Negligence

Turlock Personal Injury Lawyer

Victims who suffer wrongful injuries or illnesses that were caused by another person or entity have legal recourse available. By filing personal injury claims, victims can recover monetary compensation for the physical, emotional and financial damages they incurred. In order for a claim to be successful, there are a few essential legal elements that must be clearly and convincingly established. Perhaps the most important aspect on which the entirety of a claim rides is that of negligence.

What is negligence?

In a legal scope, the term or concept of negligence describes the failure of a person or entity to act with reasonable care. Reasonable care can mean the caution or care that most people would expect in any given situation. To paint an example, it is widely known and accepted that disobeying traffic laws and signals can be potentially dangerous. If a person runs a red light, they demonstrate a clear act of negligence because they failed to exercise standard, typical and expected behaviors and actions. To put things in a different way, negligence would be more synonymous to carelessness than to intentional harm.

The legal definition of negligence is solid and will almost always mean carelessness and failure to uphold responsibilities. How negligence is applied to different accidents, situations and cases, however, can vary according to the particular circumstances involved. For example, negligence in a medical malpractice case may entail a physician making a medication error by prescribing a drug known to adversely interact with another medication that the patient is currently taking. Failing to fully evaluate the patient, failing to notice drug contraindications and placing a patient in danger is definitely a form of negligence. In car accidents, drivers who drive recklessly and faster than the speed limit can also be said to be acting negligently because they fail to obey laws, thereby placing others on the road in danger. These acts may be entirely different, but they can both be legally defined as negligent.

Proving Negligence

In most personal injury claims, victims must prove another party's negligence by establishing a few essential legal elements. These include demonstrating that:

• A duty of care was owed from defendant to plaintiff (victim)
• The defendant failed to meet reasonable duty of care
• The defendant's actions were the cause of the victim's injuries
• The victim suffered damages

When all of these elements can be established and presented, courts can hold responsible and negligent parties liable for compensating victims.

Work with Trusted Friends Who Know the Law

Our legal team at Habbas & Associates has more than 25 years of experience in handling personal injury claims. This has allowed our attorneys to accumulate extensive insight into the legal elements of claims, and into the effective methods and strategies needed to establish and prove negligence. You can be confident that whatever your case may entail, our lawyers have the abilities, knowledge and determination to reach successful outcomes. Contact our firm today.