8 Common Types of Personal Injury Cases

Millions of Americans are injured in car accidents every year. These accidents are often caused by some form of negligence, such as:

• Reckless driving
• Speeding
• Drunk driving
• Running a red light
• Distracted driving
• Tailgating

A “car accident” isn’t limited to just cars; it can involve trucks, buses, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians.

As long as the liability for the accident falls to another party, a personal injury lawsuit allows injury victims to get the compensation they’re owed.

Premises liability refers to claims where a person is injured on someone else’s property through the negligence of the property owner. The owner could be an individual, business, or municipality.

For example, this might mean:

• Hitting your head on the bottom of a friend’s pool because the water wasn’t deep enough beneath their diving board
• Falling down a staircase at a mall because of a missing or broken handrail
• Your child getting injured at a public park while playing on unsafe equipment

The most common type of premises liability cases are slip and fall accidents. These happen when you lose your footing on a slick surface such as ice, snow, or water. A nasty fall can be more than just embarrassing—it can result in sprained muscles, broken bones, and even brain injuries.

If the property owner’s carelessness caused your fall, you may have grounds for a personal injury claim.

Under Minnesota law, businesses of every size are required to provide their employees with workers’ compensation coverage regardless of whether they work part-time or full-time. If you’re injured on the job, your employer generally has to cover your injury claim.

For example, if you’re scalded at the office while using a defective coffee maker or struck by a piece of machinery on a construction site, you may be entitled to workers’ comp benefits from your employer.

In some cases you could have more options than just workers’ compensation. If someone unconnected to your employer was responsible for your injury, you may be able to file a separate third-party personal injury lawsuit against them for additional compensation.

Another one of the most common types of personal injury cases is medical malpractice. Medical malpractice occurs when a patient is injured because of substandard care.

This may come in the form of:

• Misdiagnosis
• Improper treatment
• Surgical mistakes
• Medication errors
• Birth injuries

You have a right to expect quality medical attention. If a healthcare professional has injured you through medical malpractice, you can pursue legal action against them—and potentially the organization they work with.

Unlike most of the other types of personal injury cases in this list, assault isn’t the result of negligence, but rather willful harm. Assault means someone has attacked you on purpose, fully intending to hurt you.

If you’ve been assaulted, you should consider filing a personal injury claim against the aggressor. Even if they’re already facing criminal charges, you may be able to seek compensation through a civil lawsuit.

Manufacturers and businesses are obligated to make sure that their products are safe for consumers. Of course, they don’t always live up to that obligation. Dangerous and defective products have injured countless innocent victims across America.

Products such as:

• Harmful drugs
• Poisonous food and drink
• Faulty vehicle parts
• Hazardous children’s toys
• Malfunctioning medical devices
• Toxic skincare products

Whenever someone is hurt by a dangerous or defective product, they’re often able to bring a lawsuit against the negligent manufacturer and distributor.

Each year, 4.5 million people are bitten by dogs, and thousands of those will end up in the hospital.

Minnesota has a “strict liability” standard for dog attacks. That means that if a dog attacks you, you can hold the owner liable for your injuries as long as:

• You were allowed to be in the place where you were attacked
• You were “acting peaceably”
• You didn’t do anything to provoke the dog

Once those standards are met, the owner is considered responsible even if they had no reason to think the dog would behave aggressively.

(This applies regardless of how the dog injured you—whether by biting you, scratching you, or knocking you down.)

Wrongful death claims come into play when someone dies because of the carelessness or misconduct of another. It operates like any other personal injury lawsuit, except that the injury resulted in death.

The immediate family of the deceased can pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the negligent party to recover various damages, such as:

• Medical bills
• Funeral expenses
• Loss of future income and benefits
• Loss of household contributions, such as shopping, cooking, cleaning, and handyman work
• Loss of guidance from a parent
• Loss of companionship and intimacy from a spouse

Losing a loved one is always a tragedy, and the last thing the grieving family needs are further financial concerns. By filing a wrongful death lawsuit, they can reclaim some peace of mind during a painful time—and maybe gain a deeper sense of closure.

Suffering an injury can be painful, stressful, and frightening. If you or a loved one has been injured, you may be entitled to compensation.

At SiebenCarey, we’ve spent decades helping injury victims get the compensation they deserve. Just reach out to us, and we’ll get right to work. We’ll study the details of your case and explain your rights to you.

Then we’ll put our years of experience to work making sure you get every dollar you deserve.