If you’ve been hurt and are filing a personal injury claim, it can be helpful to know some of the terminology that will be used throughout the case.

Plaintiff

The party or parties filing the case are referred to as the plaintiff. You would be the plaintiff in a lawsuit if you slipped and fell in a grocery shop and then sued the establishment.

Complaint

A lawsuit is started by the plaintiff by submitting a complaint to the relevant court. Your complaints are formally expressed in the personal injury complaint.

Prayer for Comfort

A fancy way of explaining that the complaint also includes information about how much money you desire is that it also contains a prayer for relief.

Defendant

The plaintiff notifies the defendant of the complaint. It is claimed that the defendant is accountable for the plaintiff’s injuries. The grocery store in the above case would be the defendant.

Answer

In order to inform the plaintiff and the court of the defendant’s stance regarding the claims, the defendants must file a formal answer to the complaint.

Statute of Limitation

A statute of limitations is a legal deadline during which you can file a lawsuit and seek damages. Depending on the specifics of each case, the statute of limitations may range in length from one year to ten years or more in civil lawsuits.

With exceptional exclusions made for malpractice cases, personal injury cases, which are typically founded on carelessness, typically have statutes of limitations in the range of two to three years.

Torts and Intentional Torts

Any wrongdoing that is neither criminal nor the result of a contract is considered a tort. Almost all civil causes of action, including claims for bodily damage, are torts. Torts include things like negligence, wrongful death, libel and slander, and trespass. Civil battery and assault are both prohibited.

Torts with an intentional component are crimes done with intent. Numerous deliberate torts might also be crimes. For instance, battery and assault may result in both civil and criminal liability. Theft through conversion is a kind of this, as is wrongful death (murder, manslaughter, etc.).

A tort serves as the legal foundation for a lawsuit seeking the necessary compensation to make the plaintiff whole. Damages are not awarded in criminal proceedings, even when they result from torts.

For more information, please call our office at 617-444-7777 for access to our free resources including guides, books, and videos!