The 7 Most Common Types of Personal Injury Cases

types of personal injury cases
If you’ve been injured in an accident, get an attorney to ensure you’re compensated for the emotional, physical, and economic hardship you’ve had to endure.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, every year 29.4 million people seek medical attention at emergency rooms for unintentional injuries. 

Workplace injuries, auto accidents, medical malpractice—when an unintentional injury interrupts your life because of someone else’s negligence, you should be compensated. 

Navigating the legal system can be a challenge. That’s why you need to hire an experienced personal injury attorney who can get the best outcome for your case. 

Here are a few of the most common types of personal injury cases that you should have an attorney handle.

Table of Contents

What is a Personal Injury Case?

A personal injury case comes about when one person suffers an injury due to someone else’s negligence or purposeful act. 

Most of the time, personal injury cases are settled without a formal lawsuit, but sometimes they go to trial. Or, even more likely, the case will go to mediation or arbitration—a middle ground between trial and a settlement where the two parties can resolve a case.

Personal injury cases come in a variety of types, from auto accidents to medical malpractice. Some of these cases are common, and damages are minimal, which means there isn’t much money involved. However, other cases have millions of dollars and hundreds of parties related to the claim.

If you’ve been injured and want to file a personal injury claim, remember the statute of limitations for your case type is established by state laws that vary depending on the crime. 

Most Common Types of Personal Injury Cases

The most common types of personal injury claims are settled or heard by judges thousands of times annually. Sometimes they even result in victims reclaiming huge sums of money for their hardships. 

Still, some personal injury claims are never filed because injured parties can’t find the right representation. 

From auto accidents to product liability, listed below are the most common personal injury cases in America.

1. Auto Accident Injury

Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that in 2018 there were over 6.7 million motor vehicle accidents in the US. It’s no wonder why the most common type of personal injury claims involve auto accidents.

If you’ve been in an auto accident that you believe to be the result of the negligence of the other driver, contact a lawyer as soon as possible.

Whether the accident involved drunk driving, speeding, or reckless driving, if you’ve been injured because of someone else’s negligence, you’ll need to be able to prove it—and that can be easier said than done. 

Auto accident claims often devolve into he-said, she-said, scenarios. That’s where an experienced personal injury attorney can use trial and negotiating experience, find evidence, and leverage relationships to get the best possible outcome for your case.

The best personal injury lawyers cover every type of auto-related accidents, including:

2. Slip and Fall Accidents

Slip and fall accidents are another extremely common personal injury claim—especially for the elderly.

According to the Centers For Disease Control,  3 million people over the age of 65 are treated in emergency departments for fall injuries every year.

Many of those people fell because of the negligence of another party. From wet floors to broken railings, if you’ve been injured because of someone else’s negligence, you should be properly compensated. 

3. Medical Malpractice

Medical Malpractice is far more common than anyone would like to believe. Doctors take an oath to do no harm, but sometimes they fall short on that responsibility.

In fact, according to data from the National Practitioner’s Data Bank (NPDB), there are about 60,000 cases of Adverse Action Reports (AAR) and Medical Malpractice Payment Reports (MMPR) in the US and Puerto Rico.

Injuries from medical malpractice can be life-altering, and victims should be reimbursed for their physical, emotional, and financial hardships.

Common types of medical malpractice include:

  • Misdiagnosis
  • Delayed diagnosis
  • Childbirth injuries
  • Medication errors
  • Failure to Treat
  • Anesthesia errors
  • Surgical errors

4. Workplace Injuries

According to the National Safety Council, every seven seconds, a worker is injured on the job. Many of those workers will decide to file a personal injury claim. 

Too often, businesses are negligent when it comes to the safety of their workers. This can lead to horrific injuries that forever damage the victim’s opportunity to earn a living, or worse.

If you’ve been injured on the job, seek medical attention immediately, and report the injury to your supervisor. 

Then, gather evidence of the incident by taking photos, gathering names of those involved, and getting a copy of the written report your supervisor made about the incident. 

If you’re unable to do any of this, enlist a co-worker to help you, the more information you have, the better it is for your case. Then, you need to call a personal injury attorney who can get you the most compensation possible for your injury. 

5. Wrongful Death

A Wrongful Death suit can be brought when a negligent personal injury leads to the death of a loved one. Unfortunately, wrongful death claims due to negligence are far more common than we’d like to believe. 

More than 38,000 people die every year in crashes on US roadways, according to the Association for Safe International Road Travel. Many of those deaths lead to wrongful death claims.

Family members shouldn’t be burdened with medical or funeral expenses after the death of a loved one due to an accident. That’s why it’s critical to find a quality attorney if someone you love has been killed because of someone else’s carelessness or neglect.

6. Product Liability 

Product liability claims arise when a product manufacturer or seller inflicts an injury on a buyer due to a manufacturing defect or design flaw.

While product liability claims aren’t as common as many of the other cases on this list, they often lead to big payouts. And, a single case can have thousands of victims. 

Take the example of the lawsuits against Monsanto over Roundup Weed Killer and its potential to cause cancer. When all was said and done, Monsanto was forced to fork over nearly $300 million to victims.

Then, there’s the example of the 20,000 lawsuits Johnson & Johnson was forced to fight because of their Toxic Talc Baby Powder. Eventually, the company lost and was forced to pay millions to victims, including incredible sums of up to $325 million to individual defendants who got mesothelioma from the product.

7. Assault

Personal injury cases don’t always arise from an accident. In fact, after an assault, it’s quite common to see victims file a civil personal injury suit, requesting compensation for injuries and damages from the incident.

According to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were over six million assaults in the US during 2018. If you’ve been the victim of assault, don’t let anyone intimidate you into not filing a suit. 

Get the right representation who will stand by you from start to finish, working on getting the best possible outcome for your case. 

How an Experienced Attorney Can Help in Personal Injury Cases

If you’ve been injured in an accident, don’t deal with insurance companies or try to go alone. You need an experienced personal injury attorney who will help fight for the funds you need to recover from your injury. 

With a deep knowledge of the law, top negotiating skills, and decades of trial experience, the Seattle-based person injury team Will & Will will use their 35+ years of combined experience to get you the money you deserve.

Don’t go it alone, get a team of attorneys who have proven they are fighting for the rights of the injured. 

How can we help?

  • We only handle cases in Washington State. What City/County is your case located in?