4 Elements Of Personal Injury Claim
A personal injury case often results because another individual was careless and their actions led to your injuries. This could happen on your way to the grocery store, at school, at work or just about anywhere else you can think of. Personal injury cases happen far more often than you might think. However, you need to understand all of the elements that surround these cases. Common factors that come into play with personal injury cases are duty of care, causation, not exercising reasonable care and sustaining damages.
Duty of Care
One of the first things that your Phoenix personal injury lawyer has to prove is that someone else was responsible for your injuries. If your personal injury case involves a car accident, you could say that the other person was not driving with the proper care needed to keep others safe on the road. You have a responsibility to drive safely when out on the road. When someone does not do that and you are injured because of it, you have the right to pursue damages for all of your injuries.
Anyone who is out on the road has the responsibility to care for anyone who is close by, such as:
• Pedestrians
• Motorists
• Motorcyclists
• Bicyclists
If your accident involves being injured in a slip and fall accident, it often falls on the property owner to make sure their property is safe and secure to anyone coming into the property or going out of it. This applies to homeowners, business owners, government entities, public property and so on.
In cases of medical malpractice injuries, it is the provider’s responsibility to provide the patient with the proper care they need at all times. If that provider does not do so, then they are the ones who are responsible for paying for any damages incurred. Reasonable medical care is often determined based on how someone would handle another situation where the same symptoms were present.
Failing to Provide Reasonable Care
The next element of a personal injury case is showing that there was a breach in reasonable care. This could be because an individual did not post a warning sign alerting customers that the floors in the business were wet. Even though they did not intend for someone to get hurt, they have a duty to warn people about the circumstances.
It could also be because the person was acting recklessly. For example, if a drunk driver is racing down the road and runs through a red light and crashes into someone, then that would be the fault of the person driving under the influence for not exercising caution when on the roadways.
Another thing to consider is whether the victim contributed to the accident or not. If the victim is also partially to blame, there is a chance that the total settlement amount could end up being reduced. This all depends on how much the other party was at fault.
Causation
The next element is being able to show causation. Essentially, this means that you have to show that not exercising reasonable care is what caused the injury to occur in the first place. Even though recklessness might not be the main cause of the accident, it should be a contributing factor at least.
Even if you were less than 51 percent to blame, the percentage you were responsible will end up reducing your payment. Imagine that your damages amounted to $20,000 and you were 40 percent at fault. You are going to end up losing out on $8,000 and only getting a payment of $12,000 in the end. You can see how much of an impact this can have on your case.
Actual Damages Suffered
The amount of damages sustained is the final part of an injury claim. If you were injured but did not have any damages to claim, you do not really have a personal injury claim that can be filed. If your injuries are not serious enough, you will not be able to pursue any legal action against the other party.
Some of the common types of damages that you can claim in your negligence suit are:
• Medical costs
• Lost wages
• Disability
• Pain and suffering
The best thing you can do is to turn to a licensed car accident attorney who has experience and expertise in the area. You want to make sure you end up getting the compensation you deserve and do not lose out on money that you were entitled to receive in the first place. This is why it is so important to have a trained professional working on your side at all times.
