What is a Personal Injury?

Houston Personal Injury Attorney Michael Grossman Explains Personal Injuries & the Process to Recovering Compensation

While any type of injury may be considered personal in nature, the term personal injury is a specific legal term that refers to any type of damage that a person receives to their body, mind, or emotions.

In order for an injured victim to be able to seek legal action against an entity responsible for their injury, they must have sustained a personal injury of some sort that is accompanied by damages, i.e. financial losses. The Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code is the Texas law that dictates the legal procedures that must be followed in order for an injured party to seek compensation for their injury.

Most often, the answer to the question of “What is a personal injury?” also includes an aspect of negligent behavior on behalf of the liable party. In other words, some other entity, through reckless or careless behavior, caused you to suffer harm. Texas law mandates that all people owe each other a certain standard of care to each other. When this standard of care is violated in some fashion and one party suffers an injury, the injured party can seek compensation for their incurred financial losses that often accompany such an injury, like medical bills or lost wages, through a personal injury lawsuit. Under these circumstances, an injured victim can hire an experienced Houston personal injury attorney to help them seek fair compensation for their injury so that they can start the recovery process in order to get back to living their life.

When an injured victim has suffered a personal injury, the victim must be the party to initiate legal action through a personal injury lawsuit. Texas law does not require a liable party to voluntarily award compensation to an aggrieved party. The liable party must be proven to have been a cause or a contributing factor to the victim’s accident resulting in their injury. It is only after the success of a personal injury lawsuit that an aggrieved party will receive fair compensation for their injury.

Take the following story as an example of a common personal injury case, even though personal injury cases in Houston are all unique in their own ways due to the highly circumstantial nature of personal injury accident cases. Bob is driving on Loop 610 around Houston when another car crashed into him. The collision is severe enough that Bob must be airlifted to the hospital. After nearly a week in the hospital, Bob is able to return home, though he’s not able to immediately return to work. Furthermore, he also has to partake in daily physical therapy sessions. Additionally, he suffers from the fear of possibly being involved in another serious traffic accident.

In such an instance, Bob would be able to seek compensation from the other driver since the other driver could be shown to have violated the legal duty for public safety he owed to Bob. As long as relevant evidence can be procured from the scene of the accident, or proper eyewitness testimony can be gathered linking the car wreck to the liable driver, then Bob would be able to consider seeking legal action through a personal injury lawsuit. The compensation he could possibly receive through the successful outcome of a personal injury civil suit in Houston could help him with the costs he’s accrued in the aftermath of the car accident, such as medical bills, lost wages, and therapy costs. Furthermore, damages for pain and suffering (the fear of getting struck again) can also be sought through a personal injury lawsuit in Texas.

In such instances, Bob would likely consider contacting an experienced Houston personal injury auto accident attorney to ensure that his best interests are being looked out for at all points in the legal process. Since insurance companies treat accidents causing injury much differently than they treat property damage only accidents, like your common fender-bender, an experienced attorney’s assistance can prove to be a great benefit to someone in Bob’s condition. Without prior experience in dealing with well-trained insurance adjusters who often have their company’s bottom-line in mind, a victim like Bob may succumb to tactics that such insurers often attempt to employ in order to make quick and cost-effective work of a claim. For example, they may entice Bob with a quick settlement number. While such a settlement can prove tantalizing, especially to a victim that may be in dire need of financial help following an injury accident, the settlement offered is often much less than what is equal to the total amount of damages incurred by the victim. Furthermore, the acceptance of such a settlement is often accompanied by the victim having to sign away their rights to seek further legal action. After such a settlement has been agreed to, there is little to nothing that even an experienced attorney can do. Consequently, hiring an experienced attorney before having to deal with any type of insurance agent for a personal injury can ensure that your naivete does not lead you toward receiving less-than-fair compensation for your injury.

While the answer to the question of “What is a personal injury?” is fairly straightforward, knowing what to do after suffering a personal injury is often less so. However, experienced Houston personal injury lawyers can help you understand if you’ve suffered a personal injury and if your personal injury case has merit. Once a legitimate claim can be made, a knowledgeable personal injury lawyer in Houston, TX can help defend your rights against even the most aggressive of insurance adjusters or defense attorneys so that you can stand to receive full and fair compensation for your injury.