Where Are the Laws that Govern Personal Injury Cases?
Unlike other areas of the law that find their rules in statutes (such as penal codes in criminal cases), the development of personal injury law has taken place mostly through court decisions, and in treatises written by legal scholars. Many states have taken steps to summarize the development of personal injury law in written statutes, but 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.) To understand how pre-existing case law (or “legal precedent”) might be used to strengthen an injury case, suppose that you are involved in an accident or are injured, and decide to hire an attorney to protect your legal rights. During settlement negotiations with insurers or opposing counsel, and especially in any legal
