Frequently Asked Questions about Aircraft Accident Injuries
Provided by the Aircraft Injury Law Firm of Messa & Associates, serving clients through Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey
Q: Who can I sue if my family was hurt during
an airplane or helicopter accident?
A lawsuit can be filed against any party who may have led to the
accident. This would include the pilot or owner of the aircraft
if the accident was the result of the crew's negligence. There may
also be claims against maintenance crews, the retailer or even the
manufacturer.
Q: What are the legal definitions of damage
and damages?
Damage is defined as a loss or harm resulting from injury to a
person, property or reputation. Damages refers to compensation -
such as a money judgment - provided to a person who has suffers
a loss or harm due to the unlawful act or omission of another. The
person at fault i.e. the one who is the proximate cause of the loss
or harm must compensate the injured party.
Q: What damages are usually rewarded during
these cases?
As a result of the injuries sustained by you or your family, you
may be able to recover damages for past and future medical expenses,
past and future wage loss, impairment of earning capacity, inconvenience,
loss of quality of life, emotional distress, pain and suffering.
There may also be compensation for physical impairment and disfigurement,
which may include scars or physical disability as a result of the
injuries you sustained in the accident. Unfortunately these types
of claims often involve the death of a loved one. This unfortunate
happenstance can result in damages for wrongful death.
Q: What is Negligence?
A person is negligent when he or she fails to act like the standard
“ordinary reasonable person”. The critical issue in
many cases is just how an “ordinary, reasonable person”
was expected to act in the particular situation that caused the
injury. The determination of whether a given person has met his/her
“ordinary reasonable person” standard is often a matter
that is resolved by a jury after presentation of evidence and argument
at trial.
Q: What is proximate cause?
Proximate Cause is the initial act which sets off a natural and
continuous sequence of events that produces injury. In the absence
of the initial act which produces injury, no injury would have resulted.
Responsibility for injury lies with the last negligent act that
produces the injury. This can be better explained through an illustration.
If A swings his arm with a ball in his hand, then release it, and
the ball rolls down a hill. After the ball rolls down the hill,
a stranger picks it up, throws it through a window, causing the
glass to shatter and strike a woman who was sitting next to the
window, thus cutting her arm and requiring her to obtain medical
treatment. In this example, although A has caused the ball's initial
movement, A’s act is not the proximate cause of the injury
to the woman sitting next to the window. The stranger's act is the
proximate cause of her injury, and he should be held responsible.
Q: What is an intervening cause?
Intervening Cause comes between one act or failure to act which
alters the natural and continuous series of events that follows.
When an intervening cause is present, since the natural chain of
events have been changed due to the subsequent act of another, and
the initial actor may be relieved of the responsibility for an injury
that is produced. In the example provided for proximate cause, the
act of the stranger picking up the ball and throwing it through
the window is an intervening cause which relieves a person from
the responsibility for injury which may have occurred as a result
of his/her act. The responsibility for the injury to the woman is
shifted and the stranger's act becomes the proximate cause for her
injury. To bear responsibility for injury to others, a person’s
negligent action must be the proximate cause of the injury without
any intervening causes interrupting the natural sequence of events.
Q: Where Are the Laws that Govern Personal
Injury Cases?
The development of personal injury law has taken place mostly through
court decisions, and in treatises written by legal scholars. For
practical purposes court decisions remain the main source of the
law in any legal case arising from an accident or injury. (Note:
in some types of injury cases, most notably those arising from car
accidents in which a state vehicle code section was violated, statutes
can be used to help establish fault for an accident or injury.)
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