Personal injury law allows victims to recover monetary damages when someone else’s careless, reckless, or malicious behavior leads to an injury. Personal injury law—also known as tort law—is part of the civil justice system. In civil cases, the dispute is between two or more individuals and does not require the state as a party. In contrast, in criminal law, the state is a party and seeks to punish someone for criminal behavior. A wrongdoer in a personal injury lawsuit may also face criminal punishments for their behavior, but victims do not recover damages through those criminal proceedings.
Instead, victims must file claims with the wrongdoer’s insurance company or lawsuits against the wrongdoer. In the claim or lawsuit, you will seek damages—financial compensation—for the harm done to you. A La Vergne personal injury lawyer at Ponce Law understands the complexities of civil litigation and can help guide your case.
To establish a personal injury claim, a victim must demonstrate four elements:
In other words, the wrongdoer had to have a duty of care towards the victim. The duty can be specific—like a doctor-patient relationship—or broad—like the general duty to watch out for other drivers. The wrongdoer has to breach that duty. That breach has to lead to the accident, and the accident must result in some harm to the victim.
The harm can be to property or the person. For example, in many auto accidents, there are no physical injuries, but the wrongdoer is responsible for repair or replacement costs for the victim’s vehicle. The harm can also be purely psychological, though those claims are a little more challenging to prove.
Our skilled La Vergne accident attorneys can collect the evidence needed to prove someone else is responsible for your losses and should be held legally accountable.
Some events that commonly give rise to personal injury claims include:
No matter what type of accident caused you harm, our La Vergne personal injury attorneys will help you pursue the compensation you need to recover.
Three types of damages are available in personal injury lawsuits—economic, non-economic, and punitive. The availability and the amount of those damages will depend on the specific facts of your case.
Economic damages compensate victims for their direct and indirect financial losses. Some examples of economic damages include
The victim establishes the value of these damages by showing what they cost or by proving that their estimate of future costs is based on a realistic assessment of their conditions.
In straightforward personal injury lawsuits with minor damages, economic damages are easy to prove. In complex cases, they are more challenging to establish. They involve proving the severity of an injury as well as the long-term cost of care associated with an injury of that type.
Non-economic damages compensate victims for intangible harms that do not have a direct monetary value. Pain and suffering, loss of companionship, and emotional trauma are some examples of non-economic damages. There is some overlap between these damages and economic damages. For example, a victim may seek the help of a mental health professional to deal with trauma. The bills for that treatment would fall under the economic damage umbrella. Still, the anguish associated with it would be non-economic damage.
The third type of damages potentially available in personal injury lawsuits is known as punitive damages. Punitive damages are not to compensate the victim but to punish the wrongdoer. Under Tennessee Code Annotated § 29-39-104, punitive damages are only available if a victim is able to establish that the wrongdoer acted maliciously, intentionally, fraudulently, or recklessly. For example, punitive damages are not available in most auto accidents. However, they would be available if the at-fault driver was intoxicated at the time of the wreck.
Our dedicated personal injury lawyers will fight for the comprehensive damage award you need and deserve after an accident in La Vergne.
If you have been hurt because of someone else’s negligence, they should be financially responsible for your injuries. Even if you contributed to the incident, you may still be entitled to a recovery, depending on the share of damages for each party.
To find out more about your potential rights, remedies, and responsibilities, contact a La Vergne personal injury lawyer at Ponce Law. We have been repeatedly voted Nashville’s Best Law Firm by the Tennessean’s Best of Music City Awards. We are the only law firm in middle Tennessee to receive the Torch Award for ethical commerce. We care about our clients and will fight hard to get you the compensation you deserve.