, act as soon as possible.

Possible outcomes

There are two main routes your case could take once you file a lawsuit. The first one is that it would turn into an actual formal lawsuit. The way this looks is the plaintiff (you, the person who was injured) officially files a complaint against the party at fault, who is called the defendant. The plaintiff will assert that the defendant is at fault because they were acting irresponsible or careless, which had a direct impact on the incident that caused you the injury.

The second route it could take is in the form of an informal settlement. This is seen quite often and is a way to settle a dispute between two parties in order to avoid going to court. Insurers, attorneys, and the two parties are all involved in a settlement, which is usually a type of negotiation that ends up with both sides agreeing to a specific sum of money, and also to not take further court action. If the two sides cannot agree, the first route (a formal lawsuit) is the most likely outcome.