Hawaii Personal Injury Law Overview

Personal injury law is the very broad area of law that covers injuries and deaths sustained in motor vehicle accidents, slip and fall accidents, defective products accidents, and medical malpractice incidents.

Hawaii's personal injury law allows for "modified comparative negligence," which means that if you were partly to blame for your injuries, you can still receive compensation from other responsible parties as long as you were less than half to blame. Your compensation will be reduced by your percentage of fault. So, if you were 35% responsible for your injuries, then your compensation will be reduced by 35%.

Liability

Hawaii law follows joint and several liability, which means each party is responsible for the full amount of damages, so if one party cannot pay, the plaintiff can still collect their share from the other responsible parties.

Compensation

In Hawaii, you may be entitled to the following compensation:

• Past, current, and future medical bills
• Rehabilitation
• Lost wages
• Lost future earnings
• Permanent disability
• Permanent disfigurement
• Pain and suffering
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Emotional distress
• Property damage
• Other expenses as a direct result of your injury

Pain and suffering damages are capped at $350,000 but other non-economic damages are not limited.

Negligence

In personal injury cases, you will have to prove negligence, and these elements must be present to prove negligence:

• The person who caused your injuries owed you a duty
• The person failed to uphold that duty and that failure caused your injuries
• You suffered damages

Statute of limitations

Each and every state has time limits for filing personal injury lawsuits. In Hawaii, the statute of limitations for most personal injury cases is two years, but in some cases you will have even less time.

To learn more about Hawaii personal injury law, please contact an experienced personal injury lawyer in your area today.