When a person gets hurt, you usually hear about two terms, the personal injury and bodily injury. Often, people use these two terms interchangeably, but bodily injury and personal injury are two different things and have different legal meanings. When you approach an attorney such as Perry Bundy Plyler& Long LLPto work for legal proceedings for an injury whether personal or bodily, they will define your injury and determine whether it is a personal injury or bodily injury.
A personal injury claim deals with civil law proceedings and compensate the victims of social wrongs or accidents like defamation of character. The victim or the person who got injured in an accident or due to social wrongs is the plaintiff in a personal injury lawsuit. In the case of death of a person in an accident, the representative or the nearest relative of the deceased person becomes the plaintiff in the personal injury lawsuit. On the other hand, the defendant of the case is the person who caused the accident or whose fault caused the injury and loss to the injured. If the defendant blames another party, then the other party becomes cross-defendant.
Eventually, bodily injury is different from personal injury because it refers to a particular injury that is caused to the body of the victim by another or some other persons. Bodily injury usually refers to injuries in criminal procedures, but it has also implications when insurance is taken into account.
In common cases, bodily injuries arise in the context of insurance especially motor vehicle insurance to claim medical coverage from the insurance of the at-fault driver. The bodily injury liability insurance coverage includes compensation to pedestrians, another driver, and passengers who got injured because of the fault of the insured driver. In this context, if you are badly injured you will be compensated for medical expenses including x-rays, therapies etc, transportation to the hospital, lost wages, loss of earning capacity as well as pain and sufferings.
