Personal Injury Questions, Answered

Each guide answers one question directly in the first paragraph, then explains the rules, gives a worked example and lists the questions readers ask next. Every guide notes where state law changes the answer.

• At Fault in a Car Accident? Comparative Negligence Explained

  If you are at fault in a car accident, your liability insurance pays for the other party's injuries and vehicle damage up to your policy limits, your own collision coverage repairs your car minus the deductible, and your premium will usually rise at renewal.

• What Is the Average Car Accident Settlement? What Sets the Value

  There is no reliable average settlement for a car accident.

• Can I Sue for a Slip and Fall? Premises Liability Explained

  You can sue for a slip and fall if the property owner or the business in control of the property was negligent: it created the hazard, knew about it, or should have discovered and fixed it through reasonable inspection, and that failure caused your injury.

• Can I Sue My Employer for a Work Injury? Workers' Comp vs Lawsuit

  In most cases, no.

• Can You Sue for Emotional Distress? The Three Legal Routes

  Yes, you can sue for emotional distress, but how hard it is depends on the route.

• What Is a Personal Injury Claim and How Does the Process Work?

  A personal injury claim is a formal request for compensation from the person or business whose carelessness injured you, usually paid by that party's insurance company.

• How Long Does a Personal Injury Case Take? Timeline by Phase

  A personal injury case commonly takes anywhere from a few months to a few years, and the biggest single factor is how long your medical treatment lasts, because a claim is normally not settled until a doctor says you have recovered as far as you are going to.

• Punitive vs. Compensatory Damages: What Each Pays For

  Compensatory damages repay an injured person for what the injury cost them: economic losses such as medical bills and lost wages, and non-economic losses such as pain and suffering.

• Should You Accept the First Settlement Offer After a Crash?

  Usually not, at least not right away.

• Types of Personal Injury Cases and How Each Is Proven

  Personal injury cases are civil claims for physical or psychological harm caused by someone else's wrongful conduct.

• What Does a Personal Injury Lawyer Do, and Do You Need One?

  A personal injury lawyer investigates how you were hurt, preserves the evidence, collects your medical records and bills, calculates what the injury has cost and will cost you, negotiates with the insurance company and files a lawsuit if the insurer will not pay a fair amount.

• What Is a Wrongful Death Claim? Who Can File and What It Covers

  A wrongful death claim is a civil lawsuit brought when a person dies because of someone else's negligence or wrongful act, such as a careless driver, a medical error or a defective product.

• What Is Medical Malpractice? The Four Elements, With Examples

  Medical malpractice is a legal claim that a doctor, nurse, hospital or other health care provider injured a patient by failing to meet the standard of care, meaning what a reasonably careful provider in the same field would have done in the same situation.

• What Is Pain and Suffering? How It Is Valued in an Injury Claim

  Pain and suffering is the legal term for the physical pain, emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life that an injury causes, as distinct from bills and lost wages.

• What to Do After a Car Accident: A Step-by-Step Timeline

  After a car accident, first make sure everyone is safe and call 911 so that injuries are treated and a police report is created.

• How Much Compensation for Whiplash? What Drives a Settlement

  There is no set amount of compensation for whiplash.

• Car Accident claims
• Truck Accident claims
• Motorcycle Accident claims
• Pedestrian Accident claims
• Slip and Fall claims
• Workplace Injury claims
• Medical Malpractice claims
• Wrongful Death claims

Or choose your state from the injury law guides hub for county and community pages.