3 Factors To Help Determine If You Have A Personal Injury Case
Before you go forward with attempting to file a personal injury case, you need to make sure that you have one in the first place. In order to have a strong case, you need to make sure that you were personally injured as the result of someone's negligence and that you have recoverable damages.
Where you personally injured?
The first thing that you have to realize is that with a personal injury lawsuit, you have to have actually been injured in some way. Damage needs to have been done to your person. However, it does not have to be just physical damage. You can also suffer emotional or mental damage or distress. You can also suffer financial damage.
What personal injury lawsuits do not cover is property damage. If your property is damaged, you will have to pursue different legal recourse, as personal injury lawsuits generally center more on damage to your body and mind. Most property damage issues are pursued through small claims court.
Talk with your attorney to determine what type of damage you suffered from. This will help you more accurately determine what type of lawsuit to pursue.
Did another person or entity cause your injuries through negligence?
Second, you need to determine what caused your injuries. With personal injury lawsuits, it matters how your injures were sustained. Your injuries have to be sustained through the negligence and careless actions of another person or entity. The person or entity needs to not have acted with the normal care or caution that a person would exercise under the circumstances. For example, someone who caused an accident because they were texting on their phone did not exercise reasonable caution and thus was negligent in their duties as a responsible driver.
Discuss what happened with your attorney. Your attorney can let you know if they think that the person acted with negligence.
Do you have damages that are recoverable?
Finally, in order to pursue a personal injury lawsuit, you need to have suffered damages. There are lots of different types of damages that one could suffer. To start with, if you were physically injured, all your medical treatment would be considered damages. If you were not able to work because of your injuries, your lost wages are considered damages. If you were not able to take care of yourself or your family and needed extra assistance, any help you received and paid for would be considered damages.
The scope of what can be considered damages is actually pretty large, so be sure to discuss what you think are potential damages with your personal injury attorney to determine what damages to include in your lawsuit.
You need to make sure that have a personal injury case before you try to file one. First off, you need to have suffered injury to your person, not your personal property. Your injuries have to be caused by a person or entity who acted with negligence. Finally, a monetary value has to be attached to your damages.
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