Can I File a Claim for my Personal Injury in Texas?
Many people that have suffered an injury are often unaware of their legal rights to pursue compensation for their injury. However, seeking such legal action through a personal injury lawsuit can assist an injured victim with medical bills, lost wages, and other types of financial losses that often accompany a personal injury. The following short article offers helpful information that may be able to assist you in answering the question, “Can I file a personal injury claim?”
In order for a personal injury lawsuit in Texas to have merit, the following three characteristics must have existed or be suspected to have existed in connection to an accident causing injury:
The Victim Must Have Experienced Some Type of Injury
This injury can be physical, mental, or emotional in nature. More often than not, such an injury is physical in nature, although mental and emotional distress often accompanies such an injury. This inner duress is also taken into account as part of the personal injury claim. Additionally, a personal injury claim can also be pursued by a victim who has suffered only emotional or mental duress, such as a person who’s been involved in a catastrophic car wreck, but suffered no visible injuries. Such a person may have experienced great emotional damage and can consequently seek compensation for their injury in the same way that a physically injured person can seek compensation. However, the following two aspects must have also existed in connection to the victim’s injury.
The Defendant Must Have Violated the Legal Duty They Owed to the Victim
Legal duty is a highly circumstantial characteristic involved in personal injury cases. A legal duty can change based on the details of an accident in addition to the relationships involved in the accident. For example, a doctor owes a specific legal duty to their patients that is much more strict than the legal duty they owe to the general public while not at work. However, many personal injury lawsuits are based on the legal duty for public safety, especially in regards to auto accidents resulting in injury. Each Texas driver owes every other driver a legal duty for public safety. That legal duty is said to have been violated when one car crashes into another, causing the second car’s occupant to sustain an injury. Regardless of how the accident happened, a personal injury case must be able to show that the defendant violated the legal duty they owed to the plaintiff. Proving such a chain of events can sometimes be challenging, depending on the specifics of the accident itself.
The Victim Must Have Incurred Some Type of Economic Loss
When a person suffers an injury, they will often accrue some type of financial loss. These losses are known as damages, and can include such items as medical bills, lost wages due to time off from work, loss of future earnings in the event of a debilitating injury, property damage costs, pain and suffering, and other types of specific damages. Since the stated goal of a personal injury lawsuit is for the plaintiff to receive compensation from the defendant for the damages the plaintiff has incurred, a personal injury case without damages has no reason to be sought, since the plaintiff does not have to be compensated for any incurred damages.
With 20 years of experience in personal injury law in Texas, personal injury lawyer Michael Grossman can assist you in determining what your legal options may be in regards to your injury accident. If you believe you have merit in seeking legal action against a liable party for their negligent behavior resulting in your injury, contact our Texas injury attorneys for a toll-free legal consultation in which we can discuss the legitimacy of your possible personal injury claim in Texas.