Personal Injury Cases: Responsible Parties

Who’s Responsible In A Personal Injury Case?

If you’ve been injured in an accident and need to file a personal injury claim, you may not know exactly how or against who you should pursue a claim.  It’s important that you don’t miss a party who might have some responsibility for your injury or who may have insurance coverage.

Be careful when assessing your personal injury claim and make sure you know all possible sources of coverage.  DON’T GET HURT TWICE!!

Possible Responsible Parties

Because personal injury cases involve many different types of injuries, there are so many possible responsible parties in these cases.  Some of these responsible parties include:

• Vehicle drivers
• Vehicle owners
• Doctors, medical professionals, and medical facilities
• Store and other property owners
• Corporations
• Manufacturers

Vehicle Drivers

When the driver of a car or truck causes an accident, that driver is probably responsible for covering your injuries.  This might not be the case, though, if your actions somehow contributed to causing the accident.

Vehicle Owners

Vehicle owners are usually responsible for an accident that happens with their vehicles because they are required to carry insurance on the car or truck.  A vehicle owner will often not be named in a lawsuit if they weren’t driving, but their insurance company will be responsible.

A vehicle owner can also be responsible in a personal injury case if they allowed an impaired or unlicensed driver to operate their vehicle. If the impaired or unlicensed driver causes an accident, it may be determined that the vehicle owner negligently entrusted the car or truck to the driver.  This negligent entrustment may also make the vehicle owner responsible for your injuries.

Doctors, Medical Professionals, and Medical Facilities

We rely on our doctors and other medical professionals to take care of us when we are sick or injured.  Most of the time the care we receive is excellent.

But doctors and other health care professionals are human like everyone else, and mistakes happen.  When a mistake does happen and someone is injured because of health care negligence, this is usually known as medical malpractice.

Doctors, medical professionals, and medical facilities have professional liability insurance so they can help their patients when there has been a mistake made in their care.  This insurance coverage helps to pay for past medical expenses, future medical expenses, as well as lost wages and future ability to work.

Store and Other Property Owners

The owners of stores and other properties usually have insurance coverage in case an injury occurs on their property.  In these situations, liability coverage is often available to injured people who get hurt because of a negligent act of the property owner.

In addition to liability coverage on property, many insurance policies covering property also include medical expenses payments coverage.  Medical expenses payments or “med pay” reimburses an injured person for any medical expenses they have as a result of any injury on the property.  To get “med pay” coverage, there just has to be an injury on the insured’s property.  There is no requirement that there had to be some sort of negligence.

Manufacturers

Manufacturers are often found to be responsible parties when the products they manufacture cause injuries to others.  Examples of this situation occur when a manufacturer makes a defective car or drug that injuries others. Manufacturers can also be found to be responsible for an injury if it failed to warn of a potential defect or issue involving the product.

Corporations

Corporations are often the owners of vehicles or facilities where injuries occur.  Because of corporate ownership of these areas where injuries happen, corporations are usually listed as a responsible party.  Corporations also have insurance policies to cover accidents when those accidents happen on their property or when a defective product is manufactured on its property.

Corporations can also be a responsible party when one of their employees drives a company vehicle and causes an accident.