What Types of Accidents Cause Personal Injury?

Personal injuries and wrongful deaths result from many causes. They also take many forms, ranging from cuts and bruises to broken bones, traumatic brain injuries, and cerebral palsy. Fortunately, victims have undeniable rights to hold the people or organizations that harm them accountable. Parents can seek insurance settlements for injured children, and a designated family member or estate executor can file a civil lawsuit on behalf of a person who needlessly lost his or her life.

Following is a quick summary of the major types of personal injury and wrongful death cases. If you or a loved one has fallen victim to any of these, you may have a legal champion among the attorneys who practice out of the Cleveland, Ohio, offices of Agee Clymer Mitchell & Portman. Let us know how we can help by calling (800) 678-3318 or connecting with us online. The initial consultation will cost you nothing.

Car Accidents

Car wrecks, truck crashes, and motorcycle accidents likely come to mind most quickly when anyone hears “Cleveland, Ohio, personal injury lawyer.” This is entirely appropriately because people who hurt or kill others by violating traffic laws, driving recklessly, or driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs should be made to settle insurance claims, pay compensation for medical bills, and pay damages for pain and suffering.

Medical Malpractice

When doctors, dentists, pharmacists, or nurses fail to follow the best practices for patient care, individuals can spend months or years suffering unnecessarily. Too often, medical mistakes kill. Just a few of the errors health care providers make that can justify a personal injury or wrongful death claim are:

• Prescribing, dispensing, or administering the wrong drug in the wrong way or at an unsafe dose
• Operating on the wrong body part or person
• Providing insufficient care during labor and delivery
• Leaving sponges or surgical implements inside a patient
• Misdiagnosing debilitating or deadly conditions by not following standard diagnostic guidelines
• Allowing a patient to fall or injure him or herself by not providing appropriate monitoring and assistance

Hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes also have legal duties to protect patients. Often, a medical malpractice lawsuit will name both a health care practitioner and the facility that employed the individual who committed the alleged error.

Slips & Falls

Homeowners and businesses must ensure the safety of visitors. “Slip and fall” is the catch-all term for this because the stereotypical case involves a customer slipping on an unmopped floor. The key to succeeding with such a claim lies in showing that the danger was known to exist but not fixed, which constitutes negligence on the part of the property owner or legal occupant. For instance, loose railings, broken steps, building code violations, exposed wiring, and heavy objects stored unsecurely overhead can give rise to slip and fall claims.

Dangerous and Defective Products

Companies that make or sell items that injure, poison, or kill consumers can be sued. Proving intent is not necessary. A plaintiff in a dangerous or defective product lawsuits only needs to prove that a problem should have been noticed and corrected before anyone got hurt.

Intentional Torts

In legalese, a harm is called a tort. This means that an intentional tort occurs when a person wants to hurt someone else and succeeds. Examples of intentional tort include:

• Assault, which covers both physically harming someone and making credible, actionable threats of physical harm
• Defamation, which covers libel (in print) and slander (spoken) but is very difficult to prove because public figures and dead people cannot be defamed and evidence must exist that the information was both known to be untrue and shared deliberately to cause harm
• False imprisonment, which cover private individuals as well as law enforcement personnel and only means making it difficult for the victim to leave a place rather than literally keeping someone locked up
• Fraud in all forms, ranging from counterfeiting and identity theft to Ponzi schemes and credit card theft
• Infliction of emotional distress
• Invasion of privacy
• Theft, which covers taking anything that does not belong to you without permission and without committing an assault
• Trespassing, especially when the intent is to commit theft or inflict emotional distress