A personal injury case arises whenever you, an individual, have an injury to your person due to the negligence of something or someone else. Typically, it’s a physical injury but there are also emotional injuries and financial injuries that are harmful to your character. A typical case may involve a combination of these; there’s usually an emotional and physical component to the injury.
Let’s look at some examples of personal injury cases to illustrate these scenarios.
Examples of Personal Injury Cases
A personal injury scenario can be caused in several different ways. From walking down the sidewalk and having a dog come charging out of someone’s property from their house and attacking you to a car wreck at an intersection where someone runs a red light and hits your vehicle.
Or you might experience a boating incident where you’re injured on someone’s watercraft. It comes down to what did that person do or fail to do that led to your injury?
In our society, we take that very seriously. We hold people accountable, and we want people to be responsible. In the dog injury case, we want dog owners to be responsible for their pets and not allow something like that to happen to other individuals.
In the case of a car wreck, we hold those people accountable. We want you to put your phone down and pay attention to the roadway in front of you. If you’re doing so, you should observe the light turning red and not enter the intersection causing a car accident.
In the scenario of a boating incident, if someone is operating a boat negligently or recklessly and just being stupid out there on the water and someone gets hurt unnecessarily, that’s grounds for a personal injury case.
Any type of injury to your person is considered a personal injury. And if it’s due to the negligence of someone else who failed to do something they should’ve – like failing to restrain their dog – then they need to step up and take care of your injuries and wage loss. They should put you back into the position you were in before the incident.
That’s where the Indiana personal injury attorneys at Stewart & Stewart step in to help protect your rights.
What Is Negligence?
Since personal injury cases hinge on the other person failing to act in the way that they should have to protect the lives of others, you need to have a good understanding of negligence to fully understand how it can impact your case.
Negligence requires that four elements are met.
- The at-fault party had a duty of care toward you. That is, they should have been looking out for your wellbeing.
- The individual breached that duty of care toward you, meaning they did not uphold their duty to look out for your wellbeing.
- The breached duty of care directly caused your injuries. For example, if you stumbled and fell on the sidewalk before the dog chased you, those injuries were not caused by the breached duty of care that the dog owner had toward you.
- You suffered financial impacts due to your injuries. So if the dog chases you but you don’t suffer any injuries or emotional harm due to the incident, you wouldn’t have a personal injury case.
The best way to know whether you qualify for a personal injury case is to meet with an Indiana personal injury attorney.
To learn whether you have a case or not, schedule a free consultation with Stewart & Stewart. We’ll help you evaluate the evidence and determine the best next steps for your case.