Serious Injury

A serious personal injury is a disabling injury. The disability may be temporary or permanent, partial or total. A serious injury causes a significant interruption in normal lifestyle due to loss of work, substantial pain, disfigurement, or the like. A serious injury adversely affects earnings and the quality of life for you and your family.

The compensation you are entitled to receive often depends upon the type of accident causing the injury. For instance, there are different rules of recovery when the injury results from an automobile accident than when it is an on-the-job injury.

To understand the rule that would apply to your situation, you need to consult with an attorney. You must be aware of certain time limitations for acting to protect your interest and the interest of your family. If you do not act within certain time limits, you may lose your right to make a claim in the future even if the injury, which now seems relatively insignificant, gets much worse as time goes by. These time limits are particularly short when medical malpractice may have caused the injury.

The law permits you to seek recovery after an accident to "make you whole again." The central concept is that you should be compensated in a manner that, as best as the law can arrange, places you back in the same position as you were before the accident.

Punitive Damages
In addition to normal compensatory damages designed to make someone whole, in extreme cases "punitive damages" may be available if the injury was the result of someone else's reckless or irresponsible behavior, or if the cause of the accident or the extent of the injury was caused by something about the car that is dangerous, a defective product, that the manufacturer should have corrected.

If you suffer a personal injury you'll likely require medical attention and may need rehabilitation, both of which cost money. You may lose income and/or have to use up "sick time" because of the injury, and while treatment and recovery takes place. You may lose the ability to perform various activities of normal daily living, for a while or long term. You may endure pain and suffering.

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