In the case where you have been seriously injured due to negligence, you might not know if you can make a valid case. Personal injuries due to negligence can lead to lasting ramifications and alter a person’s life completely. To understand if you can file a personal injury case, you should understand a few critical factors about personal negligence. 

Negligence is often a factor in personal injury cases. This includes cases such as car accidents, medical malpractice, premise liability, and product liability. As you can see, personal injuries resulting from negligence are very broad spectrum. It’s vitally important to understand what constitutes negligence so that you know when to file a personal injury claim with your attorney. 

Negligence in the context of a personal injury claim can be defined as an injury resulting from an action or failure to act in a way that any other sensible person would under similar circumstances. To establish if your injury is due to negligence, it would be best to consult a personal injury attorney. Contacting a lawyer sooner rather than later, would be beneficial. Depending on your state’s statute of limitations, you may only have a specific timeframe in which to file your claim.  

It may often be challenging to prove negligence, but there are usually three essential components whereby a personal injury claim would fall under. First, you should consider if the negligent act you believe has been committed against you is a fault. Negligence is different from recklessness. 

● There was a breach of duty: In this instance, a party has failed to act within the reasonable spectrum of care and has been unable to uphold their duty of care. 

● Failure to provide a duty of care: This is relevant when an accused party had a legal responsibility to the plaintiff to avoid causing him/her harm. 

● Injuries sustained because of a breach in duties: This is applicable when a direct violation of duty has resulted in the victim incurring real damages and injuries. 

There are predominantly five different types of negligence, and a personal injury attorney will have to establish which classification applies to your case. Once your case commences, your attorney will try to prove that the other party is guilty of one of the five types of negligence that has resulted in your injury.

Comparative negligence is a tort law principle and is when your defense will aid you in receiving a settlement outside of court. This type of case is when the plaintiff or victim is partially responsible for the negligent act that caused him or her injury. The settlement amount will be reduced according to the degree of fault that the plaintiff had in the accident. 

Contributory negligence is when a portion of the blame is placed with the plaintiff. For instance, if you have been involved in a car accident and found partially liable for your injuries, your compensation amount will diminish. The settlement you receive will be dependent on the level of involvement you had in the incident that occurred. 

With this type of personal injury negligence case, if you are found to be more than 50% at fault, your case could be dismissed, or your allowable settlement could be reduced by 50%. 

These types of negligence cases are usually the result of personal injuries due to medical malpractice. When victims of personal injury want to initiate a gross negligence case, they need to prove the following: 

● The person sued must owe a duty of care, and you need to prove that they have failed to provide that specific duty of care.

● The injury must be the result of the other parties’ failure to perform their duty of care.

● The damages are a direct result of that injury.  

Otherwise known as imputed negligence, this type of case is when an injury you have sustained is due to someone else’s negligent actions. An example of this classification of negligence would be when a minor who has suffered injuries due to the direct negligent actions of a parent.

To conclude, there are many instances where personal injury cases can be the direct result of negligence. A lawyer can help you prove that one of the predominant types of negligence is the reason for your injury. It’s vitally important to seek legal advice as soon as possible to make the personal injury claim within the timeframe for the state statute of limitations.