Personal injury law is the broad area of law that allows a person who is hurt because of someone else's wrongful conduct to seek compensation. It covers a wide range of situations — vehicle crashes, falls on unsafe property, defective products, animal attacks, medical harm, and more — and serves as the foundation for many narrower injury practice areas.
Most personal injury claims are based on negligence: the failure to use the level of care a reasonable person would use under similar circumstances. To recover, an injured person generally must show that another party owed them a duty of care, breached it, and caused real harm as a result. Some claims instead involve intentional wrongdoing or, in certain situations, responsibility that does not depend on proving carelessness. Compensation, often called damages, can include medical expenses, lost income, future care needs, and pain and suffering.
For a non-lawyer, several concepts are useful: the role of insurance in resolving many claims, the way a person's own share of fault can reduce or affect recovery in many places, and the existence of time limits for bringing a claim. Many personal injury lawyers work on a contingency-fee basis. People commonly seek legal help when injuries are serious, fault is disputed, an insurer denies or undervalues a claim, or the long-term consequences of an injury are significant.
