Learning More About Personal Injury

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I admit personal injury is a topic that I personally know less about. I guess I have been lucky to have experience little or no injuries at all since I was child thus making me live a carefree life. I never thought much of the dangers lurking around me even though I was instructed to watch out for them. So I grew up, got married, had kids, and then something has changed. Thankfully, none of my immediate family has suffered any personal injuries yet except my husband who had an automobile accident during his teen years.

When we started to have kids, my husband explained to me the importance of being prepared and that includes having a personal injury lawyer. It may not be that popular here in the Philippines, but he said just having a contact with a firm who specializes it will do. I also remember my great grandma who visited us from Florida telling a story that one of her friends got into a car accident. Now there are many firms who process personal injury claims and one of them is Kinney, Fernandez, & Boire P.A.

Since I don’t know much about personal injury, I resorted to Wikipedia about what it is aside from the obvious. According to Wikipedia, personal injury is a legal term for an injury to the body, mind or emotions, as opposed to an injury to property. Common types of personal injury claims include road traffic accidents, work accidents, tripping accidents, assault claims, and product defect accidents (product liability).

After learning that personal injury can also be linked to mind or emotions, then I thought to myself could bullying be included? Bullying is very common here in the Philippines especially in schools and it can really damage the student’s mental state when bullied severely. So the question is can I file a personal injury claim when one of my kids got bullied in school? After researching in the internet, here’s what I learned:

Here in the Philippines, we have the Anti Bullying Law (RepublicAct No. 10627) or the Act Requiring All Elementary and Secondary Schools to Adopt Policies to Prevent and Address the Acts of Bullying in their Institutions. The law says students, parents, or any member of the school administration may report bullying instances or act of retaliation that they have witnessed. Then school principal will either notify the police, take disciplinary administrative action, notify the parents or guardians of the bully, or notify the parents or guardians of the victim regarding the action taken to prevent any further acts of bullying.

In other words, depending on the type of bullying and the “damages” received by the victim, we can’t just file a personal injury claim just yet because we have to talk to the principal, the police, and everyone involved. But we can always have a consult with a lawyer about it to shed more light about the matter.

Aside from bullying, there are actually worse types of accidents and injuries that almost always require an attorney. In these cases, hiring a personal injury lawyer will be worth the fees you must pay him or her to represent you. This is because in some situations, only a qualified personal injury lawyer can obtain the compensation you deserve for your injuries and other losses.