Understanding Liability in Personal Injury Cases
Liability for an accident or injuries resulting from it rests with the person who was negligent in his or her action. The types of accidents happening all over the world and causing injuries are literally unlimited. Some of the accidents are most familiar whereas the rests are strange enough to surpass one’s wildest imagination. Slip and fall, medical malpractices, car accidents etc are a few examples.
Regardless of the type, causes and consequences of accidents, the law in deciding liability keeps its compass towards a basic and commonsense question: Did the individual involved and injured in the accident act carelessly and that was the cause of casualties? In other words, was the person negligent? This write-up will make you familiar with a few elements widely regarded as different aspects of negligence.
Duty of Care
In some personal injury cases, the basic question of whether the person involved in the accident was responsible for his injuries may turn on if there existed a “duty of care” to prevent such injuries from happening to the injured who was not supposed to be present at the place where the accident occurred.
Example: Robert works in a marketing company. He was assigned the duty of surveying in a local market to find out what, according to the buyers, should be the right kind of packaging in a pandemic situation. He approached a shop, outside of which, stood a board warning outsiders not to enter into as that entrance was only for the staff. Robert did not care and accidentally knocked off a stack of tiles heaped on one side. A few tiles fell onto his feet and caused an injury. The case had no solid merits for liability claims as the shop owner was not obliged to protect those who ignored the warning.
Deciding Reasonability
The basic ‘negligence’ rules require everyone to adopt “reasonable care” to prevent injuries to others. ‘Reasonable Care’ depends on multiple variables including time, place and the relationship between two persons. Therefore, a conduct, which is considered an act of negligence in one incident, might not be so in another.
Key Factors in a ‘Case of Negligence’
Regardless of how the accident took place, getting a fair compensation package is important to cover your medical bills, physical pains, mental agony and wage loss. It is no rocket science to understand that the process of receiving compensation goes beyond a simple application.
The followings are some crucial assessments that you need to do before filing a compensation claim:
- If you can establish that it is only the other person who were negligent or careless, the person will be held liable to pay for your injuries.
- If an accident happens due to negligence of someone at work, the employer will be legally liable for the damages.
- If an injury happens due to the use of a defective product or on a damaged property, the manufacturer or seller of the product or the property owner is liable irrespective of whether the person is responsible for creating the defect or damages.
- If the injured was also careless or negligent in his or her action, the compensation will be lowered in proportion to comparative negligence.
- You just need to establish that the other person was negligent even if there are reasonable arguments that the other person was not careless.
Talk to an attorney at King Law if you believe your case is entitled to compensation and follow your lawyer’s recommendations to obtain a fair and square deal.
