Personal Injury Case Requirements: The 4 Elements of Negligence

When injured in any type of accident, it can have serious consequences and a negative impact on a person’s ability to take care of themselves. Just the cost of medical care can be a major burden on the injured person. When the injury causes a loss of work, the costs and losses can be insurmountable.

When another person is responsible for the accident that caused an injury, they should be held responsible for the costs and losses that occurred. Unfortunately, it can be a difficult fight trying to get the needed compensation. You can contact pittsburgh workers compensation attorney for the information you will need.

Proving Negligence

For another person to be held responsible for the costs and losses of an accident, negligence must first be shown. Often, it is best for those injured in an accident to seek the assistance of an attorney in Corpus Christi.

An attorney understands the legal process and can help individuals navigate the system to ensure their rights are protected. It is not a requirement for someone to get an attorney in these cases. However, it is necessary for the four elements of negligence to be met to prove that the at-fault party is responsible for the cost of the accident.

Duty to Care

The first element that must be met is the duty of care. Duty of care is the term used to describe the obligation that is placed on individuals to avoid injuring someone or placing them in the path of danger.

This duty to care can often be broken into two different categories. The first is the general duty of care. This is simply that everyone has a duty to conduct themselves in a reasonable manner and that any reasonable person would act in the same manner. Almost anyone has some general duty of care.

Second is the special duty of care. This is often imposed by various laws. A special duty of care is specific laws and rules everyone is expected to perform when in that special category. For example, every driver is expected to follow the rules of the road and drive their vehicle in a safe manner.

It is important to determine exactly what the duty of care was for the person or persons being considered at fault in the accident. Did that person have a specific responsibility or duty to avoid injuring someone or placing them in the path of injury?

Failure to Exercise Care

The next element of negligence is determining whether the person in question failed to exercise the care established in the first element. This can also be considered a breach of duty. As per the experts at realjustice.com, during a hit and run case, fleeing away from the accident site can be considered a breach of duty, especially if the other person is injured badly.
This can consist of either an action or inaction that goes against the duty of care the individual should have maintained, whether general or special.

This can be an action or inaction that was careless or forgotten but was not intended to cause harm. For example, a worker forgot to put out a wet floor sign when mopping the floor. Not intending to hurt someone does not remove the responsibility from the person. They would still be in breach of their duty of care.

There is also reckless behavior that can be considered a breach of their duty of care. A common example of reckless behavior can include those driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Their driving became erratic and they ran a red light and struck another vehicle. Any behavior that was performed knowing that it is dangerous could be considered a reckless action.

Sometimes, the breach of duty of care is not so clearly defined. For example, a person may be going the speed limit when they had the accident, but the weather conditions necessitated a slower speed that they did not acknowledge.

Causal Link

The next element of negligence is establishing a causal link. This means that it must be proven that the breach of duty of care must have caused the accident. Even if the person was proven to have a certain set of responsibilities or duties that they did not follow, it may not be as easily proven that that was the cause of the accident.

For example, the employee may have forgotten to put up a wet floor sign while they were mopping but there was evidence that the injured person had untied shoelaces that they tripped over. Even though the floor was wet and could cause an accident, they would not be held responsible because the actual cause was the carelessness of the injured person.

There are also cases where the causal link is only partially to blame. In the same example, the shoelaces caused the original slip, but the wet floor caused a more severe slip or even caused a secondary fall. These situations could split the share of the fault between both the individual and the employee. This could potentially lessen the amount of compensation given in the settlement.

Damages

The final element is determining if there were damages caused by the accident. This can include a variety of damages, such as physical injuries, emotional injuries, property damage, or even the loss of income due to the accident. There must be some damages for any compensation to be given as a result of the accident.

Even if the accident caused minor damages, the case can still go on. For example, a man running down the sidewalk without paying attention to where he was going, bumps into another man causing his coffee to spill everywhere. The damages can include the loss of the coffee, the dry cleaning bill for the clothes, and even the loss of work needed to get the clothes cleaned.

However, if there were no actual damages, then there is no case. For example, a driver failed to stop fast enough and bumped the car in front of them. There was only negligible contact between the bumpers that did not cause any damage.

There was no major impact to cause injuries to the driver of the hit vehicle. There wasn’t even a delay in getting to work due to the accident. In this case, there would be no damage, either injuries or property damage. The other driver would have no real grounds to file a case against the other driver.

Once all four elements have been met, a proper personal injury case can continue. If each element is proven sufficiently, the injured party should be able to receive compensation for any costs and losses they accumulated due to the accident.