Personal Injury Lawsuits - Injury To Reputation, Intentional Injury, And Product Liability

There are five main types of personal injury lawsuits. They are: bodily injury, economic injury, injury to reputation, intentional injury, and product liability. Keep in mind these are just the types of lawsuits, and not all the potential types of personal injury cases that can be filed in a court.

In order to better help you understand personal injury lawsuits, this article will give an example of injury to reputation, intentional injury, and product liability and why those are considered to be personal injury lawsuits as opposed to some other form of civil suit.

Slander and Libel (Injury to Reputation)

Slander and libel refer to the communication of a false statement that is implied or stated to be the truth that could cause your business, yourself personally, your group, or your product to suffer a negative reputation. In order for the statement to be considered slanderous or libel it must have been heard or witnessed by another person.

For example, if someone told a potential business partner that you were a crook and couldnt be trusted, and as a result this potential business partner decided not to work with you, you could sue the person who told this potential business partner you were a crook for the financial loss of this business partners business. But you could not sue for damages to your reputation. The statement by the person to your potential business partner would be considered slander.

Libel refers to written words or images that are printed in a magazine, newspaper, letter, email, picture, or a radio or television program.

For example: If a newspaper publishes a story about an athlete being accused of taking steroids without checking on the truth to this accusation, and the athlete can prove the information published is false, this athlete can sue for libel.

In this case, the athlete can not only sue for financial loss, but can also sue for a damaged reputation because he/she was defamed in front of potentially hundreds of thousands of readers.

Intentional Injury

In an intentional injury personal injury lawsuit, negligence is not the foundation for the lawsuit. It is instead the person who is injured makes their claim based on someones intentional act.

For example, if you are the victim of an assault and battery, or gross negligence, such as someone driving very recklessly, the intent behind the person who caused your injury is assumed.

Often an act of intentional injury can be classified as both an intentional act and a negligent act. If you feel you may have an intentional injury lawsuit, its important that you contact a qualified lawyer who can evaluate your claim and take any proper action that is needed.

Product Liability

The term product liability refers to the duty of manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and vendors to not cause personal harm or destruction of property to their customers due to a defective product.

One example of a product liability case would be defects in garments. For example, if a costume or other article of clothing is advertised as being fire resistant and someone is injured because the costume or piece of clothing caught on fire, and it was discovered that the garments fire resistant material was defective in some way that caused injury to the person wear it.