Types of Personal Injury

Personal injury is an area of law that involves many different types of civil actions.

2012-07-28

CHICAGO, IL, July 28, 2012 (Press-News.org) Personal injury is an area of law that involves many different types of civil actions. Essentially, in every personal injury lawsuit, an accident victim is seeking compensation for some type of injury, but beyond that personal injury lawsuits are very diverse. Here are some of the basic types of personal injury cases and what falls under each one.

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Although motor vehicles are a common part of everyday life, it doesn't mean they are not very dangerous. Thousands of people are injured or killed every day in motor vehicle accidents across Illinois, especially in large metropolitan areas like Chicago. Although drivers of cars and other motor vehicles are required to have insurance that is supposed to protect victims of these types of accidents, the insurance often does not cover the full extent of injuries, forcing people to seek compensation above and beyond the compensation given by their insurance or that of the other driver.

Medical Malpractice

Doctors are supposed to heal, but unfortunately many people are harmed by their doctors, nurses, or other healthcare providers. When this occurs, a person may seek compensation for the error or negligence with a medical malpractice lawsuit. This often goes beyond seeking compensation from the doctor him or herself, but may also include seeking compensation from the institution that hired the doctor or other healthcare provider or that set up the policies that led to the error. Sometimes, nursing home neglect and abuse is considered a type of medical malpractice.

Product Liability

Product liability is when a person has been injured by a supposedly safe product. The injury may be due to a flaw in the design, the manufacture, or the labeling of the product. Product liability lawsuits include those over defective vehicles, defective medical devices, and defective or dangerous pharmaceutical drugs.

Premises Liability

Premises liability is a lawsuit over an allegedly unsafe condition that existed on a property, resulting in serious injury to a person who was lawfully on that property. This includes slip and fall lawsuits, dog bite lawsuits, negligent security, and other similar types of lawsuits. In some cases, property owners can be held liable for images to trespassers when the trespassers are minors and the property owner did not do enough to keep children away from what is labeled an "attractive nuisance."

Wrongful Death

In common law, personal injury lawsuits were assumed to have died with the victim. However, in modern society we recognize that no man is an island, and that every person's death affects many other people. As a result, we now allow wrongful death lawsuits, which can be undertaken by the representative of a victim's estate on behalf of the victim's surviving family members.

These are just a few types of personal injury lawsuits. To learn more about these and other types of personal injury lawsuits, please visit the website of Harvey L. Walner & Associates, Ltd. in Chicago at www.walnerlaw.com.

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