Personal injury is a legal term for an injury to the body, mind, or emotions, as opposed to an injury to property.[1] In common law jurisdictions the term is most commonly used to refer to a type of tort lawsuit in which the person bringing the suit (the plaintiff in American jurisdictions or claimant in English law) has suffered harm to their body or mind. Personal injury lawsuits are filed against the person or entity that caused the harm through negligence, gross negligence, reckless conduct, or intentional misconduct, and in some cases on the basis of strict liability.[2] Different jurisdictions describe the damages (or, the things for which the injured person may be compensated) in different ways, but damages typically include the injured person's medical bills, pain and suffering, and diminished quality of life.[3]
Car collisions are a major cause of personal injury cases. Contents 1 History 2 Types 3 Claims and payments 3.1 Lawsuits 3.2 Legal fees 3.3 Time limitation 4 Damages 5 No-fault compensation fund 6 United States 6.1 Insurance 6.2 Taxation 6.3 State laws 7 United Kingdom 8 See also 9 Notes History editHistorically, personal injury lawsuits in tort for monetary damages were virtually nonexistent before the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century.[4] In agrarian, pre-industrial societies where most people did not trel far from home during their lifetimes, accidental bodily injuries inflicted by one stranger upon another were quite rare. When a grievous accident did occur, the culprit was usually a relative or close friend, and part of the same small local community. Most persons were judgment proof before the rise of the middle class and the invention of modern liability insurance.