Personal injury can mean many things. It is a catch-all term for getting injured. The various practice areas we have listed here drill down deeper into your personal injury case. Sometimes, you are injured on a person’s real property, and sometimes you are hit while driving a car. These are examples of personal injury cases that could result in a monetary award to help you pay your medical bills and to compensate you for your suffering.
Duty
In various situations, each person has an implied duty or responsibility to act in a certain way to others. For instance, if you are driving a car, you owe a duty to others on the road to act as a reasonable person while operating your vehicle. This could include keeping your eyes on the road at all times, being alert, stopping to avoid collisions, signaling, or keeping a safe distance from the car in front. So there must be a duty that is owed from the person who caused the accident to the person who receives the accident. This element is almost always met and is hard to disprove in most car accident cases.
Breach
The person who owed the duty to the victim must have breached that duty by doing something or not doing something. In the example above, if the person did not keep a safe distance from the vehicle in front of him and slammed into the vehicle after applying brakes, the duty he owed was breached because a reasonable person would have kept a safe distance and would have had time to stop the vehicle in a timely manner.
Causation
The breach of that duty caused the accident or contributed to the accident. So, even if the person was not traveling at a safe distance but applied the brakes, and say the brakes failed because they malfunctioned, that person may not have necessarily caused the accident from occurring – the malfunction of the brakes did. Now, if that person did not take care of his vehicle by getting it tuned up, he still may be held responsible as the cause of the accident for failing to keep his vehicle safe.
Injury
The person claiming injuries received those injuries from the accident. Basically, the accident must be the cause-in-fact of the victim’s injuries. This may include aggravation of an existing injury or an entirely new injury. A doctor or trained medical professional must relate the injuries received by the victim back to the accident in order for a successful legal case.
Comparative Fault
Louisiana law says damage awards must be apportioned according to the level of fault of the parties involved. So assuming that all four elements are met, if the victim contributed to the accident in some way, then he will only recover those amount of damages for which he was not at fault. The judge or jury first determines fault and the level of fault of each party. Then the judge or jury would state an amount of damages owed to the victim. Finally, those damages would be reduced based on the percentage of fault of the victim.
Personal injury cases require detailed work and attorneys who specialize in the art of winning these cases. You want to hire a firm that will provide you with the best, more personalized medical care with various options from which to choose. The one-size-fits-all approach of most firms means that you may not get better and may have to endure painful surgeries and extended rehab treatment from health care workers and attorneys who just want more money from your case.