You were hurt on the job and the thought soon crossed your mind: Do I have a personal injury claim?
The answer is not always straightforward, since every personal injury claim is unique. There is, however, a predictable pattern within each set of circumstances that can help you determine if you should follow through and file a lawsuit.
Negligence causes an accident: Let’s say someone is texting or talking on the phone while driving and hits the rear of your car. This is a classic case of negligence because this person failed to fulfill their duty as a licensed driver to drive safely. This act of negligence causes an accident.
It’s easy to see the correlation in the example, above. The driver becomes distracted by his phone and barrels into your car. Yet doing something negligent and causing an accident isn’t enough to warrant filing a lawsuit. You must have suffered a loss or a physical injury as a result of the accident.
The accident results in injury or loss. If you slip and fall on a wet floor that isn’t marked and suffer no injuries and incur no damages, there is obviously no reason to file a claim. But if you injure your knee and require surgery and rehab, there could be a significant amount of damages from that one act of negligence. Medical and rehab bills, and loss of income add up quickly, so pursuing a claim makes sense. If the only damage is a torn pair of pants, it wouldn’t be worth the expense of a lawsuit to recover $50.
If you’ve been injured in an accident and believe that it was caused by another’s negligence, call our office for a free, confidential consultation.