Common Legal Terms Explained by Your Denver Personal Injury Attorney
When a situation arises that leads you to seeking council, there may be many legal terms you will learn along the way. As you prepare for a case with your local Denver personal injury attorney, it is best to learn some of these terms in advance. This will make it easier to understand when working with them. From workers’ compensation to personal injury, there are a variety of terms to learn!
The Basics
There are a few basic terms that will be used often, these are plaintiffs and defendants. The plaintiff is the person who has initiated the legal action or lawsuit. The lawsuit is simply the legal proceedings of a case. A complaint is the actual document stemming from the plaintiff and reasons why the case has been created. The defendant is the person on the other side that the complaint is filed against. Next, you will learn about the attorney client privilege. This means that anything you discuss with your lawyer can remain confidential. In the early stages of a case, you may hear the term discovery. This is the time pre-trial for representation of both sides to make their case. They will find evidence to supplement each of their findings in the discovery phase.
Medical Cases
In medical cases, there are various terms you will hear. Negligence is one of the top terms that will come up often and occurs due to carelessness of a person. This means they did not follow proper procedures which resulted in a negative situation for another person. Malpractice is also a common term, which is different than negligence. Malpractice is a form of negligence when a professional does not handle a task in their profession at the standards it should be. It is a little more focused on the actual profession, for doctors, it is their set of standards that they fail to meet. When a medical case is arising, you will hear the term tort. Legal Dictionary explains, Intentional Tort is a wrongful act when harm or injury occurs in a person. They explain that tort becomes intention when the action was intended to cause harm in a person.
Workers’ Compensation
Workers’ compensation is a law that varies state to state. Within this, employees who are injured while on the job may be entitled to benefits as they recover from an accident. You will hear the term negligence in this case too as the business may be responsible to the injury due to a lack of proper procedures, equipment, policies, etc. that protect employees. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a set of standards that all businesses must enforce for employee safety. Your lawyer will work with you on a benefit structure which you can review to see what you may be entitled to post-accident. In some cases, injuries may take an extended time for healing or they may be permanent. This is where a permanent disability rating schedule comes in. Your lawyer can work to explain the various tiers and what you may qualify for to maintain quality of life.When choosing a premier attorney to help you with a personal injury or workers’ compensation case, you can trust the law office of Mark A. Simon. We are your go-to experts that will help you every step of the way to make sure you understand everything in your case. Be sure to learn how insurance companies handle a personal injury in Denver for more information.