Personal injury lawyers and assault

Even though personal injury lawyers are concerned with injury to the body, they are also concerned about injuries to the mind.  One cause of action, called, "assault," involves injury to the plaintiff's mind.

Typically, personal injury lawyers take cases where a person was physically injured.  However, there are also cases in which the lawyer may sue for assault when their client suffered mental injuries.  For instance, say person X throws a baseball at person Y's head, but they don't intend to hit them, just to scare them.  If you think that's permissible, think again.  Person X just committed an assault.

The tort of assault is called a "common law" tort, meaning it's typically a cause of action that is not codified into law, but it is still recognized by most courts.  To prove an assault under the facts above, the personal injury lawyer or personal injury lawyers would have to prove that X intended to cause an imminent apprehension of contact and that Y was put in such imminent apprehension.  Under these facts, it would look like X committed an assault because he injured the mind of Y but putting him in an imminent apprehension of contact.

Keep in mind that assault has a different meaning in civil cases than it does in criminal ones, but it's one of the tools in the personal injury lawyer's toolbox.  It's also one of the many things that can make personal injury law a complicated and tricky matter.