San Diego Personal Injury Lawyers
Personal injury is a broad legal term referring to physical, mental or emotional injury inflicted on one person by another. In the best of circumstances, these injuries are accidental, but in the worst cases, personal injury can result from intentional wrongdoing.
Regardless of the root cause of a specific personal injury incident, the effects can be devastating and, in some cases, will last a lifetime. For people who have been physically or emotionally harmed by the actions of another, it’s smart to consider all options, including pursuing legal remedies.
What Are San Diego Personal Injury Lawsuits?
Tort law, the formal legal name for personal injury law, has very old origins, but in our modern world, it helps ensure that the rights of injured parties are protected, that similar injuries are prevented in the future and that appropriate compensation is provided to injured parties.
Tort claims, or personal injury lawsuits, are among the most common types of civil cases, and according to the National Center for State Courts, more than 424,000 tort cases were filed in state courts in 2018 alone, and personal injury lawsuits account for as much as 12.2% of all civil cases in the states.
While these types of cases are quite common, each case involves some unique circumstances. Still, certain incidents most frequently come to mind when thinking about personal injury law, including:
Potential Qualifying Damages for San Diego Personal injury lawsuits
While personal injury law exists to ensure that injured parties are compensated when appropriate, in some cases, these lawsuits have been mocked and ridiculed by the general population as unnecessary. Perhaps the biggest example of this was the infamous 1994 case in which an elderly New Mexico woman sued McDonald’s after she was burned by the company’s coffee. The case spurred widespread mockery, including being parodied on the biggest TV show of the era, “Seinfeld.”
To be sure, the area of personal injury and tort law does occasionally draw interest from people just looking to make a buck, but the reality is that these protections are in place to allow individuals who have suffered injury, including survivors of people who have been killed, to be appropriately compensated by the responsible parties. In other words, to try to make things right.
In some cases, individuals may be able to seek compensation for a wide range of physical, emotional and other damages, including:
What About My Case?
There’s no easy way to know if a personal injury lawsuit is right for you or your family. The best way to determine how to proceed is to consult with a qualified San Diego personal injury lawyer who can help you understand the details of tort law and can advise you on your options.
While it’s true that some people have been able to win multimillion-dollar judgments or decisions in personal injury cases, statutes of limitations are in place across the country, and these rules vary depending on the specifics of the case. In some cases, injured parties could have as little as a couple of years to begin legal proceedings, while some situations may be too old for a lawsuit to proceed.
Regardless of how your case ends up, the best first step is to meet with an experienced personal injury attorney who can help you navigate the difficult next steps and ensure you and your family are positioned to live your best lives moving forward.
Additional References
National Center for State Courts, Court Statistics Project, CSP Data Viewer, Civil, 2018, Statewide Tort Caseloads and Rates. (2019). Retrieved from http://popup.ncsc.org/CSP/CSP_Intro.aspx
Huffpost, The McDonalds’ Coffee Case. (2018.) Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-mcdonalds-coffee-case_b_14002362
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