Common Types of Personal Injury Cases That Lawyers Will Accept

Important: We updated this article in March 2025 using recent caseload data, studies, and insurance industry statistics. If you’re hurt in an accident that isn’t your fault, who pays your medical bills? Depending on how, when, and where your injury happened, you may need an attorney to help you recover those costs. That’s especially true if no insurance policy exists, or the responsible party refuses to pay. But what types of personal injury cases do most lawyers accept? And can an experienced personal injury attorney help you get more money than settling directly with insurance?

If you can prove someone else’s negligence caused your injury, that person, business, or entity may owe you a significant sum of money. That’s especially true for severe injuries that result in medical expenses, lost wages, or emotional distress.

But every personal injury lawyer usually specializes in one specific legal practice area, which can be confusing to some people. We’ll explain which specific type of lawyer to contact depending on your injury and other key info below.

Common Types of Personal Injury Cases Where You Likely Need a Lawyer: Key Takeaways

• You can only file a personal injury claim if you have medical bills and can prove you did not cause the accident that injured you. For example: If you get hurt on property you own or drive into a tree while texting, you cannot receive compensation.
• Every PI lawyer in our network offers a free personal injury claim consultation and works on contingency. That means if your case doesn’t win a cash settlement, you owe the lawyer $0. And if you do win, you’ll pay anywhere from 20%-40% of your final award in fees.
• Recent studies show you’re nearly 5x more likely to get an out-of-court settlement offer if an experienced personal injury attorney represents you vs. going it alone without a lawyer. In this study, 9.3% of people without attorneys settled out of court vs. 57.6% who worked with a personal injury lawyer.
• Once you accept any kind of settlement offer or money from the responsible party, you lose your right to file a lawsuit. That’s why it’s so important to speak with a personal injury lawyer about your accident before you do anything else.
• Depending on where and the accident occurs, you may have very little time to get any money you deserve for your injury. Without an attorney, your deadline to receive a settlement could pass without you even realizing it.

How Personal Injury Law Works to Get Justice and Compensation for Victims

Generally, a personal injury case gives the injured person a way to seek compensation from the party responsible for their accident. There are 4 elements you need to pursue legal action and win a cash settlement, which we’ll explain below.

Duty of Care

First, you must show that the defendant owed you, the injured party, a legal duty to engage in your reasonable care. This means the defendant had a responsibility to avoid taking any actions that might predictably cause you to suffer harm.

In plain English, you have a right to expect other drivers to avoid swerving into oncoming traffic, for example.

Breach of Duty

Your next step is showing how the defendant failed to meet that legal obligation in providing a reasonable standard of care. If you hire someone to babysit, for example, you have a right to expect that you will not return to an empty home with your children alone and unsupervised.

Causation

Causation shows the direct link between the defendant’s actions (or lack of reasonable action) that led to the plaintiff’s injury. Let’s say you’re at the grocery store and step into a puddle of water, causing you to slip and fall down, hard. The store manager runs over and apologizes, saying he told a clerk to mop the area half an hour ago. But there is no sign warning customers about the wet floor, and no barricade to prevent you from walking through it.

Property owners have a responsibility to protect store customers from accidents like these that can seriously injure them. Now, you have a broken leg and need surgery to ever walk again.

This is a good example of someone else’s negligence can lead to serious injuries.

Damages

Damages are how courts describe the actual harm you suffered as a result of someone else’s negligence. Personal injury law defines three specific types of damages for plaintiffs to pursue:

• Economic damages. This is any financial loss you can produce a receipt for in a certain amount, like lost wages, medical expenses, repair costs from vehicle accidents, etc.
• Non-economic damages. This includes this like loss of enjoyment of life, pain and suffering, emotional distress, etc.
• Punitive damages. An attorney may ask for this type of award if the defendant’s behavior broke the law or was particularly reckless. It increases the amount of money you get in an effort to deter similar bad behavior in the future.

Top 10 Most Common Types of Personal Injury Cases Where the Injured Party Needs Attorney Representation

1. Dog Bite Injuries

People report 4.5 million dog bite injuries each year in the United States — and many file personal injury cases. These bites led to 19,062 personal injury lawsuit claims in 2023, according to the Insurance Information Institute. And at least half the people bitten hard enough to need medical attention are actually children. According to the American Veterinary Medical Foundation, seniors are a close second to children for the most dog bite injuries. Most bites involving younger children occur during everyday activities — while they’re interacting with familiar dogs.

If you or your child has a bite injury from an unfamiliar dog, try to identify the owner if possible. Share names and contact numbers so the owner can provide proof the dog has up-to-date rabies vaccination records. Then, photograph the dog bite injury and area immediately around it on your body before you seek medical treatment. Once a doctor documents and treats your dog bite wound, call animal control in your area to file a report.

When a dog bites someone, most U.S. states make the owner liable for any injuries. However, some require the victim to prove certain circumstances led to the dog bite injury, including:

• Your bite involved a dog that’s particularly vicious
• The dog’s owner caused the incident through negligence or violated a local leash law

Personal injury cases for dog bites can result in significant compensation if the owner has homeowner’s insurance. In 2023, the average dog bite personal injury claim paid $58,545. If the owner denies responsibility or doesn’t have homeowners’ insurance or a renters’ policy, talk to a lawyer immediately.

2. Medical Malpractice Injuries

Medical mistakes cause 10% of U.S. deaths annually, coming in third behind heart disease and cancer. These types of personal injury cases happen whenever medical professionals hurt someone (either willfully or through negligence). Medical malpractice personal injury cases can include dental workers, nurses, and hospital staff, too. The most common types of personal injury cases that fell under the medical malpractice claim umbrella from 2013-2013 are:

• Surgical errors: 37%
• Medical treatment errors: 24%
• Misdiagnosis: 17%
• Wrong medical given or medication wrongly withheld: 6%
• Anesthesia related errors: 5%
• Birth injuries/obstetrics injuries: 4%

In 2023 alone, 7,591 U.S. plaintiffs successfully won a settlement in their medical malpractice case. The average medical malpractice claim settlement varied widely by state, ranging from $201,279 in Indiana to $1,817,285 in Hawaii.

Important: You have a relatively low chance of winning a medical malpractice settlement from a healthcare professional if you go to trial. A 2022 study found that plaintiffs win just 18% of trial verdicts in these types of personal injury cases.

3. Slip and Fall Accidents

When you slip, trip or otherwise fall down and hurt yourself on someone else’s property, you may qualify for compensation. In many cases, the property owner’s insurance policy should cover any damages. People aged 65 and older are at the highest risk for serious injury or death from slip and fall accidents, mostly in their homes. In 2022, more than 3.5 million people went to the emergency room for fall-related injuries. And in 2023, 41,400 seniors as well as 5,626 people younger than 65 died from preventable fall accidents.

With a slip and fall settlement, your amount will vary depending on the extent of your injury and medical treatment requirements. Expect an average of $10,000-$50,000 for minor injuries or settlements without attorney involvement. For broken bones or cases with attorney representation, expect up to $150,000 in your cash payout, on average.

4. Car Accident Injuries

Most personal injury cases involve car accident injuries every year, and distracted driving is a common culprit. But many people don’t know that you should consult a car accident lawyer for such cases, not a personal injury attorney.

This is because car crashes make up such a large part of personal injury law that many firms only specialize in those specific cases. If another driver hits you and the accident isn’t your fault, connect with a car accident lawyer for a free consultation here.

People hurt in crashes that settled directly with insurers in 2023 got an average of $26,501, according to the Insurance Information Institute. However, industry data shows an injured party with a car accident attorney gets about 3.5x more settlement money. In 2023 dollars, that means a $92.753.50 average car accident settlement with an attorney vs. $26,501 without legal representation. And 2022 NSC data shows that that a visible car accident injury that year cost anywhere from $42,000-$232,000 in total economic losses.

5. Product Liability Claims

We’ve all seen those late-night commercials talking about FDA warnings, product recalls and drug side effects. Some people aren’t even aware something inside their bodies or medicine their doctor prescribed could cause dangerous side effects. Sadly, many first learn about potential problems from those same TV commercials. These types of personal injury cases typically involve product liability claims, which may also grow into mass torts.

Product liability claims tried in court before a jury in 2020 awarded an average $7,058,106 settlement to victims. However, settling out of court is a more likely outcome for 95% of cases. If that applies to you, expect closer to $125,366 for a product liability injury payout.

6. Motorcycle Accidents

According to the National Safety Counsel (NSC), motorcycle accidents made up 3.5% of all traffic injuries in 2022. Another disturbing statistic is that 14.6% of all traffic fatalities that year came from motorcycle accidents. That’s almost 1 in 6 people killed on the road in 2022, which is a shockingly high number considering motorcycles account for just 3% of all registered vehicles.

People who refuse to ride a helmet while riding motorcycles are at risk for traumatic brain injuries that may require lifelong medical care. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data shows that from 2002 to 2017, motorcycle helmets saved around 25,000 lives.

7. Pedestrian Accidents

According to the Centers for Disease Control, pedestrian accidents led to 140,000 emergency room visits in 2022. And more than 7,500 pedestrians died that year as a result of motor vehicle accidents that same year. Adults more than 65 years old walking on urban city streets are most likely to die in a pedestrian traffic accident.

Perhaps most surprising is how many drivers and pedestrians alike had alcohol in their systems at the time of the accident. Nearly half (48%) of pedestrian accident deaths involved alcohol use:

• 30% (nearly 1 in 3) involved a pedestrian with a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) above .08 g/dL
• 18% (about 1 in 6) involved a driver with a BAC above .08 g/dL

8. Boating Accidents

Did you know? You have just 6 months to notify the vessel’s owner about a cruise ship injury claim under current maritime law. The statute for boat injury cases in all U.S. states is one year from the date your accident happened.

According to cruise ship research, women and elderly passengers tend to have the most accidental injuries on passenger boats.

9. Birth Injuries

As we mentioned above in the medical malpractice section, birth injuries fall under those types of personal injury cases. As such, you will need to consult an attorney that specifically only handles birth injury claims.

Every year, there are about 6x as many car accident claims compared to medical malpractice cases. Of those, just 4% are birth injury claims for issues like cerebral palsy, brain damage, or spinal cord injuries.

10. Airplane Crashes and Other Aviation Accidents

Based on U.S. judicial caseload statistics, these are the smallest group of personal injury cases each year. In 2023, injured people filed 158 claims for aviation accidents in U.S. district courts.

Interestingly, you’re safest in a commercial airline compared to small passenger planes and helicopters. Just 327 plane-related deaths happened in 2023, and none involved a commercial passenger flight.

Why Aren’t Workplace Accidents or Wrongful Death Claims in our List of Most Common Types of Personal Injury Cases?

A personal injury lawsuit, by its very nature, assumes two things:

1. Someone else is responsible for causing your injury through an act of negligence.
2. The defendant could reasonably foresee at the time that their actions (or failure to act) could potentially harm someone.

However, workers’ compensation laws are part of a no-fault system that pay benefits in exchange for waiving your right to sue. By definition, personal injury cases cannot include workplace injuries unless the employer has no insurance coverage. In all but 3 U.S. states, workers’ compensation coverage is mandatory for most employers.

Wrongful death claims, on the other hand, are tricky for an entirely different reason. Only immediate surviving family members can file wrongful death cases. And wrongful death claims make up a relatively small percentage of civil tort cases. Since personal injury claims are both civil and accidental in nature, that also leaves out intentional torts.

Intentional Torts vs. Personal Injury Cases Involving Negligence

If you suffer severe injuries from an intentional act of violence, then that case counts as an intentional tort. As we just said above, intentional acts of harm generally do not count as negligence for civil suit filings. Here are some example of such cases that can arise from acts of intentional harm:

• Assaults (whether they stem from workplace violence, armed robberies, fistfights or domestic abuse cases)
• Murders
• Trespassing crimes (for example: an electrified fence shocked you as you broke into another person’s property to commit theft)

Related: Personal Injury Claim Timeline & Average Payout Amounts