In most situations, personal injury claims revolve around some form of accidental injury such as those suffered in a car crash or a pedestrian accident. However, as you already seem to know, a person’s intentional actions can also leave victims injured.
For example, if someone chooses to attack another person with the goal of causing injury, it is an intentional act. As it does with other types of personal injury, the law provides victims of assault and battery a way to hold alleged offenders responsible.
Many residents of Pennsylvania think that if the person who attacked them is facing a criminal action, they will not be able to file a separate lawsuit for their injuries. In fact, victims injured by assault or battery can file a civil suit on top of the defendant’s criminal suit. In legal terms, this is a civil assault claim and it may provide personal injury victims with financial compensation for injuries suffered in the attack.
Further, victims of civil assault may have a valid claim even if the other person never touched them physically. According to the law, one of the most important elements of civil assault is intent. Obviously, this applies if the other person intended to harm you physically, but it may also be a factor if the other person just threatened you or made you believe he or she was going to harm you.
Because the law values the concept of personal safety, personal injury victims may also win punitive damages in a civil assault claim because the injury stemmed from an intentional act. In any case, it is typically worth the effort to seek additional information about civil assault lawsuits after suffering injury in a personal attack.
Source: FindLaw, “Civil Assault and Battery Cases,” accessed April 04, 2018
