Under the law, a personal injury is any harm that you as an individual sustain, including physical injuries, financial costs and emotional trauma. Injuries can also be personal losses, such as losing the care and companionship of a loved one.
As you work to resolve your accident claim, you may hear insurance adjustors, lawyers and doctors talk about different degrees of injuries. You may hear injuries described as minor, moderate, severe or catastrophic. Minor or moderate injuries can be injuries such as sprains, strains, fractures, bruising or superficial cuts. These may be painful, but they usually heal well and quickly, with minimal medical treatment.
You may hear insurance adjustors refer to “soft tissue injuries.” Soft tissue injuries are injuries to the non-bony parts of the body, such as internal organs, nerves, muscles and connective tissues. Sprains, whiplash and pulled muscles are all types of soft tissue injuries. Even if you have a bruise over the affected area, you and your doctor may not realize you have a soft tissue injury under the bruise, because it can be hidden from sight and hard to detect with tests. Soft tissue injuries may heal quickly, but some do not. Some can even result in chronic pain and disability, which can be permanent if not treated properly. Typically, it is harder to recover substantial compensation in these cases than in cases involving serious or catastrophic injuries.
A catastrophic injury is a serious injury that is expected to permanently change the victim’s life. Examples of this type of injury include burns, amputations, spinal cord injuries, paralysis and head injuries (also called traumatic brain injuries). These types of injuries result in the most significant settlements and verdicts, because the injuries can be proven objectively and are more obvious to the insurance company or a jury.
Although catastrophic injuries are obvious in most cases, sometimes the full extent of the injury is not immediately revealed. This is especially true when the victim has suffered a traumatic brain injury, also called a closed head injury. In some cases, the brain may be affected in ways so subtle that only people close to the victim notice changes in abilities, behavior or personality.
A closed head injury can be caused by physical trauma (a hard blow or penetrating wound), a blast wave from an explosion or violent shaking of the head. It often results from actual jostling of the brain. Such trauma can damage the tissues of the brain, which in turn affects the abilities controlled by the damaged tissue.
A concussion is the mildest form of a brain injury, but more serious brain injuries leave their victims permanently disabled. As one often expects, a brain injury may affect many aspects of the injured person’s life, including physical movement, the senses, intellectual ability, creativity and even personality. Sometimes, what appears to be a minor concussion or brief loss of consciousness following a car accident can turn into in a more serious closed head injury later on, with symptoms such as chronic headaches, memory loss, loss of concentration or changes in a person’s personality or behavior.
One of the more severe, significant and complex types of claims is the wrongful death case. Each state typically has their own laws and procedures governing a wrongful death claim. In Washington, the wrongful death statutes are complex, both substantively and procedurally. A personal representative must be appointed by the court to represent the deceased’s estate and the surviving family members. Only certain surviving family members can recover compensation for the loss of their loved one. There may be several claims involved in one case – the estate’s claim, and each claim brought by a surviving spouse and children.
The law of personal injury and insurance law is continually changing and evolving. You should definitely speak with a qualified and experienced personal injury attorney about your claim, especially if it involves permanent or longlasting injuries and/or the loss of a loved one.
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