What is a personal injury case?

A personal injury case arises when a person is injured due to the misconduct of another person. In most cases, this misconduct is negligence, a legal term that means something like "carelessness." In other situations, the claim arises for recklessness, a more serious form of negligence typified, for example, by drunk driving. The third state of mind associated with personal injury is willful misconduct, typified by a “road rage” incident.

A small personal injury claim can amount to only a few hundred dollars. The largest personal injury claims can run into the hundreds of millions of dollars and involve hundreds or even thousands of victims. However, most personal injury claims fall somewhere between these two extremes.

The 7 Most Common Types of Personal Injury Claims

You can classify most personal injury claims into the seven general types of personal injury cases described below. The following is a non-exclusive list of types of personal injury. These are not exhaustive.

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Car accidents are one of the most common types of personal injury cases. You can subdivide these types of personal injury cases into the following subtypes:

• Car accidents. Car accidents are perhaps the single most common subtype of personal injury claims.
• Motorcycle accidents. Motorcycle accidents frequently produce catastrophic injuries.
• Truck accidents. Although trucking accidents often result in catastrophic injuries, commercial truckers are often well insured.
• Pedestrian accidents Pedestrian accidents occur more frequently in urban areas. Wrongful death lawsuits are common.
• Uber/Lyft accidents. Rideshare accidents are becoming more common. On-duty Uber and Lyft drivers are usually well insured.

Medical negligence

• Medical malpractice occurs when a health care provider, usually a doctor, injures a patient through substandard medical care. Examples include:
• Surgical error;
• Misdiagnosis;
• Failure to diagnose a dangerous condition;
• Incorrect prescription;
• Many other possible errors.

Winning a medical malpractice claim typically requires the support of an expert medical witness. These cases also tend to be scientifically complex.

Product liability

Product liability claims generate some of the most unique types of personal injury lawsuits. A product liability claim arises when someone is injured by an unreasonably dangerous consumer product. The injured party does not have to be the person who purchased the product. You must show that the product contained one of the following three types of defects:

• A design flaw;
• A manufacturing defect;
• Inadequate warnings about the dangers of the product.

You can win a claim against the manufacturer of a product without even proving that the manufacturer was at fault. You can sue other parties in the product distribution chain, but you must prove fault.

Wrongful death

Any type of personal injury claim can become a wrongful death claim if the victim dies from the injury. Indiana wrongful death laws are quite complex. In a nutshell, however, the probate estate of the deceased victim and certain family members can file a wrongful death lawsuit and receive damages.

The types of damages available depend on whether the victim was a child or an adult. If the estate paid certain expenses, such as funeral and burial expenses, the court will reimburse the estate itself.

Work accidents

Workers' compensation insurance covers most injuries in the workplace. The advantage of a workers' compensation claim is that you do not have to prove that your employer was at fault. The downside is that you cannot receive non-economic damages such as pain and suffering. However, in some workplace injury cases, you can get out of the workers' compensation system and sue for non-economic damages.

Premises Liability/Slip and Fall

The owner or operator of a public establishment and even a private home must ensure that their premises are secure from guests, persons performing legal functions (such as mail carriers), and to some extent, some types of intruders. 

Most premises liability claims are filed against businesses. The most common type of premises liability claim is a personal injury claim from a slip and fall accident.

The owner or operator of the facility must repair or warn of any dangerous condition that it knows of or may have discovered through a reasonable inspection of the property.

Animal bites and attacks

Most personal injury cases involving animal bites and attacks are dog bites. Indiana typically enforces a “one bite rule” that allows the owner of a dog or other domesticated animal to escape liability if the animal has never previously displayed aggressive tendencies. After that, the dog owner is responsible for any injuries.

An exception to the “one bite rule” is that a victim who was performing a legal duty at the time (a mail carrier, for example) can win a lawsuit even if the dog has never displayed aggressive tendencies.

Other animals

You need a permit to keep a wild animal, such as a fox, as a pet. If you maintain one without a permit and harm someone, you may face liability under Indiana's per se negligence principle, making it easier for the victim to win the claim.

Other Types of Personal Injury Cases

The total number of types of potential personal injury and personal injury claims is virtually impossible to count. Some examples include:

• Burn injuries;
• Heridas en la cabeza;
• Lesiones de la médula espinal;
• Agresión civil;
• Latigazo cervical;
• Comida envenenada;
• Casos de tragos (en los que un bar o club nocturno es responsable de atender a un cliente ebrio que luego causa una lesión);
• Accidentes de aviación;
• Accidentes de navegación;
• Casos de lesiones infantiles;
• Agravios masivos como la exposición al asbesto.

Los tipos de daños en casos de lesiones personales incluyen gastos médicos, pérdida de ingresos, gastos de bolsillo, dolor y sufrimiento, angustia mental, pérdida del disfrute de la vida y varios tipos similares de daños. Como se ilustró anteriormente, estos daños pueden ser tangibles o intangibles. Puede agregar daños punitivos a los tipos de daños por lesiones personales disponibles en determinadas circunstancias.