Phoenix personal injury accidents
When a victim is injured through the actions of another, this is called personal injury. Although most people think of personal injury as a physical injury, that is not necessarily always the case. A person can be responsible for causing personal injury to another whenever they injured another person’s body, emotions or mind. Furthermore, a victim who has received a personal injury may have cause to file a claim in a civil court and pursue monetary compensation for their injury. In the Phoenix area, those considering filing a personal injury claim may well benefit from the assistance of Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyers.
What is necessary to file a claim for personal injury?
To successfully file a claim for compensation, the victim must typically show that he or she was injured through no fault of their own and as the result of someone else’s willful or negligent conduct. Willful conduct simply refers to intent. That is, the person causing injury intended to cause harm. For example, when someone purposefully hits another and breaks that person’s leg, that is grounds for a personal injury lawsuit. Likewise, if someone purposefully frightens another, and the other person breaks their arm as a result, then that is also grounds for personal injury lawsuit. All that is necessary is that one intended to cause harm, which can be shown when someone tries to scare another.
On the other hand, negligent conduct refers to negligence. Someone is negligent when they breach the duty of care that would be owed by a reasonable person under the circumstances, and that breach led to the harm suffered by the victim. For instance, someone who drives over the speed limit and causes a car accident was most likely negligent. Also, a medical professional who makes a careless mistake may also be deemed negligent.
Last but not least, in any successful personal injury lawsuit, the victim must have suffered some type of harm. However, harm is not necessarily a physical injury. Harm can also refer to emotional harm, monetary harm, or reputational harm. In the legals sense of the word, harm simply means that the victim suffered in some way as a result of the negligent or willful conduct of another.
How is a personal injury claim filed?
First and foremost, before filing any personal injury claim, one needs to determine if they are able to do so. Even if all the elements above are met, many jurisdictions have specific statutes of limitations for different types of personal injury. So if a victim fails to file their claim for compensation within the applicable time period, they may forever be barred from doing so.
It is thus often in a victim’s best interest to contact Phoenix personal injury attorneys as soon as possible after suffering the personal injury. The longer one waits, the more difficult it may be to gather the necessary evidence. Moreover, it is important to record memories as soon as possible as recollections of the action causing the harm tend to fade over time.
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