What Types of Cases Do Personal Injury Lawyers Handle?

What Types of Cases Do Personal Injury Lawyers Handle?

Ryan Zavodnick | March 29, 2022 | Personal Injury

Lawyers do not necessarily take a course in personal injury law in law school. Instead, they take a course in torts. Torts cover the civil wrongs that one person or business can commit toward another.

Not every personal injury lawyer handles all types of torts. Torts cover a wide range of wrongs. Most lawyers lack the time and experience to handle every type.

Here are some types of cases injury lawyers commonly handle.

Types of Torts

Torts fall into three categories:

Intentional Torts

Intentional torts require that the at-fault party intend to commit the tortious action. For example, if a box slips out of a store worker’s hands and falls on your foot, the worker did not batter or assault you.

But suppose that a worker throws a box at you with the intent to hurt you. If the box injures you, you can sue the worker and even the store for battery and assault. 

Some examples of intentional torts include:

  • Battery
  • Assault
  • Intentional infliction of emotional distress
  • False imprisonment

Some common fact patterns that fall into these categories of intentional torts include sexual assault and harassment, nursing home assault, and police brutality.

Negligent Torts

Negligence happens when someone fails to exercise reasonable care, and as a result, they injure someone. Negligence does not require the at-fault party to know the danger of their actions. Instead, you only need to prove that a reasonably careful person in the same situation would have understood the danger.

Negligence covers most types of cases that injury lawyers handle. Some examples of accidents that fall under negligence include:

To win a negligence case, you must prove four elements:

Duty

You must show that you fall within the category of people protected from harm. For example, guests can sue for slip and fall accidents while trespassers cannot.

Breach

To win, you must prove that the other party failed to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances.

Causation

The act or omission by the other party must have been an event within the sequence of events that led to your injury. The act or omission must also be of the type that could foreseeably cause an injury, even if the other party did not foresee your exact injury.

Damages

If you were injured in an accident, you might have suffered damages, including:

  • Medical expenses
  • Lost wages from missed work
  • Diminishment in your quality of life

You will usually prove your damages with copies of bills, wage statements, and testimony from family and friends about how your injuries affected your life.

Strict Liability Torts

Strict liability torts apply to situations in which an activity is so dangerous that the other party’s intent does not matter. 

In these cases, you only need to prove that the other party did something that caused your injury. You do not need to prove that they intended it.

Some examples of strict liability torts in Pennsylvania include:

Dog bites straddle the line between negligence and strict liability. 

Pennsylvania imposes strict liability on dog owners for medical expenses resulting from dog bites. But to get any other compensation, like for lost income or pain and suffering, you must prove that the dog owner acted negligently. You must prove that the dog owner knew or should have known of the dog’s viciousness and failed to take reasonable steps to restrain it.

Talking to an Injury Attorney

Most injury lawyers offer a free consultation to new clients. If you have any questions about whether a personal injury attorney handles your type of case, ask. Discuss the lawyer’s experience with similar cases. This will help you decide whether the lawyer is right for your case.

Contact Our Personal Injury Law Firm in Philadelphia Today To Get Help With Your Case

To learn more and get the help you deserve, call Zavodnick & Lasky Personal Injury Lawyers at (215) 875-7030 or contact us online.
You can also visit our law firm at 123 S Broad St #1220, Philadelphia, PA 19109.