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Have you been involved in a personal injury or auto accident lately and need legal help? American Law Firm, P.C. of Rockford, IL can be of assistance! Get in touch with our reliable attorneys today for your FREE 30-minute initial consultation at 815-394-1776
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What You Need to Know About Personal Injury
To begin, a personal injury case can mean all kinds of different things. Think about it as it’s written. Personal Injury. Anytime you have an injury to your person, or body.
There are several critical elements necessary to be successful in a personal injury claim. Obviously, a personal injury claim requires you to be injured, but there are other factors that are key in understanding your case. There are four factors that, once met, for the most part, indicate that you have a successful claim.
Duty
The first of the four factors of Personal Injury is what we call, Duty. We must first establish that the defendant (the opposing party, or the person who is “at-fault” in the event that caused your injury) had a Duty to care for you or to make sure they didn’t hurt you. This Duty is often simple and something we just take for
granted in our lives.
For example: when driving, you owe a Duty to everyone else on the road. That Duty is to make sure you obey traffic laws and avoid harming anyone. In a Slip and Fall case, the owner of the property owns the people who visit the property a Duty to keep the property safe from known dangers. Now this is an oversimplification of Duty, but it gets the point across.
Breach of Duty
The second of the four factors of Personal Injury is the Breach of Duty. This simply means that once it has been established that a person owes another person a Duty, it must be established that the “At-Fault” party Breached the Duty that they owed to other people.
For example: when the same driver in the example above owes everyone else on the road a Duty to obey traffic laws and avoid harming anyone, but they break a traffic law or do something else to harm another person on the road, they have
Breached their Duty. In a Slip and Fall case, that Breach may come in the form of a home owner not fixing a broken step or a store employee not cleaning up a mess in an orderly fashion. Again, this is a simplification of Breach of Duty.
Causation
The third of the four factors of Personal Injury is called Causation. Causation simply means that there was a link between the action of the “At-Fault” party (the person who Breached their Duty) and the injury that you have sustained. Basically, their Breach of Duty Caused you to be injured.
For example: that same driver who owes you a Duty by obeying traffic laws, runs through a red light and hits your car, Causing you to be injured. This person Breached their Duty to obey the traffic laws and Caused you to be injured. Same applies for the store clerk who leaves a puddle of spilled milk on the floor for ten without putting up a Wet Floor sign Causing you to Slip and Fall and break your leg. This person owed you a Duty to keep the floor clean. That Duty was Breached when they left the puddle on the floor. That Breach then Caused you to be injured. Again, this is oversimplified.
Damages
The fourth and final factor of Personal Injury is the Damages. Damages can include several different elements in and of itself. There are more than one way for an injury to Damage you. The most obvious is Damage to your body. Broken
bones, internal bleeding, dislocated shoulders and knees, head injuries, etc. These are all common Damages to your body. However, there can also be monetary Damages in a Personal Injury lawsuit. Those typically include lost wages, travel expenses to and from the doctor, your spouses’ lost wages for driving you around, prescription drug costs, and more. Damages are, for the most part, any and all injuries suffered by you due to the Negligence of another person.
For example: our car accident friend broke her arm when she was struck by the driver who ran the red light. Or our shopper friend who broke his leg when he slipped on a puddle of spilled milk. The injuries that those people had to endure, both physically and financially, may well be considered Damages in a Personal Injury lawsuit.
This is a general overview of a Personal Injury lawsuit and is not intended as legal advice for any particular situation. If you believe that you have suffered a Personal Injury, please call The American Law Firm today and discuss your case with one of our experienced Personal Injury attorneys. Remember, The American Law Firm provides FREE CONSULTATIONS, so if you believe that you have a claim, give us a call and set up a meeting with an experienced Personal Injury attorney today!
