Personal injury occurs when a person is wrongfully injured by the negligent or intentional conduct of a wrongdoer. Personal injury cases are legal disputes that arise when one person suffers harm from an accident or injury and someone else might be legally responsible for that harm.

What is a tort?

A tort is a private or civil wrong or injury (other than breach of contract) for which a court of law may provide a remedy through a lawsuit for damages (compensation). When a person violates his/her duty to others created under general (or statutory) law, a tort has been committed.

What are the elements present in a tort law suit?

The four elements present in a typical tort lawsuit are:

(1) The existence of a legal duty owed by a person to others;
(2) The breach of the duty by one person (negligence);
(3) The breach of the duty being the “proximate cause” of damages suffered by a person;
(4) Damages incurred by a person.

In order to be compensated, each of the four elements of a tort must be present.

What is Strict Liability?

Strict liability is a legal doctrine that makes someone responsible for damages that his/her actions or products cause, regardless of any “fault” on his/her part.
Strict liability often applies when people engage in inherently hazardous activities, such as doing “blasting” in a city or keeping wild circus animals. If the blasting damages a person, no matter how careful the blasting company was, it is liable for the injury. Similarly, if animals escape and injure someone, the fact that the circus used the world's strongest cages and the highest standard of care imaginable will not get the circus off the hook.

What is negligence?

A person is negligent when he or she fails to act like the standard “ordinary reasonable person”. The critical issue in many cases is just how an “ordinary, reasonable person” was expected to act in the particular situation that caused the injury. The determination of whether a given person has met his/her “ordinary reasonable person” standard is often a matter that is resolved by a jury after presentation of evidence and argument at trial.

What is comparative negligence?

Comparative negligence comes into play when both parties have failed to reach the ordinary reasonable person standard. For example, one person was driving too fast in a patch of dense fog on the highway and the person whom he hit with his car failed to have his vehicle lights on. In a situation where each party has some degree of negligence in causing an accident, the responsibility to the other person is reduced by one's own degree of negligence.

What is proximate cause?

Proximate cause is the initial act that sets off a natural and continuous sequence of events that produces injury. In the absence of the initial act which produces injury, no injury would have resulted. Responsibility for injury lies with the last negligent act that produces the injury. This can be better explained through an illustration. For example, person a swings his arm with a ball in his hand, then releases it, and the ball rolls down a hill. After the ball rolls down the hill, a stranger picks it up, throws it through a window, causing the glass to shatter and strike a woman who was sitting next to the window, thus cutting her arm and requiring her to obtain medical treatment. In this example, although A has caused the ball's initial movement, A’s act is not the proximate cause of the injury to the woman sitting next to the window. The stranger's act is the proximate cause of her injury, and he should be held responsible.

What is an intervening cause?

Intervening cause comes between one act and failure to act which alters the natural and continuous series of events that follows. When an intervening cause is present, since the natural chain of events has been changed due to the subsequent act of another, the initial actor may be relieved of the responsibility for an injury that is produced. In the example provided for proximate cause, the act of the stranger picking up the ball and throwing it through the window is an intervening cause which relieves a person from the responsibility for injury which may have occurred as a result of his/her act. The responsibility for the injury to the woman is shifted and the stranger's act becomes the proximate cause for her injury. To bear responsibility for injury to others, a person’s negligent action must be the proximate cause of the injury without any intervening causes interrupting the natural sequence of events.

What laws govern personal injury cases?

The development of personal injury law has taken place mostly through court decisions and in treatises written by legal scholars. For practical purposes court decisions remain the main source of the law in any legal case arising from an accident or injury. (Note: in some types of injury cases, most notably those arising from car accidents in which a state vehicle code section was violated, statutes can be used to help establish fault for an accident or injury.)

What are the legal definitions of “damage” and “damages”?

Damage is defined as a loss or harm resulting from injury to a person, property or reputation. Damages refer to compensation - such as a money judgment - provided to a person who has suffered a loss or harm due to the unlawful act or omission of another. The person at fault (i.e. the one who is the proximate cause of the loss or harm) must compensate the injured party.

What is a brain injury?

A form of personal injury, brain injuries are injuries causing a temporary or permanent damage to the brain. Brain injury can occur to any person, in any walk of life, at any time. In every case of brain injury, it is not necessary that the usual symptoms like loss of consciousness, giddiness etc. need be accompanied; hence, at times brain injury goes unnoticed by the victim in the initial stage. Brain injury can cause physical, cognitive and emotional consequences that can affect a person for a lifetime.

What is a wrongful death case?

A wrongful death case is a lawsuit brought on behalf of a decedent’s survivors for their damages resulting from a tortuous injury that caused the decedent's death. A wrongful death case, in the context of medical malpractice may be defined as a death during a medical operation, the neglect of a doctor, hospital or nursing home, or that arises from defective drugs or medication.

What are the damages recoverable in a wrongful death case?

The following damages may be recovered in a wrongful death case:

• Immediate expenses associated with the death (medical & funeral);
• Loss of victim's anticipated earnings in the future until time of retirement or death;
• Loss of benefits caused by the victim's death (pension, medical coverage, etc.);
• Loss of inheritance caused by the untimely death;
• Pain and suffering, or mental anguish to the survivors.

Silicosis is an irreversible lung disease that results from inhalation of airborne silica dust. When silica and silica dust is inhaled, tiny particles can enter into small air sacs in the lungs. The trapped particles irritate the lining, causing scar tissue and fibrotic nodules (lumps of fibrous tissue) to form around the crystals. This condition of chronic inflammation is known as silicosis.

What are the remedies available to the injured party in a silicosis suit?

The injured party can:

• Sue the manufacturer of the silica-containing product that made one sick if the manufacturer manufactured an unsafe product or failed to meet the necessary health standard;
• Sue the manufacturer of the blasting equipment that exposed a person to silica dust if the equipment was manufactured in way that exposed the worker to unreasonable amounts of silica dust;
• Sue the manufacturer of the safety/respiratory equipment that failed to protect a person if the same was defective or did not function properly;
• File a workers compensation claim against the employer the injured person had at the time of silica exposure for not having properly warned the worker of the possible hazards of exposure to silica dust or not having installed safety equipment at the workplace; and also
• File a claim with Social Security for disability.

Exposure to asbestos can cause aggressive lung cancers and other respiratory diseases, touching off an explosion of lawsuits. Mesothelioma, a deadly cancer, is a signature disease for asbestos exposure. In addition to this, asbestos exposure causes asbestosis, a pulmonary disease which in its most severe stage is seriously disabling. Injured parties can bring a legal claim against the manufacturers, sellers, and installers of asbestos products which would help them to address the medical and financial problems arising out of asbestos-related diseases.

Who is liable in lead poisoning litigation?

Depending upon the cause of lead poisoning, liability can fall upon various persons. In case of products containing lead, liability is upon manufacturers, sellers and distributors of the item. If lead poisoning occurred in a rented house, an action will lie against the property owner and if it occurred during employment, the employer can be made liable.

What must be proved in toxic tort cases?

Toxic tort cases can be difficult to prove because, oftentimes, adverse effects from a material do not show up until years after exposure. In such cases, plaintiffs must prove that they were exposed to the substance and that it caused the adverse effects they now experience. However, unlike criminal cases in which plaintiffs must prove their case beyond a “reasonable doubt,” plaintiffs in toxic tort cases are only required to prove that their claims are more likely to be true than not.