Bodily Injury vs. Personal Injury

If you’ve been hurt in an accident, you may wonder if bodily injury and personal injury are the same thing. Legally, they mean different things. Knowing the difference between bodily injury and personal injury can determine how your insurance claim is handled and how much compensation you are entitled to recover.

Bodily injuries refer to the physical ailments that often result from accidents. Broken bones and internal bleeding are two examples of “bodily injuries.” Personal injury, on the other hand, is a legal concept that can refer to bodily injuries, but may also include pain and suffering, financial losses, and other harm resulting from an accident.

The personal injury attorneys at The Tadchiev Law Firm, P.C., help accident victims understand key terms, including bodily injury and personal injury. We also help clients understand and protect their rights, including their entitlement to compensation when others’ negligence causes them harm.

If you’ve been injured, call The Tadchiev Law Firm, P.C., today at (718) 380-1200 or contact us online for a free, no-obligation consultation. We’ll explain exactly how the law applies to your specific circumstances and how we can assist you in moving forward.

What Are Bodily Injuries?

Bodily injury refers to physical harm to a person’s body, including the often visible, diagnosable injuries sustained in an accident. Within an insurance policy, “bodily injury” has a slightly different definition. It is the term used to describe the damages an at-fault party’s liability coverage will pay for.

Some bodily injuries our lawyers often see are broken bones, burns, bruises, head injuries, or internal injuries like bleeding and ruptured spleens. Immediate bodily injuries can produce longer-lasting symptoms, like scarring. A bodily injury can typically be proven with photographs, medical records, internal imaging, doctor reports, and other documentary measures.

The attorneys at The Tadchiev Law Firm, P.C., pride themselves on truly understanding our clients’ bodily injuries. While we defer to the expert medical professionals we work with, we collaborate closely with them to speak authoritatively about the injuries and symptoms our clients experience.

Having represented both medical providers and injured patients, our personal injury attorneys understand how insurance carriers evaluate bodily injury claims — and how to strategically challenge those tactics for the benefit of our clients.

Examples of Bodily Injuries

Bodily injuries can occur in nearly any type of accident, including car crashes, slip-and-falls, and construction incidents. So that you better understand what types of ailments might qualify as a bodily injury, consider the following examples:

• Fractures and broken bones, which can result from direct impacts, rollovers, and ejections from vehicles
• Head and brain injuries, which might happen if an accident victim hits their head on the dashboard or steering wheel, or just from enduring the jolts and rapid movements that occur during traffic accidents, falls, and other harmful events
• Soft-tissue injuries such as sprains, strains, and torn ligaments (which can be diagnosed, even if they do not appear on an X-ray or other types of imaging)
• Lacerations and burns, which are two kinds of injuries that can leave lasting scars and require special considerations throughout a personal injury case
• Internal injuries, which may be life-threatening and urgent, despite not being visible to the naked eye
• Back and spinal cord injuries, which can be among the most expensive injuries an accident victim may suffer

Our attorneys work with trusted medical professionals throughout New York City and Long Island. Those doctors and specialists diagnose and document our clients’ injuries, and it’s our responsibility to secure compensation that covers all the client’s medical needs (as well as their financial losses and pain and suffering).

Every hospital record, scan, and treatment plan related to a bodily injury becomes part of the evidence we use to build the strongest possible claim. Each client’s profile of bodily injuries is unique, and we ensure they receive personalized treatment and documentation that produce strong cases and sustainable recoveries.

Damages Related to Bodily Injury

The damages available for bodily injury typically focus on medical and financial costs related to physical harm. These may include the following:

• Emergency Medical Care – Ambulance transportation, ER treatment, and stabilization
• Hospitalization and Surgery – Required operations and inpatient stays
• Follow-Up and Rehabilitative Care – Physical therapy, occupational therapy, and chiropractic care
• Medical Equipment and Prescriptions – Crutches, braces, pain medication, or assistive devices
• Lost Wages – Income lost while recovering from the injury
• Future Medical Expenses – Long-term rehabilitation or surgeries that may be required later

At The Tadchiev Law, P.C., we take a hands-on approach to calculating these damages. Our attorneys and staff review every invoice, coordinate with healthcare providers, and ensure that nothing is overlooked. This attention to detail reflects our firm’s boutique philosophy: every client gets personal, thorough representation.

What Is Personal Injury?

While bodily injuries refer to the specific physical injuries that cause pain and require medical attention, “personal injury” is a legal concept. When we refer to “personal injury,” we refer to the harm that someone suffers as a result of others’ intentional actions, recklessness, or negligence.

Your “personal injury” likely includes physical injury, but might also refer to emotional, mental, and financial outcomes caused by someone else’s harmful conduct. We initiate personal injury claims to help victims obtain justice (in the form of a financial recovery) for these and other recoverable damages.

Our firm helps clients who suffer personal injury as a result of the following:

• Motor vehicle accidents (cars, trucks, motorcycles, and pedestrians)
• Slip-and-fall and trip-and-fall accidents
• Construction site injuries
• Medical malpractice
• Nursing-home abuse or neglect

When our attorneys represent clients, we aren’t just focused on the numbers on medical bills. We observe how clients’ daily routines, interpersonal relationships, and quality of life are strained by the injuries and pain and suffering they never deserved to suffer.

Damages Related to Personal Injury

To give you greater context about what a personal injury claim can cover, the following are some common damages we see among accident victims:

• Medical expenses
• Lost income
• Pain and suffering (including but not limited to physical pain, discomfort, and physical limitations)
• Emotional distress (such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms)
• Loss of enjoyment of life
• Loss of consortium (the impact on family or spousal relationships resulting from someone else’s negligence or intentional conduct)

The Tadchiev Law Firm, P.C., approaches every case holistically, tailoring it to reflect the unique needs of the client we are fighting for. We ensure our clients see the doctors, psychologists, and vocational experts who can help them recover and help us document that recovery process.

Main Difference Between Bodily Injury and Personal Injury

While both “bodily injury” and “personal injury” relate to harm caused by negligence or intentionally harmful conduct, the following are key distinctions:

• Bodily injury focuses strictly on physical harm and diagnosed injuries.
• Personal injury includes bodily injury and other damages, such as emotional suffering, financial loss, and downturns in your quality of life.

Any bodily injury can lead to a personal injury claim, but personal injury law covers much more than just physical injuries.

What Is Personal Injury Coverage vs. Bodily Injury Coverage?

The terms “bodily injury” and “personal injury” also appear in insurance policies, which can be confusing. Let’s clarify what these two terms mean in an insurance-specific context.

Bodily Injury Coverage

This part of an auto or premises liability policy pays for physical injuries the policyholder causes to others. If the policyholder is found at fault in a crash, their bodily injury coverage compensates the other party for their medical expenses and related damages. It does not, however, pay for the policyholder’s own injuries.

Personal Injury Protection (PIP) Coverage

New York is a no-fault insurance state, meaning your own PIP coverage pays for your medical expenses and lost income regardless of who is at fault for an accident. PIP typically covers the following:

• Medical costs up to the policy limits
• 80 percent of lost wages (up to any cap on the policy’s payout)
• Certain household and transportation-related expenses
• Death benefits in the case of a fatal accident

Because our firm handles both personal injury litigation and no-fault arbitration, we understand how these coverages overlap in some instances. If your case calls for it, our team can file your PIP claim while simultaneously pursuing additional damages from negligent parties once your damages reach New York’s serious-injury threshold.

How Tadchiev Law Firm’s Personal Injury Experience Benefits Our Clients

Choosing the right law firm is one of the most important decisions you’ll make after an accident. The Tadchiev Law Firm, P.C., offers the following:

• Decades of combined experience in personal injury litigation and insurance arbitration
• Proven insight into insurer tactics, thanks to Attorney Boris Tadchiev’s background representing medical providers in no-fault disputes
• Personalized representation, as we maintain a limited caseload so that each client receives individual attention
• No fees unless we win; you owe nothing unless we recover compensation for you
• A respected reputation for integrity and professionalism, backed by an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau

We know an accident can devastate, and we take pride in helping survivors regain financial stability, confidence, and control of their lives.

Get in Touch with Our Queens Personal Injury Attorneys Today

Understanding the nuances of bodily injury vs. personal injury is essential to protecting your rights, but it’s just one step in cases like yours. The next step is to secure the compensation you deserve, and that’s what we do for our clients at The Tadchiev Law Firm, P.C. Whether you’re dealing with medical bills, pain, confusing insurance paperwork, or all of the above, our lawyers are here to help.

We proudly serve clients across Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Nassau County, and Long Island. Call The Tadchiev Law Firm, P.C., today at (718) 380-1200 or contact us online for your free, no-obligation consultation.