Any measure of injury may cause your life to change overnight. The damage may be temporary or permanent. Regardless, not having the same quality of life as you did before getting hurt may put significant strain on you and your family. If another person caused your injury, you may be able to recover money. A Rockville MD personal injury lawyer may be able to help guide you through the personal injury process. Discover what proof is needed to make the lawsuit work.
What Is a Personal Injury?
When you get hurt because of someone else, it may fall under personal injury. In this type of action, the person who files the lawsuit is the claimant. It is up to the claimant to be able to prove that the defendant, or the one who caused the accident that led to the injury, was negligent. If the defendant was behaving in a way that was unreasonable at the time of the incident, they might be responsible. A failure to act to stop the event may also result in a negligence ruling by a court.
How Do You Prove Negligence?
The ways a claimant proves a defendant was negligent will depend on the incident that led to the injury. If a car crash was to blame, then showing the defendant disobeyed driving rules may take witness testimony, accident reconstruction, etc. However, if the defendant was a doctor who made a misstep in a medical procedure, expert testimony by an unrelated third-party doctor in the same field may be enough to prove negligence.
What Are Damages?
The money awarded by the court at the end of a personal injury suit is referred to as damages. There are three general classes of damages in a personal injury case:
- Compensatory
- General
- Punitive
A court may only award one category of damages, or a defendant’s injuries may be so severe that they get something for all three.
An injury may cost you more than just money. If your way of life is substantially impacted, a look at filing a personal injury lawsuit may help.