What Does Personal Injury Mean?
The practice of law has many different sub-categories which are used to specify particular areas of practice that attorneys do. So, for example, you can generally find attorneys who practice primarily in areas such as family law (divorce/custody), contracts, wills and estates, criminal defense, etc. Most of these areas of practice are pretty self-explanatory with regard to what the attorney does and there is very little confusion. So when a person calls those firms or looks for them online, it’s pretty easy to find what you are looking for. Then there is my primary area of practice – personal injury. The term “personal injury” is more of a modern term (historically these types of cases are referred to as torts, and no, I’m not talking about the pastry) and refers to a category of cases where an individual has been injured because of the negligent actions of another person.
The Most Common Type of Personal Injury
The most common type of personal injury is a car accident. This generally involves one driver failing to pay attention to the conditions on the roadway (such as texting, changing the radio station, being distracted by circumstances on the side of the roadway such as another wreck) and they end up hitting another person’s car. When the person they hit is injured because of the collision, that is the basis for a claim. It is a claim that seeks compensation in the form of money for injuries resulting from another person’s negligence. Negligence is a failure or lapse on the part of one individual to use what is called “reasonable care” when they are performing activities such as driving. When a person fails to use reasonable care and they cause a wreck that injures another person, they are considered to be negligent and as a result are responsible for compensating the injured person for their harms and losses.
What Does a Personal Injury Attorney Do?
Seeking compensation on behalf of the injured person is what a personal injury attorney does on behalf of the injured person and requires us to gather information to present to an insurance company about the injuries (both physical and mental/emotional) that the injured party sustained. So if you are in the position where you have been injured by another person’s negligence and you are trying to find an attorney who does this area of the law to help you, your search should include the term “personal injury” in order for search engines to properly categorize results for you. If you need help with a personal injury claim, call us at 719-633-6620 for a free consultation.