Hundreds – if not thousands – of people are injured daily due to workplace injuries, auto accidents, or slips and falls. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates about 37.9 million emergency department visits for injuries per year in the U.S. While this may be the case, many people still believe that personal injury incidents won’t happen to them.
Personal injuries are more common than you think. At some point in your life, you’ll most likely have a reason to file a personal injury claim.
A personal injury case must involve a sustained injury or property damage done by another person’s negligent or wrongful actions. Companies may also be the source of negligence, leading to personal injury. Some of the most common cases include medical malpractice, traffic accidents, defective products, construction accidents, and dog bites.
When damage is minimal, personal injury cases are often settled without a formal lawsuit or going to court. However, there are times when the case must go to trial. These cases involve hundreds of parties or millions of dollars. Cases that go to court sometimes go to arbitration or mediation, a middle ground between a settlement and a trial wherein both parties resolve the matter.
If you want to file a personal injury claim, you need to check with your state laws regarding the statute of limitations for your case. The most common limitations are two to three years. It means that your time limit for filing a claim is within two to three years from when you were aware that you’re suffering from an injury.
Who can file a personal injury claim?
You have the right to file a personal injury claim if you believe that someone caused you to suffer due to their negligent or reckless acts. Here are some examples of situations wherein you can file a claim:
- If your vehicle was side-swept by a driver who didn’t obey a stop sign
- If your home was damaged by another person’s car
- If you slipped and fell in an establishment due to wet floors or broken railings
- If you suffered from medical malpractice such as childbirth injuries, anesthesia errors, misdiagnosis, or medication errors
- If you were assaulted
What are the requirements for filing a personal injury lawsuit?
If you deem that you suffered from a personal injury and are looking into filing a lawsuit, you must first meet the minimum requirements:
- You must file within your state’s statute of limitations.
- You must settle the claim through the legal process. Your grievance should be reasonable. You should also prove that you were injured (either physically or emotionally), that someone else caused the injury due to negligence, and that you suffered monetary loss because of the damage.
If you’re going to file a personal injury lawsuit, you need to consider if the pursuit is worth it. Not all injuries need a personal injury case. Building a case can take time, years even, and you need to think if the case is worth pursuing, especially if you’re paying court expenses and lawyer fees.
There are millions of personal injury incidents every year. Read this infographic about facts and statistics on personal injury cases in the U.S. to help you understand their consequences.
