Personal Injury Law

​      Personal injuries include every variety of injury to a person's body, emotions, or reputation, as contradistinguished from
injury to property rights.
Grounds
       There are three grounds on which personal injury claims can be brought:

1. Negligence is the most common basis for personal injury claims. The basis for liability under negligence stems from an individual’s failures to behave with the level of care that someone of ordinary prudence would have exercised under the same circumstances. For example, a hunter who carelessly shoots his gun towards other people.
2. Strict Liability holds a defendant liable for committing an action, regardless of what his/her intent or mental state was when committing the action. For example, if an injury occurs as a result of a defect in a product, the manufacturer is responsible for that injury even though they did not act negligently or intend for their product to cause harm.
3. Intentional Wrongs result from an intentional act of the defendant. Common intentional torts are battery, assault, false imprisonment, trespass to land, trespass to chattels, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Causes of Action
     Personal injury claims can arise from harm done to the body. For example:

• Automobile accidents
• Workplace accidents
• Assault
  
• Product defect accidents 
  
• Medical malpractice
  
• Nursing home abuse
  
• Toxic torts

     Personal injury claims can also arise from non-bodily harm. For example:

• Intentional infliction of emotional distress
  
• Defamation
  
• False detention, arrest, or imprisonment
  
• Malicious prosecution
  
• Invasion of privacy

[via Cornell Law School]