What is meant by the term personal injury?

Personal injuries include all types of injuries to a person's body, emotions, or reputation, as opposed to injuries to property rights.

Personal injury

is a legal term for an injury to the body, mind, or emotions, as opposed to an injury to property. In common law jurisdictions, the term is most commonly used to refer to a type of tort lawsuit in which the person bringing the lawsuit (the plaintiff in English law or the plaintiff in US jurisdictions) has suffered harm to their body or mind. Personal injury claims are brought against the person or entity that caused the harm through negligence, gross negligence, reckless conduct, or intentional misconduct and, in some cases, on the basis of strict liability.

Different jurisdictions describe damages (or the things for which the injured person can be compensated) in different ways, but damages often include the injured person's medical bills, pain and suffering, and a decreased quality of life. Personal injury claims: negligence, medical negligence, and liability for defective products. In the United States, personal injuries in the sense of bodily injury to others are usually covered by liability insurance. Personal injury cases can also include toxic torts, in which an airborne or water-borne contaminant causes illness, injury, or death.

Finally, pre-industrial injuries lacked the magnitude of force of modern personal injuries, as they were usually caused by people or animals, not powerful machines. Starting in the mid-19th century, personal injury claims were filed following accidents on the new railroads. A personal injury lawyer can explain these and other defenses and determine if they apply to a particular case. In the United Kingdom, the Damages Act 1996 gives the Lord Chancellor the power to set a discount rate that courts must consider when awarding compensation for future financial losses in cases of personal injury, reflecting the expectation that the payment of global compensation will attract investment interests.

Despite the general distinction between bodily injury and personal injury in insurance contracts, car insurance known as personal injury protection (PIP) covers medical expenses derived from bodily injury. As is the case in most civil cases, personal injury cases begin with the filing of a document called a complaint with a court. By filing a personal injury lawsuit, injury victims aim to hold the people who harmed them accountable for their actions and to recover compensation for the resulting damages. Personal injury attorneys work hard to ensure that their clients receive the damages they are entitled to by law.

Other causes of personal injury lawsuits include conditions that are often classified as occupational diseases. The general objective of personal injury actions is to determine who was responsible and to force them to compensate the injured person for the losses suffered. The term personal injury also incorporates injuries derived from medical and dental care, which can result in medical malpractice lawsuits. In some personal injury actions, legal causation can be established if the plaintiff can show that the defendant engaged in intentional conduct.