• Personal injury law, sometimes referred to as tort law, allows you to recover damages for serious injury or injuries caused by the responsible party’s intentional or careless actions. This can be physical or property damage. If you want to sue someone for something other than a breach of contract, you are likely considering bringing a personal injury claim.
  • Tort law—a fancy term for the area of law that deals with the wrongful acts that lead to civil liability—includes the theories of negligence, strict liability, and intentional actions that cause harm to someone else.

  • Negligence

    If you bring a personal injury case based on an accident that harmed you or a loved one, you will likely make a negligence claim.

    A basic negligence claim is filed when there is a duty of care that has been breached, and the harm suffered is the direct result of that breach. These claims include basic personal injury claims, medical malpractice, car accidents, and wrongful death.

  • Assault

    In personal injury law, an assault happens when someone threatens to harm you. The threat must be believable, and the person must threaten to harm you immediately—not sometime in the future.

  • Battery

    If someone intentionally causes harmful or offensive contact with you without your consent, they have likely committed a civil battery against you.

  • False Imprisonment

    To prove that someone falsely imprisoned you, you will need to show they confined you without your consent and that you were aware of the confinement.

  • Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress

    When someone does something “extreme and outrageous” to you that causes you “severe and emotional distress,” you may have a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress.

  • Strict Liability

    With strict liability, the person who caused your harm is liable for their actions regardless of their mental state or intent. In personal injury law, there are three situations where you or your lawyer may choose to pursue strict liability instead of negligence: possession of certain animals, abnormally dangerous activities, and strict products liability.