Personal Injury Glossary of Terms
The A-Zs of Personal Injury Law
Alternative Dispute Resolution
Alternative Dispute Resolution, or ADR, is a process for resolving disputes outside of the courts. It’s often used for commercial as well as non-commercial disputes and is available in several forms, including mediation, arbitration, and negotiation. Learn more about “What is alternative dispute resolution?”
Assumption of Risk
The Assumption of Risk doctrine is also known as volenti non fit injuria. It is an action willingly taken by a plaintiff that consequently relieves the defendant of liabilities. It becomes tenable based on the risky action taken or about to be taken by a plaintiff. Learn more about “What is an assumption of risk?”
Bad Faith
A bad faith lawsuit is a civil suit for damages brought by the plaintiff against the defendant because the defendant has breached a legal or contractual duty to act in good faith towards the plaintiff, occasioning their loss. Learn more about “What is bad faith?”
Burden of Proof
The burden of proof is the obligation to present sufficient evidence to support a claim or defense in a civil or criminal case. It is the responsibility of a party to prove the facts necessary to win a case, ordinarily by presenting evidence and argument to a judge or jury. Learn more about “What is the burden of proof?”
Camp Lejeune Lawsuit
The Marine Corps discovered contamination in two of Camp Lejeune’s central water systems in 1982. Researchers estimate that over one million people lived in Camp Lejeune during the time the water was contaminated. Learn more about “What is the camp lejeune lawsuit?”
Car Accident Settlement Calculator
A law firm’s car accident settlement calculator helps attorneys determine how much monetary compensation a plaintiff should ask for in a car accident case. Learn more about “What is a car accident settlement calculator?”
Class Action Lawsuit
Class action lawsuits are a form of civil litigation. The actions involve a large group filing the suit together against the defendant. Usually, one party or a small group represents the large group. The defendants in class actions are often large organizations and corporations. The groups often band together because they don’t have the resources to file the claim alone. Learn more about “What is a class action lawsuit?”
CloudLex® for Google Calendar
CloudLex’s deep integration with apps like Google Calendar means you can manage all your calendars within CloudLex, including syncing your critical dates and events. Learn more about “How to integrate Google calendar with CloudLex®?”
Comparative Negligence
Comparative negligence refers to how fault is divided between two or more parties in an accident or injury. In some cases, the defendant may argue that the plaintiff was partially at fault for the accident, reducing the amount of damages they are awarded. The doctrine is often used as a defense tactic in personal injury cases, where one party sues another for damages from an injury. Learn more about “What is comparative negligence?”
Contingency Fee
A contingency fee, or a contingency fee agreement, is a legal billing system that allows the client to pay the attorney only when the case is successful. Learn more about “What is contingency fee?”
Court Motion
When you submit a court motion, you are formally requesting the judge to do something. Court motions are formal appeals to the court to perform a particular action in hopes of reaching the desired outcome. Learn more about “How to write a motion for court?”
Document Automation for Lawyers
Document automation software like Microsoft 365 for law firms offers a consolidated method for creating letters, agreements, motions, pleadings, bills, invoices, and other legal documents in the legal industry. Learn more about “What is document automation for lawyers?”
Evidence of Insurability
EOI, or evidence of insurability, is a list of a person’s recent and past medical incidents. Insurance companies use it to determine if a person satisfies the criteria for good health. Learn more about “What is evidence of insurability?”
Expert Witness
An expert witness is someone who is specially trained in a particular field of expertise and whose knowledge in that given subject or discipline goes beyond the level of understanding possessed by a typical layman. Learn more about “What is an expert witness?”
Pre-settlement Funding
Pre-settlement funding, also known as lawsuit funding or settlement funding, is a type of cash advance provided to plaintiffs in pending personal injury cases. It is not a loan but rather a non-recourse cash advance repaid from the settlement or verdict amount of the case. Learn more about “What is pre-settlement funding?”
Force Majeure
Force majeure is a clause included in some contracts. The term “force majeure” is French and translates to “greater force.” When you see force majeure in a contract, its purpose is to remove liability for unavoidable and unforeseeable situations that impact and interrupt the expected events that prevent those included in the contract from meeting their outlined obligations. Learn more about “What is the force majeure?”
Gross Negligence
The definition of gross negligence is the total lack of care and disregard for the safety of others. Under civil law, people must avoid causing preventable accidents and harming people. Thus, lawsuits occur after injuries because of wanton actions that fall between negligence and intentional misconduct. Learn more about “What is gross negligence?”
Intake Workflows
Intake workflows can help you assign tasks automatically to a paralegal to collect case information using intake forms. Forms can be shared through email and help you capture case information that would have been impossible using paper-based forms. Learn more about “How CloudLex’s intake workflows work?”
Interrogatories in Civil Law
An interrogatory is a written question submitted to someone during litigation. They are often used in civil court cases to obtain information and documents from the other party. Learn more about “What is an interrogatory?”
Legal Client-intake Management
Thus a legal client intake is a robust process of collecting detailed case information from prospects in order to correctly qualify leads and accept them as cases. Learn more about “What is legal client-intake management?”
Legal Cloud®
Legal Cloud is a revolutionary cloud-based legal platform designed exclusively for plaintiff personal injury law firms. Learn more about “What is Legal Cloud®?”
Legal Practice Management Software
Legal practice management software is a holistic system that helps lawyers manage daily operations and business processes within their practice. Learn more about “What is legal practice management software?”
Logging Settlement Demand and Offers in CloudLex®
With CloudLex, you can log offers from adjusters against their plaintiff’s insurance and track payment requests and expenses for each injury type. Learn more about “How can I log settlement demand and offers in CloudLex®?”
Loss of Consortium
A loss of consortium claim evaluates the level of suffering a defendant’s action causes the non-injured claimant. These actions need to result in loss through severe or permanent injury before most courts can accept them. Learn more about “What is loss of consortium?”
Maximum Medical Improvement
Maximum medical improvement, frequently abbreviated to ‘MMI,’ is a term used when a person’s condition has reached a plateau where no available treatment can improve it. Learn more about “What is maximum medical improvement?”
Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice occurs when a hospital, doctor, or healthcare provider negligently harms a patient. Malpractice can look like medical errors in diagnosis, medical treatment, or other forms of health management. Learn more about “What is medical malpractice?”
Multidistrict Litigation
Multidistrict litigation (MDL) is a type of civil procedure in the United States federal court system. MDL is used when multiple lawsuits are pending against a defendant or defendants, and the lawsuits share common questions of fact. Learn more about “What is Multidistrict Litigation (MDL)?”
Optical character recognition (OCR)
Optical character recognition (OCR) technology is a business solution for automating data extraction from printed or written text from a scanned document or image file. Not only does OCR save you time, money, and effort but the environment too. Learn more about “What is OCR?”
Organize Medical Records
In order to be used effectively, medical records must be well-organized. It makes it possible for a lawyer to find information in the record that is pertinent to the injury claim quickly, which ultimately speeds up the preparation and presentation of the case and ensures efficient legal document management. Learn more about “How to organize medical records in personal injury law firms?”
Personal Injury Lawsuit
Personal Injury lawsuits are the most common civil cases. They involve legal lawsuits stemming from individuals who have suffered an unexpected injury. Learn more about “What is a personal injury lawsuit?”
Premises Liability
Premises liability is a legal responsibility imposed on the property owner due to injuries caused by unsafe conditions. It refers to legal principles that hold property owners responsible for the injury caused on their premises. State statutes and municipal ordinances are primary sources of premises law. Learn more about “What is premises liability?”
Product Liability
Product liability is an area of law. It holds manufacturers and distributors accountable for injuries occurring from defective products. The claimant must prove the case falls within one category mentioned above. Learn more about “What is product liability?”
RICO Charge
RICO stands for the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The gist of the law is that if prosecutors can show that there’s an organization of people who commit crimes together on a recurring basis as a group or gang, then any single gang member can be prosecuted for any of the crimes the organization may commit. Learn more about “What is a RICO charge?”
Schedule Calendars Effectively
Having an efficient calendaring system is one battle, and using it efficiently to make sure you don’t miss deadlines is how you win the war. Learn more about “How can lawyers schedule calendars effectively?”
Single Sign On
Single Sign-on for law firms is an authentication process that allows you to log in to all systems using a single password. E.g., Google and Microsoft. Learn more about “What is single sign-on and why law firms should use it?”
Standard of Care
According to the legal definition of “standard of care,” anyone undertaking an act that could damage another person is expected by law to take reasonable precautions. To harm someone is to bring them harm. One may file a lawsuit under tort law (civil wrong) to recover damages for harms brought on by negligence. Learn more about “What is the sandard of care?”
Statute of Limitations
A statute of limitations enforces the time to start legal proceedings. The clock begins to run on the date of the accident or the alleged offense. The legislation breaks down the time limits depending on the nature of the lawsuit or offense. Learn more about “What is Statute of Limitations?”
Strict Liability
Strict liability is a legal term that refers to a type of liability that does not require proof of fault. This means that the defendant with a case under strict liability is held responsible for the damages, regardless of whether they were negligent or not. Learn more about “What is strict liability?”
Tracking Settlements in CloudLex®
CloudLex provides you insights into your personal injury settlement management with an extensive and customizable dashboard and reports. Learn more about “How to track the settlement for all the matters in CloudLex®?”
Voir Dire
Voir dire is the process whereby judges and lawyers question potential jurors in order to determine their suitability for a particular case and to challenge any juror who they believe is unfit to serve. It is also referred to as voir dire examination or jury selection. Learn more about “What is Voir Dire?”
World Without Personal Injury Lawyer
Personal injury attorneys specialize in representing individuals who have been injured due to the negligence or wrongdoing of others. In this article, we will explore the crucial “role of personal injury attorneys in our legal system and the potential consequences of a world without them.”
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