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Cerebral edema
Accumulation of excessive fluid in the substance of the brain. The brain is especially susceptible to injury from edema, because it is located within a confined space and cannot expand.
Vicarious Liability
When a person who did not actually cause an injury is held for the injury. Sometimes called imputed liability.
Occupational Disease
An illness resulting from long-term employment in a particular type of work, such as mesothelioma (a type of cancer) from workers exposed to asbestos.
Compensatory damages
Which measure actual dollar-value losses for such things as medical expenses, lost income, loss of future earning capacity, etc.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
An arbitration is a legal hearing, less formal than a trial, in which each side in a lawsuit or dispute offers evidence and testimony to a neutral hearing officer (the arbitrator). The arbitrator is typically an experienced attorney or a retired judge.
Workers Compensation
These benefits include payment of all medical expenses and reimbursement for a portion of wages lost due to disability caused by the injury.
Medical Malpractice
Medical malpractice is the failure of medical professionals to provide adequate treatment resulting in a personal injury or substantial loss of income.
Contributory negligence
Broadly, carelessness on the plaintiff's part. More precisely, conduct which falls below the standard of care established by law for the protection of one's self against unreasonable risk of harm.
Burden of proof
A party's job of convincing the decisionmaker in a trial that the party's version of the facts is true. In a civil trial, it means that the plaintiff must convince the judge or jury "by a preponderance of the evidence" that the plaintiff's version is true -- that is, over 50% of the believable evidence is in the plaintiff's favor.
Punitive damages
Also called exemplary damages, which are designed to punish a defendant whose behavior in causing the plaintiff's injuries was especially egregious.
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