“Negligence is a legal term used when determining fault. When someone is careless or doesn’t exercise due diligence while driving, and this causes an injury or property damage, they are deemed “negligent” and are then liable for the damages following the accident.”
Negligence is the basis in which all personal injury cases work off of. When driving, everyone has a responsibility under the law to uphold a level of care. Our careful behavior, or lack thereof, in these circumstances can have a huge impact on other people’s safety and wellbeing. Not abiding by the law while driving is negligent behavior. When someone is negligent and they cause another person injuries or property damage, they are also responsible to pay for those damages.
While this is a simple concept, the application of the laws can make it more complex. If you are filing a personal injury claim, you have to prove the other party was negligent. This can be challenging, especially if you’re not an experienced auto accident lawyer.
How Do I Prove Someone Was Negligent?
Proving someone else was negligent isn’t always obvious. If someone rear ends you, it is pretty straightforward who was at fault. The challenge comes when there are multiple parties involved, or when someone else’s story of how the accident occurred is different than yours. This is when having an expert auto accident attorney on your side makes the difference between winning and loosing your case.
Proving negligence in a car crash requires 4 elements. These four elements are:
- The other party had a duty to act with care. This legal duty can be established in many different ways depending upon the case type. In an auto accident it is simpler because everybody on the road owes a duty to everyone else to act reasonable depending on the conditions. All drivers have a duty to exercise care and follow all laws while driving.
- They didn’t follow through on that duty. A car will never hit anything else unless someone breaches their duty to act reasonable. The fact that there was an accident means someone breached their duty to whoever they hit, at a minimum. If a driver was speeding and this caused an accident, then they breached their duty to follow the law and they are negligent. If someone lets their dog loose and it bites someone, they would be negligent for failing to maintain proper control over their pet.
- Their failure to follow through on that duty caused your accident. This is where you have to prove that your accident was caused due to the other driver’s negligence. This is often when an insurance company tries to say the accident was at least partially your fault, even if it wasn’t. Good lawyers use investigators, witness testimony, and physical evidence to prove what really happened and who is actually negligent given the facts.
- The accident caused damages. The law states that you can’t be compensated if you don’t have any actual damages. If you slip and fall at a restaurant but aren’t actually hurt, there is no damage caused, therefore there is nothing to sue over. Your damages then, are things such as injuries, medical bills, or wage loss.
Injured Due To Negligence?
If you were injured because of the negligence of someone else, give us a call! Our expert personal injury attorneys have decades of experience helping good people that were injured because of someone else’s negligence. For a FREE consultation, call 206-880-7236.