Personal Injury Attorney

“Personal injury” is a broad term which encompasses a wide field from, well, just about any way one can get injured. One's personal injury is usually the result of the negligence of another person or persons, which falls under tort law. Like other tort law, this is generally an issue regulated on a state by state basis. A personal injury can result from the actions of another, the inactions from a company's bad safety policies, reckless behavior, etc.

Common personal injury lawsuits include auto accidents, medical malpractice, dog bites, defective product accidents, slip and fall claims, injuries from criminal acts, and work related injuries, just to name a few. Derogatorily called "ambulance chasers" many times, personal injury attorneys can actually do a lot of good for their clients, as well as for the legal profession.

Personal injury attorneys often work on a contingency fee basis for their clients, meaning they don't get paid unless they win the lawsuit, negotiate a settlement, etc. Also, since the modern trend for most lawsuits is to settle out of court, personal injury lawsuits often do not overly clog up the courts.

However, personal injury law has also been a hotbed for the discussion of tort reform, due to its large damages often awarded to the injured parties. The attorneys involved in personal injury law get a bad rap at times, not only due to their cheesy commercials and rumors of literally chasing down accident victims, but also because of the exorbitant fees they can rack up from contingency fee agreements. Putting a cap on attorneys' fees for a lawsuit is also at the heart of tort reform discussions. (Note: There are times when a judge can lower an attorney's compensation for a case.)

Furthermore, judgments and settlements at personal injury law also tend to be the root source for many structured settlements, which is another highly regulated industry. If one has been injured in a way where one believes another person or company acted wrongly, negligently, etc., it is wise to contact a personal injury attorney sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, many times, people let their claim expire due to a lapse of the statute of limitations, which varies depending upon the claim.