subject: Personal Injury – Legal Negligence [print this page] Personal Injury Legal Negligence
Legal negligence can be defined as carelessness or negligent behavior in regards to an accident or emergency occurring to someone else. If someone does not respond in a manner that is considered "ordinary and reasonable" when they have the opportunity to assist someone with an accident or personal injury, they may be held responsible for those injuries. For example, at the scene of a horrible accident involving two cars, a "reasonable" citizen would call the police and stay on the scene until help arrives. They may even offer basic first aid to the injured. A legally negligent person may leave the scene without calling medical personnel or law enforcement.
There are four requirements that a support a claim for legal negligence that apersonal injury lawyer must prove. The first requirement is that the defendant (the individual being sued) owed the plaintiff a duty of care. Duty of care simply means that the defendant has a duty to avoid causing harm to another person if a reasonable person could see that inaction or acting a certain way may cause injury. For example, keeping a dog who bites securely fenced in your backyard so that they avoid biting or injuring other dogs or people is providing duty of care to that community.
The second and third requirements state that the defendant failed to practice duty of care towards the plaintiff and that by failing to practice this duty of care an injury was incurred. If the dog in the earlier example isn't properly contained he may bite a small child. The owner of the dog did not practice duty of care, and his dog bite someone when he knew the dog had a propensity to bite strangers. This case would likely result in a personal injury claim.
Finally, the last requirement in supporting a legal claim for legal negligence is that injured person suffered damages as a result of the injury. A way to determine if damages should be assessed is trying to imagine if the plaintiff would be in the same situation (psychological and/or psychologically) if the accident never occurred. If the plaintiff is disabled, cannot work or has large medical bills that they otherwise would not have-these are all damages that should be paid back to them in the form of a settlement. Apersonal injury lawyer can help to determine if you have a legal negligence claim and if settlement may happen.
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