Legal Q & A - What is a Personal Injury Claim?

When an accident or mistake hurts an innocent victim, a personal injury claim, technically a "tort" claim, may offer some degree of compensation. Over 38,000 people are killed in car or truck accidents on America's roadways in any given year. Over 98,000 fatalities each year are due to medical mistakes. Simply stated, personal injury lawsuits allow every-day Americans who have been harmed through no fault of their own to hold the person or company that caused their injuries accountable for their actions.

Torts are civil wrongs recognized by law as grounds for a lawsuit. While some torts are also crimes punishable with imprisonment, the primary aim of tort law is to provide compensation or relief for the damages incurred by the victim and to deter others from committing the same bad acts. Among the types of damages the injured party may recover are: loss of earnings, pain and suffering, and reasonable medical expenses. They include past and future losses.

Specific torts include trespass, assault, battery, negligence, medical malpractice, products liability, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Tort law is state law created through judges (common law) and by legislatures (statutory law). Thus the tort law applicable to any given claim will depend upon the controlling state law, typically the state law where the tort occured.

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