What is personal injury law?

What it covers

Motor vehicle collisions, falls on badly kept property, defective products, medical errors, workplace accidents, dog bites, nursing-home neglect and wrongful death claims brought by a family. The legal test differs by category, but the structure is the same: liability, causation, damages.

How the money is counted

• Economic damages — bills already paid, treatment still to come, wages lost, reduced earning capacity, property damage. Documents carry these.
• Non-economic damages — pain, disfigurement, loss of the things you used to be able to do. Testimony and records carry these.
• Punitive damages — rare, reserved for reckless or deliberate conduct such as drunk driving, and capped in many states.

How cases are actually paid for

Most US personal injury lawyers work on contingency: no hourly fee, a percentage of the recovery instead, commonly a third before suit is filed and more if the case is litigated. Ask two questions before signing — what the percentage is at each stage, and whether case costs such as expert fees come out before or after the fee is calculated.

Most cases never reach a jury

The large majority settle, usually after the treating doctors can say whether the injury is permanent. Settling earlier is faster and safer; settling before the medical picture is clear is the mistake that cannot be undone, because a release closes the claim even if the injury turns out worse than expected.

The deadline

Every state sets its own statute of limitations, commonly two or three years from the injury, shorter for claims against a public body — some require formal notice within 60 to 180 days. Miss it and the strongest case in the world is over.