Transcript (Click To Read)
Clark: I’m Clark Speaks, the catastrophic injury lawyer. Welcome to the verdict.
Carson Grace Toomer: My name is Carson Grace Toomer, and I’m here with American injury lawyer Clark speaks. So, Mr. Speaks, can you tell me just what exactly is personal injury law?
Clark: So, yeah, that’s a good question. So, uh, when we think about legal disputes, right, people disagree, or, um, things that might end up in court. A lot of times we think about, uh, criminal law and civil law. And criminal law is when people purposely do things that are in violation of the law. They might speed, they might distribute drugs, sell drugs, hurt, uh, someone steal, um, something like that. Those cases involve, uh, the state or federal government versus an individual. Right. Um, the state of North Carolina may be charging John Smith with violating this law. And the consequences of that are punishment. Uh, a person has to go to jail or pay a fine or be on probation or something along those lines. And that is criminal law. And then the other place that, um, people may have disputes is, uh, in a civil context, maybe a business, an individual or group of individuals or a business versus an individual, group of individuals, or a business maybe suing each other. For example, breach of contract. Like, my company ordered a million widgets from your company, and they weren’t right, or we didn’t pay for them correctly, or we didn’t need them or whatever, and there’s a dispute that arises that way. Or, uh, the other way is contract. Another way might be tort. Um, and tort is where injury law comes, uh, from. And the idea. The components of tort are duty, breach of duty, causation, damages. So duty means you have an obligation to do something. Breach of duty means you fail in that obligation. Causation means, uh, two things, but for which means if you hadn’t done the thing you did or not done the thing that you should have done, this thing would have never happened. It also means it’s foreseeable. It’s foreseeable that if you do the thing or don’t do the thing, somebody could, uh, get injured as a result. And then damages. Someone has to be hurt because of it, has to be damaged, has to suffer physical, uh, financial loss, that kind of thing. And so that’s the concept of personal injury. A person was negligent or a business was negligent, they had a duty and they breached the duty. Duty is generally reasonable care, although there are specific duties imposed by law and circumstances. Um, so there was a duty and a breach of duty that resulted in negligence. There’s causation, but for. And foreseeability. And then there’s damages. Uh, the other thing that’s necessary in order to be able to have a successful personal injury claim is there has to be a source of recovery. There has to be someone we can go after. You know, for example, if uh, if it’s uh, a situation, um, where somebody is run over by a commercial truck and then the truck gets away and doesn’t stop, then we might not ever be able to find out who was responsible for that. And so there might be no source of recovery. So even though there is a tort committed and a civil case that is convincible from which you should be able to recover money, there’s no one there from which to recover the money. So you have to have liability damages and a source of recovery. Uh, so anyway, so assuming there is a liability, damages and a source of recovery, then the combination of those things produces a uh, civil claim, which is a personal injury claim. And um, if you have a situation like that, a personal injury lawyer can help you recover what was taken from you and the amount of monetary damages.
Carson Grace Toomer: Right. So what you learn in high school, and I have a little bit in undergrad of college, um, personal injury law isn’t what you find in the constitution or the amendment. So where exactly did personal injury law come from? Where did that start?
Clark: Sure, it developed through. Well there’s so. So some of the legal principles were. Were in uh, developed through case law. So the legal uh, principles were established. And um, uh, there’s a case, um, uh, early 1900s where a uh, person was injured when a wheel that was created for a automobile collapsed and it was, it was improperly manufactured or whatever. And so the idea was that the company that made the wheel was responsible because they should have made it in one way. And they deviated from their standards and they were negligent. They deviated from the standard of care. They didn’t exercise reasonable care in the construction of this wheel and it collapsed and hurt someone. And so because of that, the opinion that came out of it sort of was the seminal opinion in personal injury that they were responsible for the damages that they caused, especially where those damages were first seen. And it makes perfect sense that if you don’t manufacture a wheel correctly and uh, a wheel is collapses, that there would be a person in the vehicle or working on the vehicle that could be injured as a result. And that’s exactly what happened. And the uh, court concluded that it was compensable and that was the basis for personal injury, um, uh, lawsuits. And then, and then it, then it was developed further. There Was another case involving someone found a snail, ah, in their uh, in their soda or ginger ale or something like this and became sick as a result. And then it was, and the idea was that you know, and so, so, so what the way I see about, about see it as this is um, like my kids. I was, I was with my kids recently. Not you know, a couple years ago. We uh, every now and then we go to this surf camp in Costa uh, Rica. And um. Costa Rica, beautiful place, great place in a lot of ways. The uh, one thing that concerns me is the lack of the development of their personal injury legal system. And the reason I say that is because not uh, to be critical but I just notice it. So I’m walking around with um, my kids, uh, and I can’t help noticing all these things that are just glaringly obvious dangers. For example, we stay at a hotel and there’s a water slide in the, and the, in the US you just, you just would get on the water slide and go down. Well we do that. And the water slide first of all is made of concrete, right? So it is slippery concrete. And uh, the uh, entry and access point, it’s a miracle there’s not people stacked up, uh, you know, bodies tacked up outside of this thing because it is just. There’s nothing safe about it. And then when you, when you, when you exit, it’s like a 12 foot drop into like 3ft of water. It makes no sense whatsoever. So we just go flying out the end of this thing one right after the other into like three feet of water. And I’m like, how can this be? This doesn’t make any sense. Later that day we’re walking um, through town and we um, uh, are stopping to get you know, coffee or whatever. And we’re walking from the place, uh, where we got coffee into parking uh, lot. And it, the parking lot has a, a big metal arm that controls who can enter and exit the thing. Well the, the part. The thing has been up and it was up when we got in, it was up when we, when we started to leave. Well, we get right up to the thing and this is a probably a 30 foot steel pole and the pole just. And right like you know, and so I have to stop both of my kids from. And it was been very easy for that to. And it. From my perspective. I mean it seems funny now but if it had hit them in the head there would have been nothing funny about it. If they hadn’t died they would have been terminally. I mean it would have been bad, it would have been bad. And, uh, there’s just almost no safety features to this thing. So the idea is. And there are other examples that we saw. And in fact, when we were traveling a lot of times, you know, I’ll point the. My kids will roll their eyes and be like, oh, my gosh. But. But it’s. It’s. It’s. I can’t help noticing that it is true that things are safer in this country because of, you know. Now, that doesn’t exactly make me Batman or whatever. You know, I’m not like, necessarily protecting everybody, you know, from, uh. But I do think that this body of law serves a purpose. It makes people safer, it makes us safer. And it puts. More importantly, it puts the cost of these kinds of injuries, these kinds of problems, these kinds of challenges on those who cause them, which to me is justice. Right? It makes sense. And that’s the reason those laws exist in the first place, is, uh. I think it’s, um. I got a quote as, uh. If he is negligent, where a danger is foreseen, then liability will follow. And that’s the seminal opinion from Cardozo, which is. Which makes sense, right? If you cause damage, you should have to pay for it. Um, it’s like, uh. I remember when I was a kid, uh, we used to play baseball. And a lot of times we play baseball in a vacant lot, right? And so there’s a vacant lot in my neighborhood where I’m growing up and where, um. Uh, playing baseball and. Well, you know, I played with kids, uh, who were bigger and smaller. My brother, big brother, was playing with us, and so, um. Uh, he’s like, heckling me, and it’s just driving me crazy. And so, uh. And I’m pitching, and so I throw it and I. And he. And he hits it right back to me. And I’m like, I’m thrilled, right? This is my opportunity. I’m going to throw him out at first, and then I’m going to be victorious in our little whatever for the first time probably ever. And so I reach down and I pick up the ball, and I fired it first with everything I’ve got. And the first, uh, baseman is my buddy andy, who’s about 4ft tall. And it goes a solid 6ft over his head, you know, because I’m so amped up or whatever. And it goes through the window, right, of my, uh. Of the house that’s beside the vacant lot. And I’m like, uh, shoot. So. So I know what I’ve got to do. Right. So. And the guy that, uh, that owns this house is. Is this old kind of difficult, uh, guy. He’s not. He’s known for, you know, the blinds are shut. He’s not friendly. And I have a paper route. So I know him because of this. Right. It’s the only reason I would ever known anybody live there is because I got to deliver his paper and deal with him all the time. He’s not a very nice person. And so I. I, uh, gotta go knock on the door and tell him, you know, and then I gotta pay for the replacement of the window with my paper money over the course of the next month or whatever to replace his window. You know, And I. I wasn’t thrilled with that, but I knew that was the only thing that made sense. Right? He shouldn’t have. He didn’t do it. He shouldn’t have to replace his window. I caused it. It was a mistake. I shouldn’t go to jail. I shouldn’t have a criminal record. It was a mistake, but I should have to pay for it. Well, that’s exactly what personal injury is. If a person makes a mistake, they don’t have to go to jail. Now, if they’re driving drunk and they break some other laws, maybe they have a consequence from that. But in terms of the personal injury, if a person makes a mistake and someone else is injured as a result, then the person or entity that made the mistake ought to have to pay for the cost of that mistake. And that’s the basis of personal injury. All they’re having to do is to pay for the window they broke. Thanks for joining us. Don’t forget to subscribe and follow us to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. We’ll see you next time.
