There are two categories in personal injury law – (1) the intentional acts or torts and (2) negligence cases. Intentional acts happen when the person plans to commit the unlawful act that results to damages and injuries on the victim. Normally, it will not matter whether the injury is intentional or the suffered injury is more severe that what was planned.
From the legal point of view, it would be very difficult to claim compensation from the negligent party who committed an intentional tort. Most of the insurance companies do not include in their coverage the premeditated wrongful acts. However, there are injuries that resulted from multiple causes may be considered in the same act. For example – a private daycare school has the responsibility to secure its premises to keep the children safe at all times. They have to keep an eye on the probable wrongful actions of third parties. If a stranger molested a child, this might be considered as intentional act – but if the school allows anybody to go in and out of the school premises or has less supervision in its employees, the molested child is caused by the heedlessness of the school – and this conduct is subjected to legal actions.
Some of the common intentional acts are child abuse, battery, assault, and character defamation. Almost all of the criminal acts will sustain a claim based on the intentional unlawful behavior of the criminal
Negligence is the other category of personal injury law. This is the type of action is not intentional but the carelessness of the person caused harm on the other person. Most of the litigation under this category is from motor vehicle accidents or car accidents charging the other driver with negligence.
The negligent party can win this case if he/she can show and prove that the defendant has the duty to exercise rational care. He/She must prove that the defendant violated that obligation, and that the injuries of the victim caused from the breach of duty. This means that in a car accident, one of the drivers owes the other driver the responsibility to drive safely. If the accident resulted to severe damages including that of the car, the negligent party is answerable for all the expenses and medical bills.
The injured person has the right to argue that the accident was caused legally by the defendant. Thus, he/she is liable to pay the compensation claim demanded by he injured party. Aside from car accidents, slip and fall accidents and work injury accidents also fall under personal injury law.
In general, the only way to succeed in these cases is to hire the most qualified lawyer in your place. Choose the lawyers that practices specific cases. For example, you will file a medical malpractice against a physician or a hospital; you need to look for malpractice lawyers so that all the areas in the case will be covered. Make sure also that your lawyer is credible and trustworthy because you will be sharing even the most confidential information about you or the victim – though you have nothing to worry about this because lawyers are bounded by law to be trustworthy and honest in every case they handle.