Personal injury occurs when a person sustains an injury due to the negligence, carelessness, or wrongful conduct of another person, company, government agency, or entity.

Personal injuries can occur accidentally, intentionally, and as the result of criminal activities.

An injury includes harm to a person’s body, mind, or emotions. The injury can also include damages to property.

Negligence

In most cases, a personal injury claim can be filed if an injury happened as the result of negligence. Negligence is a failure to exercise a level of care that would be expected of a reasonable individual under the circumstances. For example, if one person in a car accident was speeding and caused an accident because of the speeding, that person was likely negligent under the circumstances.

In order to legally obligate the negligent or faulty party to pay for losses associated with an injury, your attorney will need to show that the person who caused an accident and injury was negligent.

Negligence is proven by providing evidence and reasoning to show that:

• The accused had a duty to the victim
• The accused violated or did not fulfill that duty
• The victim was injured in some way
• The injury was caused by the breach of the accused’s duty

Personal Injury Types

• Traffic Collisions
  • Car Accidents
  • Motorcycle Accidents
  • Trucking Accidents
• Other
  • Premises Liability (Slip and Fall Cases)
  • Defamation / Slander / Libel
  • Malicious Prosecution
  • Professional Malpractice
  • Wrongful Death
  • Product Liability
  • Workers’ Compensation

Compensation

The available compensation varies by the type of personal injury case and the circumstances surrounding your injuries.

Damages

Damages are the harm that an accident or bad act caused. In civil court, a person may only seek money for harm caused for a personal injury. Unfortunately, no amount of money can ever make up for the pain and hardship an accident caused, but it can help to pay medical bills and provide some measure of justice.

Although a person may have caused an accident, a civil cause of action may not make sense if no one was injured. In other words, you cannot sue someone else for what could or might have happened.

Non-economic Damage Types

• Physical and emotional pain
• Suffering
• Inconvenience
• Physical impairment
• Disfigurement
• Mental anguish
• Emotional distress
• Loss of society
• Loss of companionship
• Loss of consortium (relations between spouses)
• Injury to reputation
• Humiliation
• Loss of enjoyment of normal activities, and pleasures of life
• Loss of mental or physical health or bodily functions

Tennessee law limits the non-economic damages you can receive to $750,000 unless your injuries are catastrophic. In that case you can receive up to $1,000,000.

These limits do not apply in cases where any of the following can be established:

• The injury was intentionally inflicted
• The defendant evaded liability through fraudulent acts
• The defendant used drugs or alcohol while committing the acts
• The defendant’s behavior has resulted in a felony conviction