Personal Injury and Bodily Injury: In 2018, there were 278,413 car accidents in New Jersey, with 61,043 of them resulting in injuries, while 524 of them were deadly. People who were injured in these accidents required a New Jersey personal injury lawyer to get compensation for their suffering.
However, a lot of individuals who are injured in different accidents do not know the difference between personal injury and bodily injury. Understanding the differences will help you with personal injury claims. It’s also important when it comes to what your insurance company can cover.
So, what makes personal injury and bodily injury different? Read this post to find out.
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What Is Personal Injury?
Personal injury refers to the injury that one has suffered in an accident. This involves not only physical injury but also emotional or mental damage. So, apart from physical wounds, personal injury also involves depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and different psychological injuries.
What Is Bodily Injury?
Bodily injury refers to the physical injuries that someone has sustained. This includes broken bones, bruises, cuts, traumatic brain injuries, whiplash, spinal cord injuries, and any other physical damage.
Calculating Personal and Bodily Injuries
If you have been in an incident that resulted in damages, you will have to calculate the injuries in an insurance claim. There will usually be some immediate medical expenses for the injuries.
Therefore, when you are injured, you will start accumulating medical expenses from the moment the ambulance gets to the accident scene. What is worse is that if the injuries are severe, the expenses will only keep piling up. So, before you know it, you might have to spend thousands of dollars on the treatments.
Sometimes, people have to stay in rehabilitative care when their injuries are extremely severe. This is not exactly convenient considering you must file a compensation claim before the time runs out. So, the claim will have to rely on estimates of the medical costs you will incur after the settlement of the claim.
Personal injury coverage will include payment for expenses for medical care and rehabilitation, as well as burial or funeral expenses and loss of income.
Meanwhile, bodily injury will cover the costs of the other individual that was involved in the injury-causing accident. For instance, if you run a red light and strike a pedestrian as a result, you will be the one responsible for their injuries and will have to cover the expenses for their medical care.
If you end up losing a family member as a result of another individual’s negligence, a wrongful death lawsuit may help you get compensation. There are different sets of damages that you can recover as the surviving family of the victim in a wrongful death lawsuit.
What Can Lead to a Personal Injury Lawsuit?
There are different situations that could lead to a personal injury lawsuit. Usually, we are talking about cases when the other party was negligent and resulted in your injuries.
Personal injury incidents usually include:
- Dog bites
- Pedestrian accidents
- Slipping and falling accidents
- Bus accidents
- Truck accidents
- Car accidents
- Premises liability accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Medical malpractice
- Burn injuries
- Spinal cord injuries
- Product liability
Showing Proof of Negligence in Personal Injury Cases
When you are involved in a personal injury case, you will have to show that the defendant was negligent. Therefore, your personal injury lawyer will have to prove the following things:
- The defendant did not meet the duty of care
- The defendant owed the plaintiff a duty to cause no harm
- The actions of the defendant or their failure to take action was what caused your injuries or losses
- As a result, you ended up suffering a lot of damage
Hiring a Personal Injury Lawyer
Whether you are suffering from bodily injury or personal injury, hiring a personal injury lawyer is a must, regardless of the state you live in. It can be hard to assess your damages and get compensation yourself. Thus, legal representation is necessary if you wish to be compensated for your suffering.
Make sure you look for a skilled and experienced lawyer who will help you recover your damages. Take your time and do plenty of research so that you can find the right attorney.
Final Thoughts
Although personal injury and bodily injury may be used interchangeably in some cases, they are different things. Bodily injury refers to physical injuries, while personal injury involves physical damage as well as mental and emotional damage. Knowing the difference will help you in a lawsuit.