Quick answer: Personal injury law is the part of tort law that lets a person hurt in body, mind or reputation by someone else's wrongdoing ask a court for money damages. A claim rests on one of three grounds: negligence, strict liability or an intentional wrong. The rules that decide the outcome, such as filing deadlines and fault, are set state by state.
On this page:
- What personal injury law covers
- The three grounds for a claim
- Common types of cases
- What you can be paid for
- What is not a personal injury claim
- Why the state you are in matters
- Next steps
What personal injury law covers
Personal injury law is the branch of tort law that deals with harm to a person. Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute describes personal injuries as every variety of injury to a person's body, emotions or reputation, as opposed to injury to property rights. A tort is a civil wrong: an act or omission that harms someone and for which courts impose liability.
Tort law serves three purposes: to give relief to the injured person, to put liability on the party responsible, and to discourage harmful conduct. In practice the injured person usually asks for money, which the law calls damages.
The three grounds for a claim
A personal injury claim has to rest on a legal reason the other party is responsible. There are three.
- Negligence. This is the most common ground. Negligence is the failure to act with the care a reasonable person would have used in the same situation. The Institute lists five elements that may typically have to be proven: a legal duty owed to you, a breach of that duty, harm to you, and that the defendant's actions were both the proximate cause and the cause in fact of the harm.
- Strict liability. Strict liability holds a person responsible for an action regardless of intent or mental state. A common example is a defective product: the manufacturer can be responsible even though it did not act carelessly or mean to cause harm. Some states treat dog bites this way, and the Dog Bite Liability Calculator compares strict liability with the one-bite rule by state.
- Intentional wrongs. An intentional tort can only result from a deliberate act by the defendant. Common examples are battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass to land, trespass to chattels and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Common types of cases
According to the Legal Information Institute, claims for harm to the body include automobile accidents, workplace accidents, assault, product defect accidents, medical malpractice, nursing home abuse and toxic torts. Claims can also arise from non-bodily harm: intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, false detention or imprisonment, malicious prosecution and invasion of privacy.
Most people searching this topic are dealing with an accident, such as a car crash, a fall or a dog bite. The personal injury calculators are built around those situations, with the rules of each state.
What you can be paid for
If a claim succeeds, the injured person is awarded money damages meant to compensate for the loss. The Institute lists what personal injury damages may include: medical expenses, lost wages, pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, household assistance and travel expenses. Compensatory damages are based on actual losses, while punitive damages are meant to punish the wrongdoer.
Our guide on what damages you can recover goes through each type. To see how those losses can add up to a figure for your state, try the Settlement Value Calculator, or the Pain & Suffering Calculator for the non-economic part.
What is not a personal injury claim
- Workers' compensation. Workers' compensation laws protect people injured or disabled on the job with fixed awards, to avoid the need for litigation, and state statutes set the framework for most employment. An injury at work therefore usually goes through that system rather than a lawsuit against the employer. Whether you can also bring a claim against someone other than your employer depends on the facts and your state's law.
- Damage to property. The definition of personal injury is set against injury to property rights, so a damaged car or phone is a different kind of loss from an injured person.
- Claims against the government. These follow special rules. For example, under the Federal Tort Claims Act the United States is liable in tort claims in the same manner and to the same extent as a private person in like circumstances, but it is not liable for punitive damages (28 U.S.C. 2674).
Why the state you are in matters
There is no single national rulebook. How long you have to file, how much your own share of fault reduces what you recover, and whether damages are capped all depend on the state. The Statute of Limitations Calculator shows the filing deadline in your state, and the Comparative/Contributory Negligence Calculator shows what your own fault does to the result.
Next steps
If you are at the start of a claim, read how a personal injury claim works, step by step, and see the difference between a claim and a lawsuit. The personal injury calculators cover every state, and our methodology page explains how each figure is verified. For advice on your own case, talk to a licensed attorney in your state.