Most personal injury lawsuits are based on negligence. In order for a victim’s injury attorney to be successful in obtaining damages for the losses the victim has suffered because of their injuries, the attorney must show that the accident that caused the injuries was caused by the other party’s negligence.
So, what exactly is negligence when it applies to personal injury? Basically, if a person behaves in such a way that another reasonable person would not, then their behavior can be legally deemed as negligence. Another question that needs to be answered is whether the at-fault party owed the victim a duty of care. For example, a vehicle driver owes a duty of care to other motorists to obey traffic laws and drive in a safe manner. This ties into the four elements that a personal injury attorney must show in order to win the lawsuit. The four elements are:
- The at-fault person owed the victim a duty of care
- The at-fault person breached that duty
- The victim suffered injuries because of that breach
- The victim suffered losses because of their injuries
There are some injury cases were negligence per se may be present. This is where the negligence the at-fault party committed was a violation of laws that are meant to protect the public. For example, drunk driving laws are put in place to protect the public from injuries. When a personal injury attorney raises negligence as part of a lawsuit, then the attorney does not have to prove that a reasonable person would have acted differently than the at-fault person did. The behavior (i.e. drunk driving) is automatically considered negligence because a law was broken. The main focus of the lawsuit will then become whether the victim suffered damages and how much those damages were.
There are cases where the attorney will use the expertise and testimony of witnesses like an accident reconstruction specialist, doctors, vocational therapists, and others in order to prove that it was the other person’s negligence that caused the accident and resulting injuries.
Contact a Personal Injury Attorney Today
If you have been injured in an accident caused by the negligence of another party, you may be entitled to financial compensation for your losses. Personal injury attorneys, like a personal injury lawyer Trenton, NJ, understand the overwhelming stress an accident and the resulting injuries can have on families and work diligently to obtain financial compensation because of the harm victims suffered by the at-fault party.
Thank you to Davis & Brusca, LLC for their insight into personal injury law.