What Types of Cases Do Personal Injury Lawyers Handle?

What Types of Cases Do Personal Injury Lawyers Handle?

The ability to move about our day-to-day lives without having to worry about threats to our safety is what makes a society based on freedom and the pursuit of happiness possible. Unfortunately, accidents resulting in serious injury occur far more often than they should.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, there are over 30 million emergency room visits for injuries in the United States each year (including those for adverse effects of medical treatment) and over 40,000 deaths in motor vehicle traffic accidents each year.

Personal injury law exists to protect us from these kinds of accidents by holding everyone accountable to a standard of reasonable care.

That is where personal injury lawyers come in. Personal injury lawyers handle a wide variety of cases ranging across all industries and situations where someone is injured due to another’s carelessness. This article explains the wide range of cases that personal injury lawyers handle.

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Most personal injury lawyers handle motor vehicle accidents, which include: 

Motor Vehicle Accidents

Different types of motor vehicle accidents involve different theories of law and specialized knowledge with varying degrees of complexity.

Not all personal injury lawyers specialize in all types of accidents, so it is important to seek out a personal injury lawyer who has experience in the specific kind of accident you were in.

Slip and Fall Accidents & Premises Liability

Premises liability involves any injury that occurs on someone else’s property or due to a dangerous condition on the property. Premises liability applies to private homeowners, businesses, venues, cities, and transit companies responsible for maintaining safe sidewalks and subway stations.

Each state has different laws regarding premises liability. In New York, property owners are required to use reasonable care in maintaining their properties and allowing guests to enter the property, with the exception of special rules for trespassers. However, depending on your situation, a personal injury lawyer might require specialized expertise to handle your premises liability case.

Common premises liability cases a personal injury might handle are:

Product Liability, Defective Drugs, and Defective Medical Devices

Companies that manufacture and sell products, including pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers, have a legal duty to make sure those products are safe. If you are injured because they failed to do so, you can hire a personal injury lawyer to help you get the compensation you deserve.

There are different legal theories that serve as the basis for personal injury cases involving product liability, defective drugs, and defective medical devices, including:

  • Manufacturing defects
  • Defective design
  • Failure to warn
  • Marketing defects

In the case of defective drugs and medical devices, it is very important to consult with a personal injury lawyer who is well versed in complex medical and pharmaceutical terminology to handle your case.

Medical Malpractice

Medical malpractice cases address situations where a doctor or other health care provider deviates from the accepted standards of medical care, resulting in an injury or death. A medical malpractice claim requires proof that the doctor or health care provider was negligent, resulting in permanent injury, disability, or wrongful death.

Medical malpractice cases are some of the most difficult cases in personal injury law requiring an experienced personal injury lawyer who specializes in medical malpractice suits.

Some common examples of medical malpractice cases include:

Parties who can be sued for medical malpractice may include doctors, surgeons, nurses, hospitals, nursing homes, medical facilities, radiologists, and more.

Workers’ Compensation & Workplace Accidents

Employees who are injured while on the job are entitled to workers’ compensation for their injuries. Personal injury lawyers are essential to helping injured workers navigate the process of obtaining workers’ compensation, which is often quite complicated and full of obstacles thrown up by insurance companies.

In cases where workers’ compensation is not enough, or there are multiple people responsible for a worker’s injury, a personal injury lawyer might help you file a workplace accident claim to pursue additional compensation for your injuries.

Common workers’ compensation and workplace accidents a personal injury lawyer might handle include:

If you have been injured at the workplace and are struggling to get by, make sure to speak with a personal injury lawyer with expertise in workers’ compensation and workplace accidents about whether you are entitled to pursue additional compensation.

Child Sexual Abuse & Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

One important role of a personal injury lawyer that is perhaps not as widely known by the public is helping victims of abuse receive compensation for their injuries. Bringing a personal injury claim against a perpetrator or negligent nursing home facility helps bring justice to victims. These claims also work alongside the criminal justice system by providing the compensation victims might need to afford services to heal the harmful physical, emotional, and psychological effects of abuse and neglect.

Child Sexual Abuse Cases

While perpetrators of child sexual abuse are criminally prosecuted, personal injury lawyers have joined the fight for justice for victims of child sexual abuse. These lawyers offer them a chance to be compensated for the enormous health consequences of being abused at a young age. Here is how our personal injury lawyers can help you with a child sexual abuse case. 

Compensation for a victim of child sexual abuse can bring them the therapy and treatment necessary to help reverse the immeasurable effects of such trauma. This trauma can lead untreated victims of child sexual abuse to have a 2x to 13x higher risk of future victimization, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Thus, if your child has been sexually abused, you might want to consider speaking with a compassionate personal injury lawyer about handling your case in New York.

Personal injury lawyers can potentially help incentivize families of victims to feel more empowered in reporting incidents of child sexual abuse, which often go unreported.

Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Cases

Personal injury lawyers also handle cases of elderly abuse and neglect in nursing homes. Tragically, nursing home abuse and neglect are often not brought to justice and easily go undetected. Bringing a personal injury claim is one of the few ways to help close the gap in justice for victims of elderly abuse in nursing homes and hold facilities accountable to prevent such harms from being perpetrated. 

If you suspect a loved one is a victim of abuse or neglect at a nursing home, whether intentional or unintentional, you should consult with a personal injury lawyer who can help you investigate your concerns and potentially seek compensation.

A personal injury lawyer can assist you in bringing a claim against a nursing home or staff for injuries including (but not limited to):

  • Physical abuse
  • Starvation 
  • Emotional, verbal, or mental abuse
  • Abuse with medications
  • Financial exploitation
  • Incidents of violence

Contact Our Personal Injury Law Firm in New York City

If you’ve been injured in an accident in Manhattan, NY, and need legal help, contact our New York City personal injury lawyers at Rosenbaum & Rosenbaum, P.C. to schedule a free consultation.