Answers to Your Questions About Tort Law and Personal Injury
Has someone caused your recent injury? If so, you are now affected by what is known as tort law in the American legal system. What is a tort? How are you impacted by torts? And what recourse do you have to get what you need to recover? Here are answers to some of your questions.
1. What Is a Tort?
In legal terms, a tort is an act or omission by one party that causes some form of injury to another. It is a civil legal issue, addressed through the civil courts where the injured party seeks compensation from the party that committed the tort. Generally, torts come in three main varieties: intentional torts, negligence, and strict (product) liability.
Tort law comes primarily in the form of personal injury law, but this category is much broader than most people realize. Why? The injury caused by a tort can take many forms, some of which are not easily recognizable.
2. What Sort of Injuries Are Included?
If torts and personal injuries take many forms, what might these look like? It is most often bodily injury such as might occur as a result of a car accident, a pedestrian being hit, a fight between individuals, or a fall on badly maintained stairs. This bodily injury might be intentional, perhaps from an assault, or it might be accidental and come from negligence.
Injury can also include non-bodily harm or loss. If your business rival prints a libelous statement that you are participating in fraud, you may have a personal injury case. Why? The injury is to your reputation and your ability to earn an income. The losses are financial rather than bodily, but they remain caused by the actions or omissions of another party and are injurious to you.
Other non-bodily injuries include invasion of privacy, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, and false imprisonment.
3. How Can You Get Compensation?
Because tort law is a civil matter, you have three primary means of getting compensation for your injury. The first is through submitting a claim to an insurance company. Most bodily injury cases involve some type of insurance coverage. This insurance may be your own or it may be someone else’s liability coverage.
The second means of being compensated is through negotiation and settlement. Settlements happen outside the courtroom and allow you to avoid the extra expense and time involved in getting a legal judgment. You do not need to prove your claim beyond a shadow of a doubt, but you must build a strong enough case that the other side feels its best interests are to avoid an actual court battle.
The third method to receive compensation is to bring a case before the court. This route is usually pursued only when the first two options have been exhausted. Because you must now win your case to receive anything, most tort cases that reach this point require the help of an experienced attorney.
4. How Is Compensation Granted?
What restitution might you get for a tort violation? Generally, you may seek what is called general and special damages.
General damages put into dollar amounts the consequences in terms of pain and suffering, impairment, quality of life, reputation damage, or other non-financial issues both present and future. Special damages add up determinable financial losses such as expenses incurred, lost earnings, and loss of irreplaceable assets. These calculations can be applied to insurance claims, settlements, and court judgments.
Where Should You Start?
Tort law is complex. It is also vital to your recovery from any personal injury, either bodily or non-bodily. Therefore, you do well to start by learning how it may be applied in your particular case. Bradley, Drendel & Jeanney has assisted Nevada residents with all their personal injury needs for more than 50 years. Call today for a free consultation.