Personal injury law encompasses legal disputes that arise when one person suffers harm from an accident or injury and seeks compensation from the person who may be legally responsible for that harm.
Not all personal injury cases are formalized through civil court proceedings. Many disputes are resolved through settlement negotiations before a lawsuit is filed. Most personal injury cases are based on the legal concept of negligence. Under the law, negligence is defined as:
The failure to do an act which a reasonably careful person would do, or the doing of an act which a reasonably careful person would not do, under the same or similar circumstances to protect oneself or others from bodily injury, death, property damage.
It is accepted that some accidents cannot be avoided, which means a plaintiff must establish liability in order to win their personal injury lawsuit. This is done by proving that a reasonably careful person in the defendant’s position would have acted differently.