Test your personal injury law knowledge (Answers)
Welcome back. This post will reveal the answers to the questions that were posed in our last post’s quiz on your personal injury law knowledge.
Answers:
1. No. While most personal injury cases involve negligence, there are some cases that involve strict liability or intentional misconduct.
An example of a personal injury case involving strict liability is a dog bite case. Dog owners in California are strictly liable for the injuries caused by their pets, whether negligence on behalf of the owner contributed to the attack or not.
An example of a personal injury case involving intentional misconduct is a drunk driving accident. A drunk driver was more than negligent, they knew or should have known that their actions were likely to cause harm. In many of these cases, additional compensation, called punitive damages, may be awarded to the victim.
2. No. A personal injury case does not always involve a lawsuit; in fact, most cases are settled before reaching that point through an informal settlement process.
3. No. It is possible to represent yourself in a personal injury claim; however, your results will almost certainly be better by working with one. That’s because insurance companies offer accident victims low-ball settlements and usually it isn’t until a personal injury lawyer gets involved that they will give the victim what he or she truly deserves.
4. Yes. It can be very difficult to put a dollar amount on the injuries that someone has sustained, but the goal of a personal injury lawsuit is to reach a fair and reasonable settlement amount that fully compensates the accident victim for the harms and losses that they have suffered.