Personal Injury Liability
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Personal injury liability insurance coverage is a must for almost any business or individual to provide financial resources in the event of someone being hurt on premises. In today's litigious society, such personal injury liability insurance is a must for any owning a car, property, dog or business. In other words, the average person has a large exposure to the possibility of a personal injury liability lawsuit. Think not? Consider the scenario in which a person has a communicable disease. There then becomes the risk of liability, particularly if it can be proven that the carrier knew he had the disease and still invited someone to his home or perhaps went to work. And there is the wintry slip and fall in front of the house by the crotchety neighbor who is just looking for the chance to sue your socks off.
Automobile insurance usually has, in most states, a required minimum coverage in cases of bodily injury to other passengers in one's car. The minimum coverage for personal injury liability for auto insurance is very, very small, sometimes as little as ten or twenty thousand dollars per person. Not exactly comforting when lawsuits are routinely over a million dollars. And because the chances are quite substantial that sometime in fifty years of driving a person is going to be in an auto accident of some sort this becomes an even more pressing concern. But the need for insurance coverage for personal legal responsibility doesn't stop there.
If the neighbor or mailman or door to door salesperson is bitten by one's dog, just go ahead and call an attorney and make the appointment. The lawsuit is just a few days from being filed. Many people own a house but often don't have a homeowner's insurance clause with their policy. And if they do have the coverage, it is often not enough to answer the routine damage claim demands often placed on policies. And when homeowners have certain breeds of dogs, own swimming pools and other glowingly litigious targets, more and special coverage may be required. A person ought to seek out the advice of a personal injury liability attorney, especially if you have pit bulls guarding that swimming pool.
Personal injury is not like a two sided coin with just a couple issues in its structure. There are also the issues of false arrest, wrongful detention, false imprisonment and malicious persecution. In this sense, someone who believes they have been the object of such treatment would seek damages under a personal injury liability law suit. Law enforcement officers, security guards, parole officers and other similar occupations face liability issues on a regular basis and require protection from lawsuits. Often the coverage is included with a policy from the governmental entity or employer that hires them, but no employees should take anything for granted and should review the policy with an attorney.
There is another side to this whole personal injury liability issue and that is the exposure that journalists and writers have to the publications of slander, defamatory remarks, disparaging material, or the revealing of matters that violate right of privacy. As with law enforcement officials, those with high exposure to the possibility of these violations should possess and maintain a liability policy in order to mitigate financial loss because of a lawsuit. Many people do not know that Christians are prohibited in scripture from suing one another. Issues of litigation are supposed to be handled strictly among believers. "Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go before the unjust and not before the saints?...If then ye have judgments pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are at least esteemed in the church." (I Corinthians 6:1, 4)
Within this concept of liability lies the concept called strict liability. This is when certain activities will always be held liable, not matter how good the defense may be. For example, certain types of toy manufacturing, animal handling, and building demolition will be subject to strict liability prosecution. Perhaps strict liability ought to be called slam dunk liability! But all personal injury liability lawsuits come under the main heading of tort law, unless there was criminal intent to harm someone. Negligence is the cornerstone of civil tort law, and there must be some proof that there was indeed the overlooking of obvious or sometime even unforeseen injurious possibilities.
Whether a person has been injured by negligent acts or is being used because of supposed negligence, the choice of an attorney will be crucial. Just as physicians usually specialize today in a certain area of medicine in order to improve service to the patient, the practice of law has also become highly specialized and in this case, a personal injury attorney is called for. So when a person is seeking an attorney there are some key elements to be considered such as the experience the barrister has had with the very specific kind of case under discussion. Discussing fees and extra expenses and knowing if the attorney compensation will be decided on the actual judgment awarded or a flat fee as well as finding out all the people who will be working on the matter should be asked and answered. Finding out the lawyer's approach on the matter is also important such as whether or not the goal is a compromise or a fully fledged complete legal victory. Make no assumptions, and go to different websites before meeting or talking to any attorney looking for every possible question a person might have so that there are no surprises later on.
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