Personal Injury Lawsuits: Meaning and Purpose (2025)

What Is a Personal Injury Lawsuit?

Personal injury law governs legal and financial liability for injuries. It falls within a broader field called tort law. Torts are civil wrongs committed by one party against another. Tort law overlaps with contract and property law, particularly when the at-fault party has insurance.

As a result, personal injury claims often raise complicated factual and legal issues. While some situations involve clear liability, others may involve legitimate disputes about what happened or who is liable.

Personal injury lawsuits allow the parties to involve a judge and jury in resolving these issues. Specifically, litigation is a dispute resolution process that the parties can invoke when they cannot settle a case.

When Does Personal Injury Litigation Occur?

A lawsuit is typically the last resort for resolving a claim. In other words, the parties will often make a good-faith effort to settle the case before one of the parties files a lawsuit.

Even after parties resort to litigation, many personal injury lawsuits still settle before trial. Bench or jury trials resolve only about 4% of injury cases, while settlements and dismissals end the remaining 96%.

Thus, personal injury lawsuits often serve other purposes than putting a case in front of a judge or jury. For example, a party may file an injury lawsuit for the following reasons:

• Preserve a claim before the statute of limitations expires
• Gain leverage in settlement negotiations
• Gather evidence from the other party using discovery procedures

Lawsuits can change the tone of the negotiations because the at-fault party and their insurer know the victim is serious. They also know they might face a hostile jury that could award enormous compensation.

At the same time, the victim also takes a risk by filing a lawsuit. Juries are unpredictable and may return a verdict in favor of the accused party.

For example, the other party may blame the injured victim, at least partially, under a theory of comparative or contributory negligence. If the jury agrees with this argument, the victim may have their compensation claim reduced or barred altogether.

Additionally, litigation can be costly for both sides. The accused party or their insurer must pay a defense lawyer. While the victim’s lawyer often works on a contingency fee, they may pay a higher percentage of their compensation once litigation starts.

Additionally, the victim must reimburse their attorney for court costs and litigation expenses that will accrue during the litigation.

Thus, both sides have many reasons to settle their lawsuit.

Types of Personal Injury Cases

You can classify personal injury claims in many ways, including the nature of the claim. However, a common classification system uses the legal theory used to recover compensation. Torts fall into the following three legal theories:

Intentional Torts

When a victim pursues a claim for an intentional tort, they must prove that the wrongdoer intended the act that caused the injury. However, the wrongdoer does not necessarily need to intend the resulting harm.

To understand the difference, suppose someone threw a glass at the victim during an argument. The glass shattered and blinded the victim. The wrongdoer intended to cause harmful contact and, thus, may be liable for the victim’s injuries even though they did not intend to blind them.

Some intentional torts that may result in a personal injury lawsuit include the following:

• Battery, which results from harmful or offensive physical contact
• Assault, which occurs when someone causes fear of an imminent battery
• False imprisonment, which results from intentional confinement without legal authority

The advantage of suing someone for an intentional tort is that many states do not require you to prove your losses. Instead, the jury can award compensation appropriate for your injury. The disadvantage is that proving intent can be difficult.

Negligence

Negligence happens when someone acts without due care. In other words, negligence is for unintentional acts that result in an injury. However, to avoid sweeping in all unintentional acts, the injury must result from a failure to adhere to a standard of care.

The standard of care is defined by the “ordinary person” standard. Someone is liable for injuries that result from a failure to act in the way a reasonable person would have acted in the same circumstances.

Thus, a driver would likely be liable for a rear end collision resulting from texting while driving because a reasonably cautious person knows to avoid such distractions.

Most personal injury lawsuits rely on negligence, including the following:

• Traffic accidents
• Slip and fall accidents and other forms of premises liability
• Medical malpractice

The advantage of negligence lawsuits is that your personal injury lawyer does not need evidence of the other party’s intent. The drawback is that you must prove your losses to recover compensation.

Strict Liability Torts

Strict liability covers inherently dangerous activities. States vary in the types of claims that fall under strict liability. However, many states impose strict liability for injuries involving some or all of the following:

• Dog bites
• Defective products
• Attacks by wild animals kept as pets

The benefit of strict liability is that your lawyer does not need to prove the at-fault party’s knowledge of the danger. Instead, your attorney only needs to prove that the party had control over the dangerous instrumentality that injured you.

Contact ConsumerShield for Help Finding a Lawyer for a Personal Injury Lawsuit

Personal injury lawsuits help injured victims seek fair compensation from the party responsible for harming them. ConsumerShield is dedicated to helping people understand and enforce their legal rights. Contact us for a free case review and attorney referral.