If you’ve been in a car accident or suffered an injury due to someone else’s negligence in Northeast or North Central Louisiana, you might be hearing a lot of legal personal injury and vehicle accident terms. It can feel overwhelming, but understanding these terms is the first step toward protecting your rights.
Here’s a simple breakdown of common terms you might encounter:
The Basics of Personal Injury Law
- Personal Injury: This is the legal term for an injury to your body or mind as opposed to damage to property. In the context of vehicle accidents, it refers to the physical and emotional harm you’ve suffered.
- Negligence: This is a key concept. It means someone failed to act with the reasonable care that a prudent person would have used in a similar situation, and this failure caused injury. Louisiana is a pure comparative negligence state in the case of personal injury which means that fault can be split. Even if you are found partially responsible for an accident, you are still eligible to recover partial compensation.
- Damages: This doesn’t mean “damage to your car.” In legal terms, “damages” refers to the money you can receive to compensate you for your losses. These can include:
- Medical Expenses: Bills for doctors, hospitals, medications, therapy, medical equipment, etc…
- Lost Wages: Income you couldn’t earn because your injuries prevented you from working.
- Pain and Suffering: Compensation for the physical pain, emotional distress, and reduced quality of life caused by your injuries.
- Property Damage: Money to repair or replace your vehicle or any other property damaged in the accident.
- Liability: This refers to who is legally responsible for the accident and your injuries.
- Statute of Limitations: This is a crucial deadline! It’s the maximum time you have to file a lawsuit after an accident. In Louisiana, for most personal injury claims from vehicle accidents, you generally have two years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. If you miss this deadline, you could lose your right to pursue compensation.
- Settlement: This is an agreement reached between you (or your attorney) and the at-fault party’s insurance company to resolve the claim outside of court. Most personal injury cases are resolved through settlements.
- Plaintiff: This is you – the person who is bringing the lawsuit because you were injured.
- Defendant: This is the person or entity (like an insurance company or trucking company) being sued.
Specific to Vehicle Accident Terms
- At-Fault Driver: The driver who is determined to be primarily responsible for causing the accident.
- Uninsured Motorist (UM) Coverage: This is an important one of the vehicle accident terms and part of your own car insurance policy. It protects you if you’re hit by a driver who doesn’t have insurance. Given the number of uninsured drivers, especially in our region, UM coverage is highly recommended.
- Underinsured Motorist (UIM) Coverage: Like UM, this covers you if the at-fault driver has insurance, but their policy limits aren’t high enough to cover all your damages.
- Bodily Injury Liability (BI) Coverage: This is the part of the at-fault driver’s insurance that pays for the medical expenses and other damages of the people they injure in an accident.
- Property Damage Liability (PD) Coverage: This covers the cost of repairing or replacing property (like your car) that the at-fault driver damaged.
- Collision Coverage: This is part of your own car insurance that pays for damage to your vehicle, regardless of who was at fault.
- Medical Payments (MedPay) Coverage: This is an optional coverage on your own car insurance that pays for medical expenses for you and your passengers, regardless of who was at fault, up to a certain limit.
- Adjuster (Insurance Adjuster): A representative from an insurance company whose job it is to investigate claims and determine how much the company should pay. Remember, their goal is to save the insurance company money.
Why is this important for Northeast and North Central Louisiana?
A skilled personal injury attorney firm such as Eddie Clark & Associates, LLC is very familiar with these vehicle accident terms. They speak the language of the insurance companies and legal system in areas like Monroe, West Monroe, Ruston, Bastrop, Farmerville, Winnsboro, and surrounding parishes
If you’ve been involved in an accident, don’t try to navigate this complex aftermath alone. Give Attorney Clark and his team a call today!
