Personal Injury by a Stranger
Getting off an airplane, a man pulling his luggage from the overhead compartment drops his bag on the head of another passenger. She’s hurt. The bag was heavy, causing a muscular neck injury. The sharp corner on the bag also caused bleeding and required regular medical attention to ensure the cut healed properly.
In this real life example, the injured passenger can’t sue the airline. Her only recourse is to get the name of the man who dropped his bag on her head and sue. While that might seem especially difficult, it’s not.
Once you have the other person’s name and address, a personal injury attorney can investigate possible options for recovering your medical and wage losses caused by the injury. In fact, if the other passenger has homeowner’s insurance, your lawyer might only have to file the claim with the insurance company. (Homeowner insurance policies cover people outside of the home too.) If you are too injured to ask for the other party’s name and address, contact the business where the accident happened. Generally, businesses use incident report forms to document contact information in the case of on-premises accidents. If you are too timid at the time of the incident to directly ask for the information, request an employee of the business to create the incident form.
Personal injury accident happen everywhere, and frequently involve people you would otherwise never meet. You don’t have to be in a car accident to file a claim against someone else’s insurance coverage. Airplanes, restaurants, shopping malls… regardless of the location, if a stranger is negligent and responsible for your injury, you can get help.
