Personal injury lawyers in Mesa, or auto accident lawyers, such as myself, are often asked what is a personal injury? Does it have to be broken bones or something that shows up on an X-ray? The answer is no.

A personal injury is any injury to one person, not caused by their own fault. Arizona personal injury law is predominately based on negligence law. Negligence means that the at-fault person, or business or corporation, had a duty to the injured person, that he, she or it breached that duty and that breach proximately caused injury to the complaining person. (More on this in an upcoming blog post.)

Personal injury comes in many forms, Yes, it can be a cut, a broken bone, a leg, an arm or a wrist or shoulder for example, injuries you can see with the naked eye or with an X-ray or CT Scan. But there are also soft tissue injuries, such as whiplash, which are injuries that do not show up on X-rays or CT (CAT) Scans or even MRI’s. These are injuries to soft tissues such as the muscles and ligaments, caused when someone’s body is whipped forward and back, usually in an auto accident or collision, from behind. This whipping action stretches all of the soft tissues connected to or around a joint, usually in the spine, and causes swelling and then movement of the bone into an unnatural position. These types of injuries heal nicely with time and medical or chiropractic intervention.

In addition to medical injury, you can also claim mental anguish and distress, two forms of injury that also do not show up on an X-ray or CT Scan! This also comes in many forms but I usually see it in the form of resulting psychological issues such as the inability to sleep, or bad dreams about the accident or, maybe, they experience headaches with no obvious cause or problems driving again. Some of my clients will not get into a car for months following an auto accident or collision. Others do drive, but they become fearful and hyper-vigilant behind the wheel, driving slower than usual or they break out into sweat while driving. If this happens to you, the earlier you seek counseling the better, not only for you, but for your claim as well.

Here is the key – the goal of personal injury law or an auto accident practice is to get the injured person in as close to the same circumstance as he or she was the moment before impact. This is not always possible as some injuries, whether physical or mental, last for years and years. But the idea is to get your medical bills paid, your attorney fees paid and to get as much money in your pocket as possible so that you can put your life back together again. Sometimes, there is not enough money to make all of this happen, but we strive to get as close to that goal as possible – to help you put your life back together again.

I have been practicing injury law, whether it is automobile accidents or slip and fall cases, even dog bite cases, for over twenty-seven (27) years and each case is personal to me, because it is personal to my client. We purposely keep our practice small and I am careful about what cases I accept – so that I can give my clients the personal attention they not only deserve, but need. I have worked in large firms in Arizona and quickly saw that they were too impersonal and too sterile for my taste. So I returned to my roots, the small, local law firm just like the one I worked at with my father for sixteen (16) years in Ohio. My father taught me to treat each client’s legal issue as if it were the most important problem in MY life, because it is the most important problem in THEIR life.