Accidents happen every day, and many occur because someone was not careful enough. When someone’s carelessness causes another person to suffer an injury, this may be legally considered “negligence.”
Negligence forms the basis of many personal injury claims, and you may decide to pursue a negligence claim if you are hurt in an accident. If you do, your ability to recover compensation will depend on whether you have enough evidence to establish the four legal elements of negligence. Keep reading to learn more about negligence and how it can affect your ability to recover compensation after an accident.
What Are the Legal Elements of Negligence?
Winning a personal injury claim is not as simple as showing that the defendant was careless. Instead, you generally must prove four specific legal elements to establish negligence.
Those elements are:
- Duty of care
- Breach of duty
- Causation
- Damages
In negligence cases, the plaintiff, usually the injured person, has the burden of proving that the defendant was negligent. For example, imagine that you are injured in a slip and fall accident at a local supermarket. You believe the accident happened because the store failed to clean up a spill that had been there for hours. You would have the burden of proving that the store’s conduct was negligent and that its negligence caused your injuries.
What Is a Duty of Care?
The first element of negligence is establishing the duty of care. To succeed in your case, you must show that the defendant owed you a legal duty to act or behave in a certain manner.
A duty of care may arise from the law, the relationship between the parties, or the circumstances. When no specific legal rule applies, courts often look to the “reasonable person” standard. This considers how a reasonably prudent person would have acted under similar circumstances.
Returning to the supermarket slip and fall example above, premises liability law generally requires property owners to maintain their property in a reasonably safe condition. Depending on the circumstances, this may include inspecting the premises for dangerous conditions and addressing hazards within a reasonable time. In this situation, establishing a duty of care may be relatively straightforward because the law imposes obligations on property owners.
When Does Someone Breach the Duty of Care?
A defendant breaches the duty of care when they act in a manner that is inconsistent with how a reasonable person would act or when they act outside what the law requires. Put another way, they fail to uphold the standard of care required in the situation.
Going back to our supermarket example, you could present evidence to show how long the spill had been present and that no warning signs were present. The fact that the spill had been there for hours without being noticed could be evidence that the store breached its duty of care.
Proving Causation in a Negligence Claim
Not only must you show that the defendant breached their duty of care, but you must also show that your injuries were a direct result of that behavior. This requires proving both direct and proximate causation.
Direct causation is a little easier to understand. “But for” the defendant’s actions, you would not have suffered your injury. In other words, you would not have gotten hurt if the defendant had not breached their duty.
Proximate cause is a little more complex. This relates to foreseeability, and it means that you must show that your injuries were a foreseeable consequence of the defendant’s conduct. Is it foreseeable that someone may slip and injure themselves if a spill is left on the floor for hours? The answer is yes, so you would be able to prove both direct and proximate cause in our example.
What Are Damages in a Negligence Claim?
Damages in a negligence claim can take many forms. While the obvious thing that comes to mind is a physical injury, there can be much more to it than that. Damages are really any adverse consequence suffered by the victim.
The two general forms of damages available in negligence claims are economic damages and non-economic damages. Economic damages provide compensation for a victim’s financial or monetary losses.
This may include items like:
- Medical bills
- Lost wages
- Diminished earning capacity
- Out-of-pocket expenses
- Property damage
Non-economic damages compensate victims for their physical and psychological pain and trauma.
This includes many ways in which a victim may be adversely affected, such as:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Depression
- Anxiety
- PTSD
- Loss of reputation
- Diminished quality of life
- Permanent scarring or disfigurement
- Loss of consortium
- Permanent disability
Non-economic damages can represent a significant portion of a personal injury claim, especially in cases involving extremely severe or catastrophic injuries.
Contact the New York Personal Injury Lawyers at Carrion Accident & Injury Attorneys, PLLC for a Free Consultation
Proving negligence after an accident and getting the compensation you are owed can be challenging. Hiring an experienced personal injury attorney can take away some of the stress of the situation and allow you to focus on your recovery.
At Carrion Accident & Injury Attorneys, PLLC, we have more than 50 years of combined experience helping accident and injury victims pursue justice. Contact us at (212) 433-3100 today to schedule a free consultation with a New York personal injury lawyer and let us help you with your negligence claim.
