How do I know if I have a personal injury case?
You may have a personal injury case if someone else’s careless or wrongful actions caused your injuries and losses. The other party may be an individual or an entity, such as a business.
Most personal injury claims are based on negligence, which means someone failed to act with reasonable care to prevent harming others. A negligence-based claim requires four basic elements:
- The other party owed you a duty to act safely.
- They violated that duty through careless behavior.
- The violation caused your injuries.
- You suffered actual losses, such as medical bills or lost income.
If these factors apply to your situation, you should discuss your case with our North Carolina personal injury lawyers. That being said, just because your situation meets all four of the criteria listed above, their may be any number of defenses that the other party can raise that can potentially diminish or even totally wipe out your case.
One way of understanding the personal injury case analysis is by using the metaphor of a baseball game. Meeting the four criteria listed above gets you to first base. You haven’t scored yet, but it’s a good start. The other side raising defenses like contributory negligence or statute of limitations is like being thrown out at second base. If you get safely to second base, you get to third base by proving that the accident actually caused the injuries you claim. You then get home and get compensation by proving the amount of both your economic losses and pain and suffering.
