If you have been injured in an accident, you may have grounds for filing a lawsuit, provided that you can convince a court that the person at fault has demonstrated negligence. So, what are some examples of negligence?
An understanding of one phrase helps with identifying negligent behavior.
That one phrase is “duty of care.” At the time of an accident the person at fault has a duty to care for the victim. In other words, he or she should act like the average person would, if he or she were put in the same situation. A negligent person shirks that specific duty.
In certain cases, an adult may have additional duties.
For example, a parent should protect a child. A teacher should keep students safe. The caring parent and the smart teacher will seek to train a child or student to follow a code of safety. Hence, adults that have chosen to be neglectful risk the chance of becoming regretful. At home, role playing can help a child to learn one or more of the safety codes. At school, drills help to remind the students about the safety codes. In that way, such strategies reduce the chance that supervised children/students might invite the occurrence of an accidental mistake.
An owner of property can expect to have various people coming into that same territory. If a service provider has come at the request of the property owner, then that same provider deserves to benefit from a duty of care at the time of an accident. On the other hand, if some trespasser comes on the scene, then the property owner should not view him or her as deserving of the same care. Contacting an injury lawyer in Chatham will help them get justice.
How cause relates to negligence
In a court of law, evidence of negligent behavior becomes most damaging, when it can be proved that the negligence caused a given injury. Did the defendant fail to foresee the chances for an accident, or were those chances ignored? Failure to foresee how a given action might cause someone harm can be viewed as evidence of neglectful behavior.
Are there degrees of negligence?
No, but there are different types of damage. Either one of those two types could have resulted from neglectful/negligent behavior. The resulting injuries might be associated with substantial damages or nominal damages. If a given injury has been associated with nominal damages, then the plaintiff must prove that the same injury is real.
What other factors can help prove that negligent behavior caused a given injury?
The proximity of the injured victim to the person deemed “at fault” can work to support or rule out a charge of negligence. In a court of law a judge will study the distance between a defendant’s actions and the location of the injured victim. The charge [of negligence] will be stronger, if that distance can be measured in inches, instead of feet or yards.