Arizona Injury & Car Accident Glossary

An injury claim comes with a vocabulary most people never needed before. Insurance companies, medical providers, and courts each use their own terms, and misunderstanding one of them can change how you handle your claim. The definitions below cover the words that come up most often in Arizona car accident and personal injury cases. They are general explanations, not legal advice about your specific situation — every case is different, and a conversation with an attorney is the right way to find out how any of this applies to you.

A

Accident Report (Arizona Crash Report): The official report a law enforcement officer completes after responding to a collision. It records the parties, vehicles, location, statements, and the officer's observations. Insurance companies rely heavily on it, and you have the right to request a copy of the report for your crash.
Adjuster: The insurance company employee (or contractor) assigned to evaluate and resolve a claim. An adjuster works for the insurance company, not for the injured person, even when the conversation is friendly.
Admissible Evidence: Evidence a court will allow to be considered in a case. Not everything relevant to a crash is automatically admissible; rules of evidence govern what a jury may see and hear.
Aggravation of a Pre-Existing Condition: When a crash worsens a medical condition that existed before the collision. Under Arizona law, an at-fault party can be responsible for the worsening they caused, even though they are not responsible for the original condition. Having a prior condition does not automatically bar a claim.
Answer: The defendant's formal written response to a lawsuit, admitting or denying each allegation in the complaint.
Arbitration: A way of resolving a dispute outside of a trial, in which a neutral arbitrator hears both sides and issues a decision. Some insurance policies and lower-value court cases involve arbitration.
Assumption of Risk: A defense arguing that the injured person knowingly accepted a risk. In Arizona, like comparative negligence, it is a question of fact for the jury rather than an automatic bar to recovery.
At-Fault State: A state where the driver who caused a crash (through their insurance) is responsible for the resulting harm. Arizona is an at-fault state: injured people generally pursue the at-fault driver's liability coverage rather than their own no-fault benefits.

B

Bad Faith: An insurance company's failure to handle a claim fairly and honestly — for example, unreasonably denying or delaying a valid claim. Insurers owe duties of good faith, and bad-faith conduct can create separate legal exposure for the insurer.
Bodily Injury Liability Coverage: The part of an auto policy that pays for injuries the policyholder causes to other people. This is usually the coverage an injured person makes a claim against after a crash caused by someone else.
Burden of Proof: The obligation to prove the elements of a claim. In a civil injury case, the injured person must prove their case by a preponderance of the evidence — meaning more likely true than not — a lower standard than the criminal “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

C

Case Value: What a claim is reasonably worth, based on factors like medical expenses, lost income, the severity and permanence of injuries, pain and suffering, fault allocation, and available insurance coverage. No formula produces an exact number; ranges are estimates. You can explore how these factors interact with our settlement calculator.
Causation: The required link between the at-fault party's conduct and the injury. It is not enough that someone was careless; their carelessness must have caused the harm claimed.
Claim: A demand for compensation made to an insurance company (or directly to a responsible party) before or instead of filing a lawsuit. Most injury cases begin — and many end — as insurance claims, not lawsuits.
Claimant: The person making a claim.
Collision Coverage: Optional coverage on your own policy that pays to repair or replace your vehicle after a crash, regardless of fault, usually subject to a deductible.
Comparative Negligence (Pure): Arizona's rule for shared fault under A.R.S. § 12-2505. Fault is divided among everyone involved by percentage, and an injured person's recovery is reduced by their own share of fault — but not eliminated. Even a person found mostly at fault can recover the portion attributable to others. If partial fault comes up in your claim, this is the rule that governs it.
Compensatory Damages: Money intended to compensate for actual losses — both economic (bills, lost income) and non-economic (pain, loss of enjoyment of life). Distinct from punitive damages.
Complaint: The document that starts a lawsuit, setting out the plaintiff's allegations and what they are asking the court to award.
Contingency Fee: A fee arrangement in which the attorney is paid a percentage of the recovery instead of hourly fees, and is paid only if the case recovers money. This is how Saguaro Injury Law works: $0 upfront, and no fee unless we win.
Contusion: The medical term for a bruise: bleeding under the skin from broken capillaries, caused by impact.
CT Scan (Computed Tomography): An imaging study using a series of X-rays assembled by computer into cross-sectional images. Often used in emergency settings after a crash to check for bleeding, fractures, and internal injuries.

D

Damages: The losses a person suffers because of an injury, and the money awarded to compensate for them. See Economic Damages, Non-Economic Damages, and Punitive Damages.
Declarations Page (“Dec Page”): The summary page of an insurance policy showing who is covered, for what, and at what limits. It is the fastest way to see what coverage exists on a policy.
Defendant: The party a lawsuit is filed against.
Demand Letter: A formal letter to the insurance company laying out liability, the injuries and treatment, the losses, and the amount demanded to resolve the claim. It typically opens settlement negotiations.
Deposition: Sworn, recorded testimony taken outside of court during the discovery phase of a lawsuit. Attorneys for each side may question the witness, and the transcript can be used later in the case.
Diminished Value: The reduction in a vehicle's market value after it has been damaged and repaired. In some circumstances a diminished-value claim can be made in addition to the repair claim.
Disc Herniation (Herniated Disc): A spinal injury in which the soft inner material of a disc pushes through its outer wall, often pressing on nearby nerves. Common in rear-end collisions; symptoms can include radiating pain, numbness, or weakness in the arms or legs.
Discovery: The formal phase of a lawsuit in which each side obtains evidence from the other: documents, written questions (interrogatories), and depositions.
Distracted Driving: Driving while attention is diverted from the road — texting, phone use, eating, or anything else that takes eyes, hands, or focus away from driving. A common basis for fault in Arizona crashes.
Duty of Care: The legal obligation to act with reasonable care toward others. Every driver owes a duty of care to everyone else on the road; negligence is the breach of that duty.

E

Economic Damages: Losses with a dollar figure attached: medical bills, future medical care, lost wages, reduced earning capacity, and out-of-pocket expenses.
Examination Under Oath (EUO): A formal, sworn statement an insurance policy may require its own policyholder to give as part of a first-party claim investigation. Different from a deposition, which happens in a lawsuit.
Excess Judgment: A court judgment larger than the at-fault party's insurance policy limits. How the excess is handled can involve the defendant's personal assets or, in some situations, questions about how the insurer handled the claim.
Expert Witness: A qualified specialist — for example, a physician, accident reconstructionist, or economist — who may offer opinion testimony in areas beyond common knowledge.

F

Fault Determination: The allocation of responsibility for a crash, made initially by insurance adjusters and ultimately, if disputed, by a jury. Fault in Arizona is allocated by percentage. See Comparative Negligence.
First-Party Claim: A claim you make under your own insurance policy (for example, MedPay, collision, or UM/UIM), as opposed to a third-party claim against someone else's insurer.
Future Damages: Compensation for losses that have not yet occurred but are reasonably expected: future surgeries, ongoing therapy, or reduced ability to earn.

G

Gap Insurance: Optional coverage that pays the difference between what is owed on a vehicle loan or lease and the vehicle's actual cash value if it is totaled.
General Damages: Another term for non-economic damages: pain, suffering, and other human losses without a receipt attached.
Good Faith: The duty of honesty and fair dealing that parties to an insurance contract owe each other. See Bad Faith.
Government Claim (Notice of Claim): A special required step before suing an Arizona public entity or employee. Under A.R.S. § 12-821.01, a notice of claim must be served within 180 days of the incident — a much shorter deadline than the general statute of limitations. Crashes involving city, county, or state vehicles or dangerous public roadways can trigger this rule.

H

Hit-and-Run: A crash in which a driver leaves the scene without stopping and identifying themselves. Injured people in hit-and-run crashes often turn to their own uninsured motorist coverage. See UM/UIM.

I

Independent Medical Examination (IME): A medical exam of the injured person performed by a doctor selected (and paid) by the insurance company or defense, typically during litigation. Despite the name, it is part of the adversarial process, and it's reasonable to prepare for one with your attorney.
Impairment Rating: A percentage assigned by a physician describing permanent loss of function after maximum medical improvement, used in valuing lasting injuries.
Interrogatories: Written questions one party sends the other during discovery, answered in writing under oath.

J

Judgment: The court's final decision in a case, including any amount awarded.
Jury Trial: Resolution of a case by a jury that hears the evidence and decides fault, fault percentages, and damages. Most injury claims settle before trial, but the ability to try a case shapes every negotiation before it.

K

Known-Loss Doctrine: An insurance principle that coverage applies to fortuitous (unexpected) losses, not losses already known when coverage was obtained.

L

Liability: Legal responsibility for harm. Proving liability means proving the other party was at fault and caused the injury.
Lien (Medical Lien): A legal claim against a settlement or judgment for repayment — for example, by a hospital, health insurer, or medical provider who treated the injury. Liens are resolved when the case resolves, and negotiating them can meaningfully change what the injured person keeps.
Litigation: The process of resolving a dispute through the court system, from filing through trial.
Lost Wages / Loss of Earning Capacity: Lost wages are income already missed because of the injury; loss of earning capacity is the reduced ability to earn in the future. Both are economic damages.
Low-Impact Collision: A crash at relatively low speed or with limited vehicle damage. Vehicle damage and injury severity do not always line up — soft-tissue and spinal injuries can occur in crashes with modest property damage, which is why documentation of treatment matters.

M

Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI): The point at which a person's condition has stabilized: they have recovered as much as treatment is expected to achieve. Claims are often valued at or after MMI, when the full extent of the injury is known.
Mediation: A settlement negotiation guided by a neutral mediator. Unlike arbitration, the mediator does not decide anything; the parties either agree or they don't.
Medical Payments Coverage (MedPay): Optional coverage on your own auto policy that pays medical bills for you and your passengers after a crash regardless of fault, up to its limit. Arizona does not require MedPay, but when present it can cover early treatment costs.
Mitigation of Damages: The injured person's duty to take reasonable steps to limit their losses — for example, following through with recommended treatment. Gaps in treatment are something adjusters look at.
Motion: A formal request asking the court to rule on something during a case.
MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging): An imaging study using magnetic fields to produce detailed images of soft tissue — discs, ligaments, the spinal cord, and the brain. Often the study that documents injuries an X-ray cannot show.

N

Named Insured: The person or people specifically listed on an insurance policy.
Negligence: The failure to use reasonable care, resulting in harm to someone else. The foundation of most injury claims: duty, breach, causation, and damages.
Negligence Per Se: Negligence established by the violation of a safety law — for example, running a red light — where the law was designed to prevent the kind of harm that occurred.
Non-Economic Damages: Compensation for human losses without a price tag: pain, suffering, anxiety, loss of enjoyment of life, and disfigurement. Arizona's constitution prohibits caps on compensatory damages in injury cases, so unlike many states, Arizona law does not limit these by statute.
Notice of Claim: See Government Claim.

O

Objection: A formal protest that a question or evidence violates the rules, made during depositions or trial.
Out-of-Pocket Expenses: Direct costs paid because of the injury: prescriptions, medical devices, travel to appointments, and similar expenses. Keep the receipts.

P

Pain and Suffering: The physical pain and emotional distress caused by an injury — a core component of non-economic damages.
Plaintiff: The party who files a lawsuit.
Pleadings: The formal documents that frame a lawsuit, primarily the complaint and the answer.
Policy Limits: The maximum an insurance policy will pay. Arizona's minimum liability limits for auto policies are $25,000 per person and $50,000 per crash for bodily injury, and $15,000 for property damage — often written as 25/50/15. Serious injuries frequently exceed minimum limits, which is where UM/UIM and multiple-coverage questions become important.
Pre-Existing Condition: A medical condition that existed before the crash. It does not bar a claim; the at-fault party is responsible for the harm they caused, including aggravation of what was already there. See Aggravation of a Pre-Existing Condition.
Premises Liability: The area of law covering injuries on someone else's property — for example, slip-and-falls or negligent security claims.
Prognosis: A physician's assessment of the expected course and outcome of a condition.
Property Damage Claim: The claim for damage to your vehicle and belongings, handled separately from (and usually faster than) the injury claim.
Proximate Cause: The legal-cause requirement: the harm must be a foreseeable result of the negligent act, not a far-fetched chain of events.
Punitive Damages: Damages meant to punish and deter particularly egregious conduct, awarded in addition to compensatory damages in a small subset of cases. Not available in claims against Arizona public entities.

Q

Quality of Life: A person's overall daily functioning and wellbeing — mobility, independence, activities, relationships. Changes in quality of life are part of how non-economic damages are understood.

R

Range of Motion: How far a joint can move. Measured by providers to document injury and recovery, and a common objective marker in soft-tissue claims.
Reasonable Care: The care an ordinarily prudent person would use in the same circumstances — the standard against which negligence is measured.
Recorded Statement: A recorded interview an adjuster may request after a crash. You are generally not required to give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurance company, and it's a fair question to ask an attorney about before giving one.
Release: The document signed at settlement giving up all claims from the incident in exchange for the settlement payment. Once signed, the claim is over — which is why settling before the full extent of injuries is known carries risk.
Rental Reimbursement: Coverage (or a claim component) paying for a rental vehicle while yours is repaired or replaced.
Retainer Agreement: The written agreement between client and attorney setting out the representation and the fee. In injury cases this is typically a contingency-fee agreement. See Contingency Fee.

S

Settlement: A negotiated resolution of a claim without a trial verdict. The large majority of injury claims resolve by settlement.
Soft Tissue Injury: Injury to muscles, ligaments, and tendons — sprains, strains, and whiplash — as opposed to broken bones. Real, painful, and sometimes lasting, though harder to show on an X-ray, which makes consistent treatment records important.
Special Damages: Another term for economic damages: the itemizable, receipt-backed losses.
Spinal Cord Injury: Damage to the spinal cord itself, which can cause partial or complete loss of sensation and function below the injury level. Among the most serious crash injuries, with lifelong care needs that a claim must account for.
Statute of Limitations: The legal deadline to file a lawsuit. In Arizona, most personal injury claims must be filed within two years of the injury under A.R.S. § 12-542, and wrongful death claims within two years of the death. Some situations have shorter deadlines — claims against public entities require a notice of claim within 180 days — and some circumstances can pause the clock, such as when the injured person is a minor. Because the deadline depends on the specifics, confirming yours early is one of the most important steps in any claim.
Strict Liability: Responsibility without proof of negligence. Certain categories of claims — for example, some dog-bite and defective-product claims — can proceed on a strict liability basis, where the focus is on what happened rather than on carelessness.
Subpoena: A court order requiring a person to testify or produce documents.
Subrogation: An insurer's right to recover what it paid on a claim from the party responsible for the loss. When your health insurer pays crash-related bills, its subrogation or reimbursement interest is typically resolved out of the settlement. See Lien.

T

Third-Party Claim: A claim against someone else's insurance policy — the standard liability claim against the at-fault driver's insurer.
Tort: A civil wrong that causes harm — the legal category personal injury claims belong to.
Total Loss: A vehicle declared uneconomical to repair; the insurer pays actual cash value instead of repair costs.
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): Brain injury caused by external force — from concussion to severe injury. Symptoms can include headaches, memory and concentration problems, mood changes, and sensitivity to light or noise, and they don't always appear immediately after a crash. Medical evaluation matters even when a crash “didn't seem that bad.”
Trial: The court proceeding where evidence is presented and a judge or jury decides the case.

U

Uninsured Motorist Coverage (UM): Coverage on your own policy that steps in when the at-fault driver has no insurance — including many hit-and-run situations. Arizona law requires insurers to offer UM coverage (A.R.S. § 20-259.01), though drivers may decline it in writing. If you carry it, it protects you and your household.
Underinsured Motorist Coverage (UIM): Coverage on your own policy that applies when the at-fault driver's limits are too low to cover the harm. Like UM, insurers must offer it in Arizona. For anyone on a fixed income or with significant exposure, reviewing UM/UIM limits before a crash is one of the most practical insurance decisions there is.

V

Verdict: The jury's decision on fault, fault percentages, and damages.
Vicarious Liability: Responsibility one party bears for another's conduct — most commonly, an employer's responsibility for an employee's negligence on the job, which is why crashes involving commercial vehicles often involve the company as well as the driver.
Voir Dire: Jury selection: the questioning of prospective jurors.

W

Whiplash: The rapid back-and-forth motion of the neck in a collision, straining muscles and ligaments (cervical strain/sprain). The most common rear-end crash injury; symptoms sometimes appear a day or more after the crash.
Witness: A person with relevant knowledge who may give testimony — an eyewitness to the crash, a treating physician, or an expert.
Wrongful Death: A claim brought by statutorily specified family members when negligence causes a death. In Arizona the filing deadline is generally two years from the date of death.

X • Y • Z • #

X-Ray: Imaging that shows bone well — the standard first study for suspected fractures. Soft-tissue and disc injuries typically require MRI to visualize.
25/50/15: Shorthand for Arizona's minimum auto liability limits: $25,000 bodily injury per person, $50,000 bodily injury per crash, $15,000 property damage. Minimum-limits policies are common, which is why serious-injury claims so often involve UM/UIM and coverage-stacking questions.

Glossary FAQ

How long do I have to file an injury lawsuit in Arizona?

Most Arizona personal injury lawsuits must be filed within two years of the injury under A.R.S. § 12-542, and wrongful death claims within two years of the death. Claims against public entities require a notice of claim within 180 days. Some circumstances can shorten or pause these deadlines, so it's worth confirming the deadline for your specific situation early.

What if I was partly at fault for my crash?

Arizona follows pure comparative negligence (A.R.S. § 12-2505). Fault is divided by percentage, and your recovery is reduced by your share — but not eliminated. Even someone found mostly at fault can recover the portion of damages attributable to others.

Does Arizona cap how much I can recover?

Arizona's constitution prohibits caps on compensatory damages in personal injury cases, so there is no statutory limit on economic or non-economic damages. Practical limits usually come from the insurance coverage available, which is why UM/UIM coverage and policy-limits questions matter so much.

What's the difference between a claim and a lawsuit?

A claim is a demand made to an insurance company; a lawsuit is a formal court case. Most injury cases start as claims, and many resolve by settlement without a lawsuit ever being filed. Filing suit becomes important when the insurer won't resolve the claim fairly or a deadline is approaching.

Do I have to give the other driver's insurance company a recorded statement?

You are generally not required to give a recorded statement to the other driver's insurer. It's a fair question to ask an attorney about before agreeing to one — a free consultation is available any hour, in English or Spanish.

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