Episode 3 - What is a Personal Injury Claim?
What is a Personal Injury Claim?
The first step to understanding the American Justice System as it may apply to your claim for injury is determining the remedy sought. The first level of Justice separates criminal and civil Actions.
A criminal action seeks to incarcerate or limit an individual’s freedom. Hence, trial results in a person paying a fine and possibly going to jail. These claims are typically initiated by a government body - city, state or Federal - asserting its interest on behalf of the public, to force or prohibit certain acts of a person. Criminal actions are not typically brought by an individual who has been wronged by another’s particular act. However. many criminal actions have civil components to them. As in the OJ Simpson case, a criminal jury acquitted (found no fault) OJ, and a civil jury found Mr. Simpson liable for a specific amount of money to the family of the dead defendant.
A civil action is typically initiated by a wronged individual against another individual or business. This trial results in money remedy for the plaintiff or potential costs of the lawsuit for a defendant if plaintiff loses. Jail or other limitations of freedom are typically not included.
A civil claim begins when one party seeks compensation from another party. Those parties are “plaintiff” and “defendant.” There are many types of civil actions. Contract and property disputes including employment, real estate, patents and many others fall under a category which takes up the greatest portion of legal dockets. These disputes can involve individual consumers against other individuals or large corporations against other large corporations. Corporate litigation uses a lot of court resources and often gets special treatment when it involves a particularly large specific issue.
Civil claims include family law, divorce, and a host of other areas. Personal injury law is another area of civil, rather than criminal, law. Here, individual versus other individual, as in car accident cases, are pursued. Individual consumer versus business is also a common claim. Think of the Louisiana fishermen claims against British Petroleum regarding the 2010 oil spill. Civil personal injury claims involve a plaintiff suing a defendant for money damages.
However personal injury law has been further subdivided over the years since American Jurisprudence began to include categories like 18 Wheeler Truck Injury, Traumatic Brain Injury, Medical Malpractice, Defamation, and others. The reason for these subdivisions is the level of subspecialty involved.
For example 18 wheeler, or semi tractor and trailer Truck injuries involve an entire set Federal regulations specifically created in response to the industry’s propensity to lack safety protocol. These regulations are constantly being updated.
Traumatic Brain Injury cases involve very particular scientific and medical knowledge which is also being updated regularly as technology and medical science progress.
Medical Malpractice is interesting since many states have attempted to regulate a consumer’s ability to access justice for those injuries by setting limits on how claims are made. Knowing how to maneuver the legal path in these case often requires ever changing rules.
Many consumers of the justice system seek criminal type penalties against people or businesses that they perceive were responsible for injuring them. This, however, is the job of the state or other government body whose interest is stopping criminal behavior. Still, in personal injury (civil cases) this differentiation is lost. The Burden of Proof for a criminal case is higher than for a civil case – and for good reason.
When a Judge takes away a person’s freedom of movement by putting them in jail, a jury must be very sure the evidence supports that result beyond a reasonable doubt – close to 100%. However when a jury in a civil case finds money damages for one party, it does so under a preponderance of the evidence standard – more than 50%, or more likely than not.
So if a jury finds a person 51% likely to have committed a crime – it should not find against that person criminally – no jail time. But if a jury finds a person 51% likely to have been negligent, or at fault, even if by accident, it should find against him and in favor the plaintiff.
I have been practicing personal injury civil law for over 20 years. Sometimes there is a criminal component to personal injury cases. When there is, a prosecuting (government) attorney pursues it. While its outcome may be of great importance to the injury (civil) claim, it is a separate matter. On the other hand, not all personal injury claims have criminal components as when a party does not intend for an injury to happen. As they say, “sometimes accidents happen.” However even in those unintended incidents, for example a car crash, someone’s error caused it.
If you or someone you know has been injured due to someone else’s fault, you do not want to rely only on the criminal lawyer who works for the government to represent your personal interest. They simply do not. You should speak to an attorney you select since he or she will protect your best interests as to your personal claims.
