Following your involvement in an accident which left you injured, you may find yourself in a position in which you can file a personal injury claim against another party. However, in order to build a successful case, you will need to prove said other party liable of negligence.

Defining Negligence

When we talk about negligence, we generally also talk about liability since these two concepts go hand in hand when it comes to personal injury law. When a party is accused of negligence, they are accused of failing to uphold the duty of care they owed to the plaintiff, or a larger group that the plaintiff was a part of at the time the accident occurred. Unlike with other forms of tort law, negligence does not refer to intentionally inflicted harm.

Establishing Negligence

Winning a personal injury case requires that the plaintiff prove the defendant guilty of negligence, and they must prove that said negligence is what led to their losses. If there is no correlation between the negligent act and the plaintiff’s losses, then there is no chance of the plaintiff winning their case. More simply put, proving negligence requires proof of the following four things:

1. A pre-existing duty of care that the defendant owed to the plaintiff
2. Said duty of care was breached by the defendant
3. The breach led to the plaintiff suffering a loss or injury
4. The plaintiff’s loss can be translated to a monetary value

Duty of Care

There are many ways in which businesses, as well as individuals, owe a duty of care to others. As motorists, we owe a duty of care to others by abiding traffic laws, watching out for pedestrians, and so on. As property owners, we have a duty of care to visitors and public workers like mailmen, by keeping our property’s free of hazards.

However, the plaintiff also has the obligation to protect themselves to a certain degree. In case of a slip and fall, for example, the plaintiff’s footwear needs to be taken into consideration. In case of a hit and run, it should be taken into consideration whether the plaintiff was paying attention to their surroundings. If the plaintiff was acting careless, it is likely to affect the settlement amount they are ultimately awarded.

After the personal injury lawyer in Brampton is able to pin the duty of care, they will work on proving the defendant guilty of breaching the standard of care, as per law. Basically, it means that to win compensation, the lawyer works to prove the defendant legally guilty of causing the injuries sustained by the plaintiff.