A personal injury attorney generally works in civil rather than criminal court.
When you hire a personal injury attorney to sue another party or organization, you are usually basing your suit on a tort. Criminal court handles cases where someone has broken a law. The public prosecutor, rather than the victim is taking the person or organization to court here.
A personal injury attorney is familiar with tort procedures and is generally not working on the premise that the person being sued has broken the law but rather that she, he or they have harmed another - the personal injury attorney's client. The personal injury attorney is bringing suit on behalf of the client because the defendant has been intentionally or unintentially negligent, or just been liable for damages. The reason behind the personal injury's attorney's case for the client is that the client has been injured financially, physically or even emotionally.
Personal injury attorneys bring lawsuits most often for cases involving assault, battery, trespass, negligence, emotional distress or product liability. Torts come under three specific categories, and a personal injury attorney can handle any of the three. These categories are intentional tort, where a person or group has deliberately caused harm to another, negligent tort in which a person or group has caused harm to another just because they failed to follow normal procedures, guidelines or rules, and a tort that is strictly liable.
The latter is when you are the person or group responsible for the item, property or product that ends up injuring another. An example may be if you fail to shovel your sidewalk and someone breaks her or his leg on the ice in front of your home.
Personal injury attorneys use tort law to compensate their clients, the victims, for the loss they have experienced. The secondary purpose behind the personal injury attorney bring a suit for tort is to deliver a punishment on the defendant that will cause him, her or them to rethink their behavior and thus not repeat it, injuring others subsequently.
A personal injury attorney will generally ask that her or his client or clients be awarded both compensatory damages as well as punitive damages. Compensatory damages are those that the defendant would pay to the personal injury attorney's client to repay the victim for any financial loss as a result of the defendant's actions and some additional money for the victim's pain and suffering.
When a personal injury attorney asks for punitive damages he or she is asking that the defendant should be monetarily punished for his, her or their malice or neglect or recklessness towards the personal injury attorney's client. Your personal injury attorney doesn't typically head right to court with your court case, however. There are other steps that lead up to a trial and some that in fact may avoid a trial altogether. Not only does a personal injury attorney want to win your case for you. She or he also wants it to be timely for you and result in the least expense for you with the largest monetary reward. This may not require a trial. Your personal injury attorney will help you decide the best course of action for you.
The steps that your personal injury attorney and you will go through are first to try to settle the matter outside of a courtroom. The second is to actually file the lawsuit. Then the personal injury attorney takes part in discovery, followed by a pretrial motion (possible several) and discussion with the defendant's attorney. This could result in a settlement for you. If not your personal injury attorney will take the defendant to trial and if the judgment is for the personal injury attorney's client the defendant may still appeal.
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