So you want to win your personal injury lawsuit?
Look no further. We’re about to tell you the four secrets to winning your case.
Ok. Let’s say you have just been injured. You decide to sue the other party responsible for your injuries. You file a lawsuit and you automatically expect to get compensated for your losses. Bad news. This is not how the process works.
Negligence has to be proven first before an injured person can recover damages. There are four elements to negligence which the person filing a lawsuit must meet. Fail to do that and you don’t get compensated.
In this blog post, we explain how negligence works in personal injury cases and give you an idea on how you can get the case you deserve.
What you’re going to discover:
- What Is Negligence in Personal Injury Law?
- The 4 Elements Required to Prove Negligence
- Evidence That Strengthens a Negligence Claim
- Why Legal Representation Matters
What Is Negligence in Personal Injury Law?
Negligence is a failure to take reasonable care to avoid causing injury or loss to another person. It is a legal concept that can make a person liable to pay for damages suffered by another person.
In order to win your personal injury lawsuit, you must prove that the other party was negligent. If you have been injured as a result of another person’s failure to exercise a duty of care to you, that person can be said to be negligent.
Negligence in a personal injury claim is not just carelessness. The other party must be guilty of failing to exercise a standard of care that any other reasonable person would have observed in that situation.
For example, a driver failing to stop at a stop sign and hitting another car, thereby injuring the driver of that car can be said to be negligent. Because every driver knows the importance of stopping at a stop sign, if there is an accident at a stop sign it can be concluded that the other driver was negligent.
A personal injury lawsuit is built on the fact that the defendant was negligent.
But here is the other thing. Merely saying the other party was negligent is not enough. You need a professional and competent personal injury lawyer to help you build your case. A reputable personal injury law firm like Collins Law Firm Naperville has the personnel and experience in handling personal injury cases to get the claim you deserve.
The court will need proof of the four negligence elements before they can rule in favor of the plaintiff. In the next section, we are going to give you the four elements of negligence.
The 4 Elements Required to Prove Negligence
The four elements required to prove negligence in a personal injury case are as follows:
- Duty of Care
- Breach of Duty
- Causation
- Damages
Any personal injury lawsuit must prove the above elements beyond reasonable doubt. Let’s take a look at each of these elements to get a clear understanding of what each entails.
Duty of Care
In order to sue another party for injuries they caused you, they must owe you a duty of care. A duty of care must be owed by the defendant to the plaintiff for negligence to be actionable.
A duty of care is not the same for everyone. For example, motorists owe a duty of care to other road users and pedestrians to drive safely. Property owners owe other people a duty of care to maintain their property safe for visitors.
A duty of care is the responsibility by one person to another to avoid causing them harm.
The defendant must have had a responsibility towards the plaintiff to not injure them for the plaintiff to claim negligence against them.
Breach of Duty
Breach of duty refers to the act of violating or failing to observe the duty of care. A defendant is said to have breached their duty of care to a plaintiff when the standard of care expected of them in their relationship with the plaintiff is not observed.
For instance, a property owner who fails to put up a caution sign when the floor in a building is wet breaches their duty of care to visitors. A motorist who runs a red traffic light breaches their duty of care to other road users and pedestrians at that intersection.
Did the defendant do or fail to do something that a reasonable person would have done in a similar situation? If yes, then they are said to have breached their duty of care to the plaintiff.
Causation
Causation links the defendant’s breach of duty to the injury or loss of the plaintiff. The defendant’s negligence must be the actual cause of the injuries or losses suffered by the plaintiff.
It must be the direct result of their breach of duty that the plaintiff is injured and not some other unrelated incident.
Causation has two elements:
- Actual cause
- Proximate cause
Both the actual cause and proximate cause must be proven. Failing that, it cannot be said that the defendant’s negligence is the actual cause of the plaintiff’s injury.
Damages
The final element of negligence that a plaintiff must prove is that they suffered losses or damages as a result of the other party’s negligence. If the plaintiff did not suffer a loss or damages then they cannot claim negligence on the part of the other party.
Damages can be both special and general.
Special damages include quantifiable monetary losses such as medical bills, property damage and loss of earnings.
General damages are non-monetary and include pain and suffering and emotional distress.
Evidence That Strengthens a Negligence Claim
Negligence must be proven for a personal injury claim to be successful. Evidence of negligence can be the difference between a successful claim and a loss.
Let’s have a look at what some of the evidence that can strengthen your negligence claim includes.
Photographs and videos of the accident and the accident scene, witness statements from people who witnessed the accident, police reports from the accident, medical records documenting the injuries and damage, and testimony from an accident reconstruction expert or a medical expert.
The more compelling the evidence of the other party’s negligence, the better for your personal injury case.
Pro tip: Gather evidence at the scene of the accident as soon as possible. The longer you wait the more likely it is that important evidence will be lost or go missing.
Why Legal Representation Matters
This might be one thing you haven’t given much thought to. Research from Nolo revealed that while 91% of claimants who have legal representation receive a settlement, only 51% of claimants without legal representation receive a settlement.
How about this? Statistics from Clio have it that while as much as 95% of personal injury cases end up being settled, 67% of personal injury attorneys settle their cases.
Personal injury law firms have the knowledge and experience to give your case the best chance of success. They know how to value your case, gather evidence, and deal with insurance companies.
Representing yourself is not advisable. It is best to seek professional legal assistance if you want to win your personal injury claim.
Wrapping Things Up
Negligence is the basis for any personal injury claim. If you have not been able to prove the four elements of negligence in your case then you do not deserve to be compensated.
You must be able to prove to the court that the defendant owed you a duty of care, breached that duty of care, that their breach of duty caused you to suffer an injury or loss and that you have suffered a loss or damages as a result of their negligence.
To sum it up. Here are the four elements of negligence you need to prove:
- Duty of care
- Breach of duty
- Causation
- Damages
Winning a personal injury case is a difficult and often complex process. It is not something a person without a legal background can navigate successfully. The system is setup in such a way that makes it hard for non-lawyers.
Seeking the services of a personal injury law firm in Naperville will give your case a chance at success. The professional and experienced personnel will make sure that your case is heard and you get the compensation you deserve.
