Search
Search
Main News

How Do I Sue for Negligence?

Date:
By Clair B. Norton
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

If you have been harmed by another person’s negligence, you may be entitled to seek compensation for your damages. However, it can be difficult to determine who is responsible for your injuries.

Negligence is a common legal term that refers to the failure to behave reasonably to prevent harm to others likely to be affected by your actions. This can happen in a variety of settings, including driving a car or working on a construction site.

Duty of care

The duty of care is a legal responsibility that all people are expected to uphold. Those who are in certain roles or professions, like teachers and doctors, have special duties of care to prevent others from suffering harm.

A breach of this duty can lead to a personal injury lawsuit. If you are injured due to someone else’s negligence, you may be able to sue for damages including your medical bills, lost wages or income, and pain and suffering.

The question of whether a duty of care exists in your case is a matter of law for a judge to decide. Courts have established a standard for determining this based on objective criteria. These standards help to decipher whether a defendant breached this standard and should be held liable for your injuries.

Breach of duty

Breach of duty occurs when someone or an organization violates a legal standard. This may include doctors who fail to provide proper care, property owners who allow a dangerous condition, or drivers who run red lights.

To prove negligence, you must show that a defendant owed you a duty and that they breached this duty. You also need to establish causation, which means that the breach of duty led to your injuries and damages.

Medical malpractice cases are a great example of this. Doctors owe patients a duty of care, which is based on the reasonableness standard. This standard is what a competent professional would do under similar circumstances.

A defendant can either break their duty by violating the reasonable person test or by not acting in a situation where they are required to act. This is important to understand because a breach of duty can be both the cause and the proximate cause of a plaintiff’s injuries.

Causation

A successful negligence claim requires proving four elements: duty of care, breach of duty, causation and damages. These are typically proven through the testimony of witnesses and expert witnesses.

Causation is the relationship between one event or action and the effect that results from it. It is a very important element of any negligence claim.

The first prong of the causation element is whether a plaintiff suffered injuries that directly resulted from the wrongdoer’s breach of duty (also called cause in fact). In order to prove this, a victim needs to show that their injuries would have happened “but for” the defendant’s actions.

A second prong of the causation element is proximate cause, which asks whether the defendant’s actions could have been expected to lead to the specific injuries that the victim suffered. This is the broader part of the causation element and can involve more complicated analysis.

Damages

Damages for negligence can include money to cover medical bills, loss of income, funeral expenses, and any other costs associated with your injury. They also include non-economic damages, which can cover the victim’s pain and suffering.

Negligence can also result in punitive damages, which punish the defendant for their behavior. This type of punishment is typically used when someone has committed a careless act that was so serious and egregious that it cannot be tolerated.

The first step in suing for negligence is to prove that the defendant breached their duty of care. This is done by showing that the defendant’s actions were a direct and proximate cause of your injuries.

Lawyers
Share with your friends on
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
RELATED NEWS
Main News
Date:
If you’ve noticed that a loved one in a hospital or nursing home has developed...
Featured ArticlesMain News
Date:
One of the most frequent accidents in the construction industry occurs when a worker is...
Main News
Date:
If you have been in an accident, it is easy to get upset, angry and...
LATEST NEWS
Car AccidentMain News
Date:
Government entities—from county school districts to large city municipal transit authorities—carry liability insurance. They also...
Construction Accident
Date:
Construction workers play a vital role in our society, and it’s important that they stay...
Truck Accident
Date:
Wrongful death lawsuits compensate families for a variety of intangible losses. These include loss of...