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This is the Attorney For You Legal Dictionary. Please click on
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Glossary Results:
Antitrust Acts - Federal and state statutes to protect trade and commerce from unlawful restraints, price discriminations, price fixing and monopolies.
AUTO ACCIDENT COMPENSATION - Millions of auto accidents occur each year, injuring people and damaging property. Where a matter is very minor, many people file the needed reports with the police or DMV, tell their insurance companies, and go on with their lives, paying the losses out of pocket. But all too often the matter is not minor, and can cost you significant amounts of money and significant personal sacrifice or pain.
As you know, if you suffer a personal injury you'll likely require medical attention and may need rehabilitation, both of which cost money. You may lose income (and/or have to use up "sick time") because of the injury, and while treatment and recovery takes place. You may have sustained property damage to your car and other property. As you can't drive your vehicle while it is being repaired, you may have to rent one, and car repairs and rentals can cost money. You may lose the ability to perform various activities of normal daily living, for a while or long term. You may endure pain and suffering.
The law permits you to seek recovery after an accident to "make you whole again." The central concept is that you should be compensated in a manner that, as best as the law can arrange, places you back in the same position as you were before the accident.
In addition to normal compensatory damages designed to make someone whole, in extreme cases "punitive damages" may be available if the injury was the result of someone else's reckless or irresponsible behavior, or if the cause of the accident or the extent of the injury was caused by something about the car that is dangerous ? a defective product-- that the manufacturer should have corrected.
Back and Neck Injuries - Even in what seems to be relatively minor accidents people can injure their neck and back. The force generated by an accident forces the spine forward and backward, or side to side. This can tear and stretch muscle, resulting in painful injuries. The soft disks that are between the vertebrae can also tear, a more serious injury. Back and neck injuries are, according to health agencies, the most common reason for missed work, and one of the most common complaints made to doctors.
Boating Accident - *A formal written accident report is required to be filed when the following situations occur:
- Life is lost due to the accident.
- Someone is injured and requires medical treatment beyond first aid.
- There is a complete loss of the vessel or damage to the vessel and property exceeding $500 (Many states have set a limit less than $500- contact the local state boating authority to determine the amount).
- Any person on board a vessel disappears (under circumstances indicating death or injury).
class action - A lawsuit which is brought by representatives of a large number of persons on behalf of that group.
damages - Money awarded to one party in a lawsuit to compensate for injury or loss caused by the other.
Defective Product - one that causes some injury or damage to person as a result of a person because of some defect in the product or its labeling or the way the product was used. The manufacturer, and others involved in the chain of commerce involving the products that caused the injury, are often liable for injuries defective products cause.
Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) - A federal agency which regulates air commerce to promote aviation Administration safety.
Involuntary bankruptcy - A proceeding initiated by creditors requesting the bankruptcy court to place a debtor in liquidation.
Joint and several liability - A legal doctrine that makes each of the parties who are responsible for an injury, liable for all the damages awarded in a lawsuit if the other parties responsible cannot pay.
Negligence - Failure to use care which a reasonable and prudent person would use under similar circumstances.
personal injury - Injury to a persons body, mind or reputation..
Personal Injury - An injury not to property, but to your body, mind or emotions. For example, if you slip and fall on a banana peel in the grocery store, personal injury covers any actual physical harm (broken leg and bruises) you suffered in the fall as well as the humiliation of falling in public, but not the harm of shattering your watch.
Personal Injury Recovery - The amount that comes from a lawsuit or insurance settlement to compensate someone for physical and mental suffering, including injury to body, injury to reputation or both.
Personal Property - All property other than land and buildings attached to land. Cars, bank accounts, wages, securities, a small business, furniture, insurance policies, jewelry, patents, pets and season baseball tickets are all examples of personal property. Personal property may also be called personal effects, movable property, goods and chattel, and personalty.
Product Liability - Legal responsibility of manufacturers and sellers to buyers, users, and bystanders for damages or injuries suffered because of defects in goods.
Proximate cause - The last negligent act which contributes to an injury. A person generally is liable only is an injury was proximately caused by his or her action or by his or her failure to act when he or she had a duty to act.
Slip and Fall - or "trip and fall" is the generic term for an injury which occurs when someone slips, trips or falls as a result of a dangerous or hazardous condition on someone else's property. It includes falls as a result of water, ice or snow, as well as abrupt changes in flooring, poor lighting, or a hidden hazard, such as a gap or hard to see hole in the ground.
Tort - An injury to one person for which the person who caused the injury is legally responsible. A tort can be intentional -- for example, an angry punch in the nose -- but is far more likely to result from carelessness (called "negligence"), such as riding your bicycle on the sidewalk and colliding with a pedestrian. While the injury that forms the basis of a tort is usually physical, this is not a requirement -- libel, slander and the "intentional infliction of mental distress" are on a good-sized list of torts not based on a physical injury.
wrongful death - Death caused by someone else's fault.
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