There is nothing scarier than sustaining a sudden injury. It can be both terrifying and painful. While your first concern after receiving an injury should be to get immediate medical attention, there are also other things you should consider.
The injury, for example, may result in expensive medical bills or a permanent disability that could affect your ability to make a living. In that case, you may want to obtain compensation in a court of law. However, how do you find out if you actually have a personal injury case?
Do You Have Damages?
The first way to find out if you have a personal injury case is to determine if you have actual damages. In this case, this would include harm caused by the injury. This includes financial damages in regards to expensive medical bills and lost income stemming from the injury. However, there could be non-financial damages as well. If you are now disabled and cannot enjoy the things you loved in the same way as before, that loss can also be classified as damages.
Did Another Party Cause Your Injury?
If you see a personal injury attorney, one thing they will need to know is exactly how your injury was caused. If you want to sue another party over your injury, you must be sure that they were directly involved in the causation of your injury. If the cause of your injury is hard to trace or figure out, you may not have a case. However, if your injury was directly caused by another party’s action or lack of action, you may be able to win in a lawsuit.
Did That Party Act with Negligence?
Another factor that can determine whether or not you have a solid personal injury case is whether or not the other party acted with negligence. Negligence can be thought of as having breached your duties to others. Most people have a duty to not do things that they could reasonably know would harm others. If another party should have been aware that their actions could cause your injury, you certainly have a case to make in court.
Did the Party Have a Duty of Care?
In some cases, however, a party may have not had a duty of care to prevent your injury. This may have happened, for example, if you were injured while trespassing on someone else’s property. In many cases, however, that duty of care does exist. A business owner, for example, has a duty to make sure the walkway to that business is salted during the winter.
If you were injured and that injury was caused by another party’s negligence, you likely have a good enough case to take to court. Personal injury lawsuits exist to help people that have been badly harmed by the actions or lack of action of others. Don’t be afraid to discuss your options with an attorney.
Author information: Lizzie Weakley is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors and walks in the park with her three-year-old husky, Snowball.
