Michael P. Ehline Personal Injury Law Blog on Lawyers.com

Have you ever wondered what a personal injury is under under
California law? This article written by Ehline Law, San Francisco, Orange County and Los Angeles Injury Lawyer, explains what a personal injury is and why
you should hire a California personal injury attorney if you are hurt
in California as the result of negligence of a wrongdoer.

What
is a Personal Injury?

A personal injury is part of the
the law of torts. Tort" is an ancient Latin word. It means inter
alia: "A negligent or intentional civil wrong not arising out of a
contract or statute. These include "intentional torts" such as battery
(striking someone) or defamation (saying untrue things that are hurtful
about another to others), and torts for negligence. . ."

A tort
action allows you to sue someone for civil wrongs, as opposed to
criminal wrongs, for money damages.

Inter Vivos View

Under
English Common Law, a person's family members were not allowed to sue
one another for torts because the church felt that this could create a
breakdown in familial relations. Modernly court feel and many state
legislatures believe that if a family members has hurt another family
member, there is already a breakdown in family relationships. Therefore
they can usually sue eachother.

Often, tort lawsuits against a
spouse are brought separate and apart from any divorce, annulment or
other family law case. Alabama, Georgia, Nevada, New York and Tennessee,
however, allow or encourage combining the tort case with the family law
case; New Jersey requires it.

The jurisdictions that still
prohibit one family member from suing another include Arizona, Delaware,
Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, Utah, Wyoming
and Washington, D.C. These places may make an exception when the tort
is intentional. See, for example, Bounds v. Candle, 611 S.W.2d
685 (Texas 1980); Townsend v. Townsend, 708 S.W.2d 646
(Missouri 1986) and Green v. Green, 446 N.E.2d 837 (Ohio 1982).

An
injury; a wrong; hence the expression "an executor de son tort", of his
own wrong.

Torts can be caused by force, trespasses to
property or chattel, or by a physical injury to a person, like assault,
battery, imprisonment; to the property in possession; or they may be
committed without force. Torts of this nature are to the absolute or
relative rights of persons, or to personal property in possession or
reversion, or to real property, corporeal or incorporeal, in possession
or reversion: these injuries may be either by nonfeasance, malfeasance,
or misfeasance.

What California Personal Injuries are
Torts?

There are many different types of tort injuries
that occur in California. Most tort injuries are the result of someone's
negligence. However, there are also intentional torts such as battery,
assault, or intentional infliction of emotional distress. Negligence is
how the great majority of California Personal Injuries occur and is the
term used in California Courts and includes but is not limited to:

Car
Crash;

Deglove Injury;

Truck Accidents;

SUV
Rollovers;

Wrongful Death;

Survival Actions;

Premises
Liability Injuries, which include slips and falls;

Automobile
Accident Injuries, which makes up a large majority of civil case filings
in Marina del Rey Courts for negligence;

Airplane Accidents;

Products
Liability Injuries, etc.