Many people use the terms bodily injury and personal injury interchangeably. However, there are differences between the two. Bodily injury refers to physical harm someone sustains. On the other hand, personal injury is a legal claim that seeks to pursue another party for their negligence that resulted in financial losses, emotional distress, and bodily injuries.
If you or a loved one suffered injuries in an accident, one of our Fort Lauderdale personal injury attorneys can build a case against the liable party. They will assess all the details of what happened and how the incident has affected your life so that they can recover proper compensation for you.
What Is Bodily Injury in a Car Accident Case?
A bodily injury is a physical injury someone incurs. Examples include a traumatic brain injury (TBI), a broken bone, a spinal cord injury, or a severe burn. A bodily injury is often the basis of a personal injury claim, as you typically can only file a case if someone negligently hurts you, requiring medical treatment.
What Is Personal Injury?
Personal injury refers to a legal claim that accounts for the economic and noneconomic losses someone suffers in a negligence-based accident, such as:
- Car accidents
- Truck accidents
- Bicycle accidents
- Medical malpractice
- Slip and fall accidents
- Dog bites
- Pedestrian accidents
- Motorcycle accidents
- Wrongful death
To complete a successful personal injury case, the victim bears the burden of proof. Thus, you’ll need to gather evidence demonstrating how the other party had to provide you with a duty of care. Instead, they disregarded this duty, and their breach caused an accident that leaves you dealing with the economic and noneconomic consequences.
It can be tedious—even challenging—to locate and compile the necessary evidence to prove your claim. Personal injury cases usually require an incident or police report, relevant video footage and photographs, medical records, and witness statements. However, you can leave it to one of our lawyers to collect all this information and use it to build a robust case against the other party on your behalf
Common Forms of Personal Injury Compensation
You could be entitled to recover compensation when filing a personal injury claim. A lawyer from our team will look at several factors regarding your situation to determine what a reasonable financial outcome should look like for you. Your attorney might consider:
- The extent of your bodily injuries
- Your medical treatment
- Your limitations at work
- How your family life has changed
Depending on the nature of your accident, our assessment may show that you are eligible to claim these losses.
Medical Bills for Past and Future Care
Many people who suffer bodily injuries in personal injury incidents require medical intervention that involves:
- Adaptive or assistive medical devices
- Pain medicine
- Follow-up care
- Surgeries
- Diagnostic tests (e.g., MRIs or x-rays)
- Physical therapy
- Emergency transportation
Your medical bills play a significant role in your total compensatory package. A lawyer from our team can consult your doctors and specialists to account for your past care and your prognosis for future care. That way, they can request enough to cover all your medical bills.
Past and Future Income Loss
Getting hurt in an accident could force you to take time off work, keeping you from earning a living—be it via salary, hourly wages, contract work, benefits, tips, bonuses, promotions, commissions, and business opportunities.
It’s also possible that you cannot return to your previous job or even work full-time. Some people can’t return to work at all because of their injuries. Whatever the case, a lawyer from our firm can go after the income you would have earned had you not been hurt.
Pain and Suffering
Economic damages like medical bills and lost income could only make up a small portion of your settlement.
Your injuries don’t just take a toll on you physically, but also emotionally and mentally. They can impede your quality of life for the near future. With that, most of your compensation could cover the pain and suffering, disfigurement, and mental anguish you’ve endured.
Wrongful Death
In worst-case scenarios, victims succumb to the bodily injuries they’ve suffered in an accident. If that’s how your loved one passed away, a wrongful death attorney on our team can help your family seek damages. According to Florida Statutes § 768.21, you could recover these types of compensation in a claim or lawsuit:
- Loss of support and services
- Loss of parental companionship and guidance
- Medical bills
- Burial and funeral expenses
- Loss of earnings
Remember that the damages we’ve listed here don’t exhaust what it’s possible to recover. You could qualify to claim losses for things you don’t know about yet.
Filing a Personal Injury Lawsuit After Suffering a Bodily Injury
Recovering personal injury compensation requires you to act fast. Per Florida Statutes § 95.11, the deadline to file for personal injury is typically two years after the incident. If you’re bringing a wrongful death case, you’d generally have until the second anniversary of the decedent’s passing.
Two years may seem like a long time, but it goes quickly. If you’re too late in filing your lawsuit, the state may not let you proceed. In that case, the liable party wouldn’t be responsible for covering your losses. However, when you inform us about your situation early on, we will help you adhere to the time frame.
Learn More About Bodily Injury vs. Personal Injury With Our Firm Today
You may qualify to file a personal injury claim if you’ve sustained a bodily injury in a negligence-based incident. The Law Offices of Wolf & Pravato can guide you through the process while you recover. We’ve won over $200 million in settlements for clients and have over 75 years of collective experience.
Give our team a call today at (954) 633-8270. Our team provides free consultations at no obligation, and we serve clients on a contingency basis.
