Personal Injury Terms and Definitions

Defective product injury When a product malfunctions due to a defect and causes serious personal injury, the law requires the manufacturer, wholesaler or retailer of the product to bear the losses caused by the defect in the product. Bodily Injury A cut, abrasion, bruise, burn, or disfigurement; physical pain, illness, impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty; or any other injury to the body, no matter how temporary. Traumatic Brain Injury Serious injury to the head often resulting in severe and permanent damage to the brain. A bone may break or fracture when the force applied against it is greater than the strength of the bone itself. Quadriplegia Complete paralysis of the body from the neck down, usually caused by damage to the spinal cord. Soft Tissue Injury Injury to the ligaments, tendons and fibers of the body that connect the skeletal bones. Vicarious Liability When a person who did not actually cause an injury is held for the injury. Sometimes called imputed liability. Whiplash injury Hyperextension (over-extension) injury to the neck, often the result of being struck from behind, as by a fast-moving vehicle in a car accident. Cerebral edema Accumulation of excessive fluid in the substance of the brain. The brain is especially susceptible to injury from edema, because it is located within a confined space and cannot expand. Trauma Any injury, whether physically or emotionally inflicted. "Trauma" has both a medical and a psychiatric definition. Medically, "trauma" refers to a serious or critical bodily injury, wound, or shock. Alternative Dispute Resolution An arbitration is a legal hearing, less formal than a trial, in which each side in a lawsuit or dispute offers evidence and testimony to a neutral hearing officer (the arbitrator). The arbitrator is typically an experienced attorney or a retired judge.

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	Did You Know?
	Tort lawyer is needed when civil wrongs are done Torts fall into three general categories: intentional torts (e.g., intentionally hitting a person); negligent torts (causing an accident by failing to obey traffic rules); and strict liability torts (e.g., liability for making and selling defective products). Intentional torts are those wrongs which the defendant knew or should have known would occur through their actions or inactions.