Although an accident can take place in a long list of possible locations, any accidental occurrence can cause harm to one or more of those involved in that same incident. Moreover, the law has defined only 3 types of personal injury claims. Most members of the public find that their lives include an experience with only one type of claim.
The 1st of the 3 types of personal injury claims: Intentional tort
Five elements must be proven, if a plaintiff wants to claim someone liable for the actions that are linked to intentional tort. The liable action must be done on purpose. In other words, it needs to be done by someone that intended to do harm to another individual.
• The defendant must have either a purpose or intention for his or her actions.
• There must be a causal link between the intentional action and the injury to the victim.
• The victim must suffer an injury.
• There must be a statute of limitations, regarding the deadline for filing a claim.
The 2nd of the three claim-types: Negligence
If the victim of an accident wants to submit a personal injury claim against one of the involved parties, then that same victim must produce proof of four elements.
• The defendant must have had a duty of care towards the victim/plaintiff.
• The defendant must have breached that duty of care.
• The breach must have caused an unquestionable amount of damage/injury. If no one got injured, the defendant cannot be charged with negligence.
• There must be a statute of limitation, which sets a deadline for submission of a claim.
The last of the 3 types of claims: Strict liability
This applies to specific activities, those in which the participants must obey specific laws.
3 necessary elements: The regulated activity must have caused an injury; someone had to be injured; there must be a statute of limitation, with respect to the deadline for filing a claim. The adults that might get charged with violation of the strict liability regulations normally hold a job in a particular field, or have chosen to pursue a rather risky hobby. Here are some examples of activities that can lead to a violation of strict liability rules, if the person taking part in such an activity ignores the existing regulations:
• Using explosives
• Checking for product defects
• Storage of hazardous substances
• Warning of product defects
• Transportation of hazardous substances
• Possession of wild animals
Personal injury claims that would get rejected by the court, if someone tried submitting such a claim:
An accusation that a product is dangerously defective, when the claimant was not really injured, only almost injured by the defective product. In the absence of an injury, no charge of negligence permitted, as per injury lawyer in Medicine Hat.
An accusation that a neighbor has violated the strict liability regulations, regarding usage of explosives: This could be a baseless allegation, if the neighbor had set off some fireworks, but that action had not caused anyone to become injured.