When you are hurt because of someone else’s negligence, it only makes sense for the wrongdoer to pay for your injuries. There is a whole section of the law devoted to making wrongdoers pay for the harm they cause—tort law. Also known as personal injury law, tort law allows people to recover monetary damages as compensation for economic and non-economic damages. In some cases, a victim may even be entitled to punitive damages.
Insurance policies are one of the main ways people are protected from financial harm caused by another’s actions. Many risky activities—such as driving—require that the person carry liability insurance. Homeowners and other property owners generally carry insurance as well, as do professionals like medical providers. If the party is insured, the process usually starts with claiming against their insurer. If the wrongdoer is not insured, then you may have to start by filing a lawsuit. A Mount Juliet personal injury lawyer at Ponce Law can look at the circumstances of the accident and advise you regarding the best way to proceed.
Most personal injury claims are based on negligence. Negligence means that a person breached their duty of care towards you. However, negligence is not the only way to prove a breach of care. Their behavior could also be reckless, malicious, or intentional.
There are four elements to a personal injury claim:
Proving the duty of care is the first hurdle in any personal injury claim. For example, property owners have a general duty to keep visitors to their property safe from hazards but do not owe the same duty to trespassers.
Another major hurdle is proving causation. It is not enough that a wrongdoer breached their duty to another person—the breach has to have caused an accident or injury. Multiple people may actually be responsible for causing an action, and the state has provisions for those claims.
Our Mount Juliet personal injury attorneys can collect the evidence necessary to prove someone else’s negligence and hold them accountable for your losses.
Tennessee Code Annotated § 29-11-101, the Uniform Contribution Among Tort-Feasors Act, addresses contributory and modified comparative negligence in Tennessee. The state recognizes modified comparative negligence, which means that as long as you are less than 50 percent responsible for an accident, you can still recover from other wrongdoers for your injuries. The amount of your judgment is reduced to reflect your contribution to the injuries.
The law also examines contributory negligence. Wrongdoers are generally jointly and severally liable for injuries. If found responsible, you can recover for everything but your portion of the negligence from any one wrongdoer. The wrongdoer then has the right of contribution to seek repayment from other parties for their part in the injuries.
All of this may seem complex, but what it comes down to is that—as long as you are less than 50 percent responsible for your injuries—you can sue one or more wrongdoers and get financial compensation for those injuries. A skilled Mount Juliet accident attorney will thoroughly investigate your case and collect the evidence needed to hold all at-fault parties accountable and demand the comprehensive compensation you deserve.
Potential compensation in a personal injury case consists of three types of damages: economic, non-economic, and punitive. Examples include:
Not every case will support all three types of damages; a qualified injury lawyer in Mount Juliet can examine the facts to help determine what type of damages may be available in your specific case.
Tort reform in Tennessee has led to limits on non-economic and punitive damages. There are no limits on the amount of provable economic damages that a victim can recover. However, insurance limits may make recovery of substantial awards more difficult.
When someone else’s behavior leads to an injury, you are entitled to compensation. The amount and type of potential compensation depend on the facts of the accident, the nature of your injury, and other factors. The best way to find out about your potential rights after a lawsuit is to schedule a consultation with a Mount Juliet personal injury lawyer at Ponce Law.
