Negligence in a Personal Injury Case
When it comes to a majority
of injury and accident cases, who is at fault depends on the legal term
“negligence.” While negligence may seem obvious at first, there are several
things to take into consideration.
What Does a Negligence Claim Include?
Negligence claims can be tricky to prove.
There are four basic elements of any negligence claim:
1. Duty of Care
Duty of care refers to the obligation that
people have to avoid injuring another person. People are also supposed to avoid
putting others in a position where they can be injured. Just about everyone has
some amount of duty of care towards others. However, when it comes to accident
cases, you need a lawyer to help determine who is owed the highest care of duty
and how broad that duty is.
Figuring out duty of care can be difficult.
There aren’t any hard-and-fast laws that say how a person should behave. For
example, brick-and-mortar stores have a duty of care toward customers. However,
there aren’t always specific guidelines to say exactly what this duty of care
entails. Even if there are guidelines, they’re often not specific enough. For
example, stores should make sure that there are no hazards outside for
customers who are walking into their store. However, how often are the store
owners supposed to check that the exterior of the store is safe? If they check
on a specific schedule but the exterior becomes unsafe in between checks, is
this considered negligence? Since there’s no specific answer, only a
professional will be able to determine if a court would agree that negligence
occurred.
2. Breach of Duty
The first step in an injury or accident case
is to determine the duty of care. Then, the breach of duty - if there was one -
has to be determined. Did the person who owed the care of duty actually provide
it? If they didn’t, the law may call their behavior and acts negligent. Put
simply, if the person who owed the duty of care breached that duty by either
allowing or creating a dangerous situation, they may have been negligent.
Most of the time, it’s fairly easy to
determine whether or not the duty of care was breached. For example, if a
landlord doesn’t repair a railing for several months, than they did not adhere
to their duty of care. If there are witnesses or proof to show that the railing
was dangerous for several weeks or months, the jury is likely to believe that
this is true.
However, there are circumstances when
determine the breach of duty can be trickier. For example, even if a person who
got into a car accident wasn’t speeding, they may still have breached their
duty of care. In dangerous conditions, drivers are expected to drive slower
than normal in order to keep themselves and other drivers safe. If the driver
did not slow down to a speed that’s under the speed limit even though there
were icy or slippery conditions, they may still be in breach of duty even
though they weren’t actually speeding.
3. Causation
Once the duty of care and the breach of duty
has been determined, there’s something else to consider: if that breach of duty
is what actually caused the injury or accident. Even if the negligent person
admits that they were negligent, they may still argue that this wasn’t the
problem in the specific accident. Even if the negligence was part of the cause
of the accident, if it wasn’t the sole cause, they may not be held responsible.
This can be a bit tricky to understand. After
all, if the person was negligent, shouldn’t they be held responsible? Not
necessarily. Let’s say you’re driving and a driver opposite you makes a turn
without using their turn signal. As a result, you got into an accident with the
person who was turning. While the other person was negligent, they may be able
to say that you didn’t stop at the “Stop” sign or that you didn’t wait until
the intersection was clear before you drove through it. While their actions
were part of the problem, the fact that you went through a “Stop” sign was the
main problem.
4. Damages
When used in legal terms, the word “damages”
is the emotional injuries, physical injuries, lost income and property damage
of the person who suffers from the accident. When it’s time to negotiate a
settlement, the damages (or the amount of money you want as compensation) is
the main point that is discussed.
It’s important to note that when you speak
with your insurance company about the accident, you won’t likely have to use
these legal terms. Instead, you and the insurance agent will speak in plain
language about your case. You may not even need to prove who was at fault,
especially if what or who caused the accident is highly obvious.
Even if the insurance company is able to
figure out who caused the accident, you may still need to figure out how much
compensation you deserve. This is when it’s especially important to hire a
lawyer experienced in negligence and accident cases.
