Published in Personal Injury by Chris Eskew on April 9, 2019.
Accidents happen, and when they do someone usually gets hurt.
At Eskew Law, we are experienced personal injury lawyers who have been helping people receive compensation for decades.
One question many of our clients have is, “What is a personal injury claim?”
Put simply, personal injury is an area of law that deals with injuries that individual people suffer at the hands of another person or business.
These injuries can be caused intentionally, as with assault or battery, or accidentally, as in a car accident.
As a result of the injury, a person can bring a civil lawsuit for compensation with a personal injury claim.
Personal injury is typically distinguished from business law, which involves injuries that a business suffers, or criminal law, where the state prosecutes defendants who have allegedly committed a crime.
If you have been injured, please contact us today. We will be happy to discuss the law with you and help you analyze whether we can help you pursue a personal injury claim.
What is Personal Injury Law?
Personal injury law is a subset of civil law in Indiana. In the civil system, private citizens just like you bring a lawsuit after suffering harm.
The lawsuit is almost always for monetary compensation, called “damages.” If you win, the defendant must pay you compensation to make up for all your economic and non-economic losses.
Some people confuse personal injury law with criminal law and for good reason. Some criminal offenses, like rape or battery, are also civil offenses, called “tort(s).”
Although the prosecutor may file criminal charges, individual victims can also bring personal injury claims for torts committed against them when they have sustained damages.
There are different varieties of personal injury law, such as the following:
- Negligence: this refers to the injuries caused by someone’s carelessness when they owed you a duty to be careful.
- Assault and battery: these are intentional harms someone commits against a victim.
- Defamation: this area of law refers to damage to an individual’s reputation because of false statements someone has spoken or written about them.
What is Bodily Injury and How Does it Relate to Personal Injury?
There is a very simple relationship—most personal injury cases involve bodily injury. This is certainly true of negligence and intentional torts like battery.
A bodily injury is any injury you suffer physically and is distinguished from mental harm, such as emotional distress or a loss of reputation.
If you have been involved in any motor vehicle accident, slip and fall, or dog bite case, chances are you have suffered some sort of bodily injury:
- Broken bones
- Cuts or lacerations
- Compressed nerve
- Strains
- Sprains
- Damage to the spinal column
- Head injury
- Traumatic brain injury
- Burns
- Back injury
- Paralysis
These bodily injuries require thousands of dollars (or more) in medical care. Bodily injuries can also keep victims from going to work, which means that they lose out on necessary income to pay their family’s living expenses.
If you have a bodily injury, you can usually also receive compensation for any emotional harm that flows from your injuries, such as depression, anger, or anxiety.
How Can You Help with My Personal Injury Claim?
Many personal injury claims involve insurance. If you were involved in a car or truck accident, then the at-fault driver should carry insurance.
The same is true if you were injured on business property; the business should have a liability policy.
Submitting a proper claim takes time and legal knowledge. You must convince the insurer that their insured is to blame, usually because they were negligent.
You also need to convincingly document the full extent of your losses so that you receive fair compensation.
Insurance companies can be tricky to negotiate with, so we encourage you to hire a knowledgeable and experienced Indianapolis personal injury lawyer who can represent your interests.
Schedule Your Free Initial Consultation With Indiana’s Personal Injury Lawyers
Eskew Law is a leading Indianapolis law firm dedicated to the rights of our clients. If you have been injured in an accident, please contact us today.
We will work to advance your interests and strive to get the maximum compensation you are entitled to under the law.
Avoid any delay. Indiana law gives injured victims a short amount of time to file a lawsuit, and any delay could hurt your case. Please contact us by calling 317-974-0177 or sending us an online message.
