When Your Injury Is Caused by Someone Else

Negligence is a factor that often plays into personal injury cases. In fact, you can usually only make a personal injury claim with another person’s insurance if you can prove that they were responsible for the accident that created your injury. This can be for a car accident, slips on someone’s property, medical malpractice, or even dog bites. In all of these cases, someone can be held liable for your injuries. Here’s how the liable party plays into your personal injury case.

Negligence

You have a better chance of receiving compensation from your personal injury claim if the other person was negligent in causing your accident. Negligence means that someone acted recklessly or without regard to the safety of others, and their actions directly caused the accident, making them responsible for your injuries. You can prove negligence through your own statement to police, statements from witnesses, medical reports, and photos of the accident scene.

Insurance Coverage 

Before you start the claims process, you need to make sure that the negligent person actually has insurance that can cover your expenses. It won’t do you much good if you win the case but you can’t get compensated because there’s nowhere to get the money from. Filing a lawsuit against someone who doesn’t have insurance can be a challenging situation that might waste more of your time than it’s worth, especially if you can, instead, get compensated from your own insurance.

Punishments 

Since they are already facing consequences in raised insurance premiums, the negligent party is usually not punished at the end of your case. However, a jury or judge may decide that extra punishment is necessary, and this comes in the form of punitive damages. These are damages the judge orders the plaintiff to make on top of the compensation given by insurance to the victim. Punitive damages are intended to discourage the plaintiff and others from acting in the same reckless manner again.

Lawyers

Even the most basic personal injury claims can take up a significant amount of time and effort. It’s important to determine if a claim or lawsuit is in your best interest before diving into it. Talking to a lawyer, like a personal injury lawyer from Hickey & Turim, can help you make that call. Lawyers who are practiced in personal injury can tell you the likely outcome of your case, how much money it is worth, if negligence can be proved, and how much time the case will take. All of these factors may impact your decision to pursue a claim.