A. Personal Injury Law
A quick run-down of tort law will serve you well if you are injured and need to obtain legal redress. You can often recover for physical injuries in court if someone other than your employer caused you injury. If you've been injured by your employer, you need a worker's compensation lawyer. If some other person has injured you, then first ask yourself, did they mean to do it, or did they do it by accident?
If the person who injured you did it on purpose, for a bad reason and they were a government agent, you may have a civil rights claim. Other types of intentional personal injuries are usually called assaults, and since people who attack other people rarely have lots of money, the big question is usually whether they're insured for some reason or another. Often, someone drunk at a party commits an assault, and premises insurance may apply. Or people beat someone up while on duty as a bouncer, in which case there should be insurance. Even if you are injured in a criminal assault, you may be eligible for government money to compensate crime victims, so investigate that angle.
If the person who injured you did it by accident, or by an act of professional malpractice, this is negligence. Negligence is the failure to exercise what we call “due care.” Due care is further defined as what a reasonable person would do if his or her own physical safety were at stake. In other words, a negligent person has breached the “Golden Rule,” that states “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Treat me like you would treat yourself. Why is this rule applied? Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said that a man is free to destroy his own property, since he suffers the loss, so if he chooses to destroy his neighbor's property, he must suffer the loss, not his neighbor.
If you are injured by a defective product, device, or drug, the law of “strict product liability” may apply. This is supposed to be a harsher test that negligence, on the theory that once a product is termed “defective,” then the manufacturer or seller of the product is “strictly liable.” But in determining whether a product is defective, a jury will probably consider whether it is made in a reasonable fashion, i.e., as safe as you'd make it if you had to use it on yourself. The real benefit of strict product liability is that it makes more people liable for the defective product. Not only the manufacturer of a defective cigarette lighter that ignites your hair is liable — so is the convenience store company that sold it to you.
>> Go To Statutes of Limitations and Government Claims
By Charles Carreon
If the person who injured you did it on purpose, for a bad reason and they were a government agent, you may have a civil rights claim. Other types of intentional personal injuries are usually called assaults, and since people who attack other people rarely have lots of money, the big question is usually whether they're insured for some reason or another. Often, someone drunk at a party commits an assault, and premises insurance may apply. Or people beat someone up while on duty as a bouncer, in which case there should be insurance. Even if you are injured in a criminal assault, you may be eligible for government money to compensate crime victims, so investigate that angle.
If the person who injured you did it by accident, or by an act of professional malpractice, this is negligence. Negligence is the failure to exercise what we call “due care.” Due care is further defined as what a reasonable person would do if his or her own physical safety were at stake. In other words, a negligent person has breached the “Golden Rule,” that states “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Treat me like you would treat yourself. Why is this rule applied? Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said that a man is free to destroy his own property, since he suffers the loss, so if he chooses to destroy his neighbor's property, he must suffer the loss, not his neighbor.
If you are injured by a defective product, device, or drug, the law of “strict product liability” may apply. This is supposed to be a harsher test that negligence, on the theory that once a product is termed “defective,” then the manufacturer or seller of the product is “strictly liable.” But in determining whether a product is defective, a jury will probably consider whether it is made in a reasonable fashion, i.e., as safe as you'd make it if you had to use it on yourself. The real benefit of strict product liability is that it makes more people liable for the defective product. Not only the manufacturer of a defective cigarette lighter that ignites your hair is liable — so is the convenience store company that sold it to you.
>> Go To Statutes of Limitations and Government Claims
By Charles Carreon