In an effort to help everyone in the Calgary area and throughout Alberta better understand personal injury laws and the way these laws can affect the outcome of a personal injury case, the dedicated lawyers at Cuming & Gillespie LLP are publishing a series of articles that provide an overview of some of the basic concepts in personal injury law. Previous articles have explained the terms negligence, duty of care, and injury as they pertain to injury lawsuits.

These three concepts are foundational to personal injury law in that they establish a cause for legal action: a scenario where one party has a responsibility, fails to live up to it, and causes damages to someone else. In legal terms, any wrong act that results in a legally actionable injury is called a tort, and the same term can be used to refer to the actual legal case that results from a wrongful act. So, when someone disregards Calgary’s traffic laws and causes a car accident that injures someone else, that car accident itself is a tort, and if the injured party files suit against the person who caused the accident that lawsuit is a tort, as well.

Tort law covers many types of cases aside from personal injury cases. A breach of contract that leads to monetary damages is a tort case; instances of fraud and theft can be prosecuted by the government as crimes and can also lead to tort cases in the civil courts; and other criminal acts such as assault (a wrong act that quite clearly has the potential to cause injury) can also be torts. In fact, tort cases make up the majority of cases seen in Calgary area courts and throughout Alberta.

Personal injury cases are a specific kind of tort case, and successfully arguing such cases takes extensive experience not just with torts generally, but with personal injury specifically. While the basic elements of every tort case are the same—a wrong act results in injuries or damages to someone else’s property—a personal injury case requires a duty of care, negligence, and real bodily or mental harm to the victim. Evidence in personal injury cases often requires a great deal more in-depth and specialized understanding due to the medical nature of the damages involved, and there are legal guidelines and requirements that are very different in personal injury cases compared to other torts.

A Calgary Personal Injury Law Firm With Experience

Cuming & Gillespie LLP is Calgary’s premier personal injury law firm dedicated solely to helping injury victims get the justice they deserve. If you’re in the process of selecting a lawyer for your personal injury case, or if you have questions about an injury you or a family member received due to someone else’s negligence, contact our office to get the experienced, knowledgable assistance you deserve from a lawyer who has spent their career handling cases like yours.