What are the Grounds for Personal Injury Lawsuits?

Personal injury lawsuits will compensate a plaintiff injured because of someone else's act or failure to act. If you can prove that the defendant was liable for damages, and the nature and extent of damages, the court will award money damages.

There are generally three (3) grounds for personal injury lawsuits:

1. Negligence is the basis for liability in most personal injury lawsuits. For instance, the driver who operates his car carelessly, the doctor who fails to follow accepted medical procedures or the store owner whose poor maintenance causes a customer to fall. Individuals or companies are liable if they were negligent in causing an injury. Their liability stems from careless or thoughtless conduct or a failure to act when a reasonable person would have acted. Conduct becomes "negligent" when it falls below a legally recognized standard of taking reasonable care under the circumstances to protect others from harm. A driver has a duty to use reasonable care to avoid injuring anyone he meets on the road. If he fails to use reasonable care and injuries to another are a result of this failure, he is responsible (or liable) for those injuries.

2. Strict liability holds manufacturers strictly liable for injuries from defective products without the need to establish negligence. Rather, the plaintiff must show the product was designed or manufactured in a manner that made it unreasonably dangerous when used as intended.

3. Intentional wrongs are the basis for holding a defendant liable for assault, battery, false imprisonment or intentional infliction of mental distress.