In most cases, negligence should always be the basis of personal injury claims. As legally defined, negligence is the failure to perform an act that a prudent individual would ordinarily perform under certain situation. Hence, negligence may result to legal obstacles if it resulted to personal injuries or damages.
Meanwhile, the victims injured may file his charges against a negligent person if he wishes to recover damages to cover his medical expenses and other losses brought about by the injury. However, they would certainly need the expert services of coming from personal injury litigation lawyers in filing their claims. This is because this type of legal undertaking entails complicated procedures to undergo.
To support his claim, a plaintiff must establish these three elements in court:
The Defendants Duty
As imposed by the law, everyone has an obligation to exercise prudence in performing our acts especially those that may possibly result in serious harm and injuries. The California Civil Code §1714(a) states:
"...which provides that everyone is responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person, except so far as the other person has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or herself."
This means that there are nobody may be exempted in exercising due care. Therefore, anyone who violates this statute should be held liable for his conduct unless his case was clearly sustained by a public policy concerns.
Infringement of Duty
Besides the establishment of the defendant's duty to exercise care in his actions, the plaintiff should also prove the violations or negligence made. This may either be a total non-performance of the defendant or his failure in meeting the standard of "ordinary care" or proficiency in carrying out his duty.
"Ordinary care" pertains to the extent of care that a reasonable person having a prudent behavior would do in a particular scenario. This further means that everyone should put his or her efforts to be careful enough in proportion to the possible risks that should be prevented.
Causation
An action or omission should be the legal basis of a personal injury claim. Thus, the plaintiff should definitely prove that the negligence or the wrongful act is the actual reason of his injury. This also entails his responsibility to prove that he has strictly followed extreme cautiousness and he has never done any acts that may contribute to his being injured.
The amount of damages that a plaintiff can recover therefore, would vary depending on the degree of the defendant's responsibility, violation of such duty and plaintiff's injuries.
