Utah Personal Injury Law Overview

Personal injury law is a broad area of law that deals with injuries and deaths due to someone else's negligence or wrongdoing. Some of the most common types of personal injury cases Utah lawyers see are medical malpractice cases, motor vehicle accidents, defective product accidents, and premises liability injuries.

Each state has a certain time limit that people have to file a personal injury lawsuit after the injury occurred. These statutes of limitations vary from state to state. In Utah, you have two years to file most types of personal injury claims. This two-year limit is not for all cases, however. For instance, in some types of cases, the time is calculated from the date of discovery rather than the date of occurrence. A good example of this type of case is a mesothelioma case. Mesothelioma is a lung cancer that people who have been exposed to asbestos can develop over time. The statute of limitations law is crucial in these cases because asbestos-related disease often does not manifest symptoms until 10 to 20 years after exposure to asbestos.

Damages

In Utah, you may be entitled to compensation for:

• Medical expenses
• Lost wages
• Future lost wages
• Long-term care
• Permanent disability
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress
• Property damage

Some states place a "cap" (limit) on non-economic damages; Utah is one of those states. Non-economic damages include pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. In Utah, for most personal injury cases, there is a limit of $400,000, but this cap is adjusted for inflation every year. Medical malpractice cases have a non-economic damages cap of $250,000.

Punitive damages are intended to punish the defendant. In Utah, there is no cap on punitive damages, but plaintiffs should know that the state will get half of all punitive damages over $20,000

Negligence

For most personal injury cases, you must prove negligence in order to prove fault. Negligence does not have to be intentional. Utah follows the doctrine of "modified comparative negligence," which states that even if you are partly responsible for your injuries, you can still collect compensation from the responsible parties if you are less than 49% to blame. Your compensation is reduced by an amount equal to your share of the blame.

Several liability

Utah also follows the doctrine of "several liability," which states that each party will be held responsible for his share of the compensation. If one of the parties cannot pay, the other responsible parties do not have to pay his share.

If you live in Utah and think you may have a valid legal claim, please contact an experienced Utah personal injury attorney today to schedule a confidential consultation.