What is a personal injury case?

A personal injury case is a legal action for someone who is injured against the person or entity that caused the injury. The Law Office of Koby Kirkland handles injury and death cases for people injured throughout Alabama and Texas.

The most common types of injury cases are car wrecks, truck collisions, and slip and falls. Although they don’t come up as often, I’ve also handled injury cases involving dog bites, intentional violence like assault and battery, and even shootings.

Technically, medical malpractice is a type of injury case, but they are different enough to be a separate practice area (that I also handle).

When someone is injured by a product—anything from a can opener to a helicopter—they have a products liability case. These cases are usually brought against the product’s manufacturer and often require expert engineering analysis to prove. I have some experience with products cases and if I can’t help, I can point you in the right direction of attorneys who can.

Folks injured while on the job have a worker’s compensation case, which is different than the typical injury case. Although I don’t take these cases in Alabama or Texas, I know good attorneys who handle workers comp and I can point you in the right direction.

Do you have a personal injury case?

It’s pretty simple, injury cases have three main ingredients: (1) Negligence, (2) Causation, and (3) Damages.

1. Negligence means a mistake—did someone mess up and do something wrong? That’s my rough definition anyway; the law usually defines negligence as the “failure to use ordinary care,” or failing to do something that a reasonable person would have done.
2. Causation means did the other person’s negligence, or mistake, cause some harm? It’s not enough that someone made a mistake and someone else was hurt—you must prove that the mistake actually caused the harm.
3. Damages means the injury or harm. Was the victim actually injured or harmed? Not that something bad almost happened or could have happened—was there a real injury?

What can the victim get from the case?

Money. Money to pay medical bills (past and future), to cover time off work, and to compensate the victim for their pain and suffering, disfigurement, or disability.

To some, being this honest about monetary recovery sounds crass. But we don’t have a time machine to go back and avoid the injury altogether. Money is the only medium of value we have to (1) deter future negligent conduct and (2) compensate injured victims. 

If you or your loved one was injured by the actions of someone else, contact me. I can help.