One of the most common questions I hear in my practice is How do I know if I have a good Pennsylvania Personal Injury Case? A good Pennsylvania Personal Injury Case requires solid evidence of three things Fault, Causation and Harm. But, to have a really good case, you also need the target defendant to have insurance coverage or assets to pay for your injuries.
Fault
The first thing that you need good evidence of in order to have a good Personal Injury Case is Fault. You must be able to prove that someone else is at fault for causing your injuries because the person intended to hurt you or did so through carelessness, otherwise known as negligence.
Common injury claims include car accidents, slip or trip and fall accidents and medical malpractice.
Fault in a Car Accident case usually involves a driver violating a traffic rule, like following too closely and rear-ending someone, running a red light, failing to yield while making a left hand turn or some type of distracted driving, like driving while texting.
In a Slip and Fall case, proving fault involves showing that the property owner allowed a dangerous condition to exist on the property for an unreasonable length of time. Examples include a grocery store failing to notice and clean up a spill or a store failing to salt icy spots in a parking lot.
In a Medical Malpractice case, proving fault requires an expert witness who will testify that the doctor failed to exercise proper care in the treatment of the patient and caused harm.
Causation
The second thing you need evidence of in order to have a good Personal Injury Case is Causation. You must be able to prove that the incident caused you harm. In some cases, it’s hard to prove Causation because the injured party may have had pre-existing injuries. Causation is established by medical testimony that the incident caused the harm being alleged.
Harm
The third thing that you need in order to have a good Personal Injury Case is Harm. In Pennsylvania, an injured person is entitled to recover full and fair compensation for all Harm caused in an accident, whether it is from a Car Accident, Slip and Fall or Medical Malpractice.
The Harm that is compensable under Pennsylvania law includes past and future medical bills, lost wages, out-of-pocket costs, pain and suffering, disability, scarring and disfigurement and embarrassment and humiliation.
Insurance or Assets
Unfortunately, it’s not good enough that an injured person has solid proof of Fault, Causation and Harm. In order to have a really good Personal Injury case, the person responsible for causing the Harm, the target defendant, needs to have good insurance coverage or asssets in order to be able to pay fair compensation for the Harm.
Sometimes an injured person will have proof of Fault and Causation as well as proof os very serious Harm, but if the defendant has no or little insurance and no assets, there is little to be recovered in the Personal Injury case. So, the final piece in the puzzle of a good Personal Injury case is a defendant with good insurance coverage and/or assets.
For more information on Pennsylvania Personal Injury cases, contact Tim Rayne, a Personal Injury and Car Accident Lawyer with offices in Kennett Square and West Chester. For over 20 years, Tim has been helping injured victims of accidents in Pennsylvania receive fair treatment from insurance companies. Contact Tim at 610 840 0124 or trayne@macelree.com for a Free Case Evaluation.