words Al Woods
Personal injury law is one of the most important areas of practice in the legal field, but many people might not be aware of just how important it really is. That is most likely because the term “personal injury” is kind of vague. However, personal injury is a broad enough category that it covers a wide variety of legal cases, which is why it is so important.
The kinds of accidents that can lead to a personal injury are common enough that they occur on a daily basis. An experienced personal injury lawyer is capable of ably representing a wide variety of clients who have a wide variety of problems. And no matter the problem, no matter the client, a personal injury attorney has only one goal: To get their client the compensation that they deserve.
What Is a Personal Injury?
Personal injury law kicks in when someone has suffered physical, emotional, or financial damage because of the actions of another person. Said actions are usually due to the negligence of the person who was responsible for the injury. There are various different types of negligence that can lead to a personal injury and they are as follows:
Ordinary Negligence – When someone does not take reasonable precautions that could prevent harm, it is called negligence, especially if that lack of care results in an injury. Negligence is not an act intended to cause harm, just one that has a chance of doing so. An example is a store employee who does not clean up a spill or place a warning sign near it. The employee does not intend to hurt anyone, but their negligence could end up causing a slip and fall accident.
Gross Negligence – This is described as a careless or reckless disregard for the safety of others. It can also be described as an intentional lack of reasonable care that is likely to cause harm to people or property. It basically means that someone was behaving in a reckless manner that had a high chance of causing harm. An example would be a driver speeding through a school zone when there are many students present.
Reckless Conduct – This type of conduct is just below actual intent in terms of causing harm. The aspects that distinguish reckless conduct from negligent behavior are that someone intentionally disregards an unreasonable risk and that said risk has a high possibility of causing substantial harm. An example would be leaving an unattended gun in a place where small children can find it.
Intentional Misconduct – This type of behavior is when a person engages in conduct that they know is wrong and that has a high probability of causing harm or injury. For example, if an employer asks an employee to perform a dangerous task that ends up injuring the employee, then the employer can be charged with intentional misconduct.
How Do You Prove Negligence?
In order to prove that some form of negligence was responsible for the personal injury, four elements must be present in the case. They are as follows:
Duty – Also called duty of care, this means that the person who caused the injury had a legal obligation to act in a reasonable manner that would not cause harm. In general, everyone has a duty of care to everyone else, so this aspect of a personal injury case is usually easy to prove.
Breach of Duty – When someone behaves in a negligent manner, they breach the duty of care. The personal injury lawyer must prove that the defendant’s actions count as a breach of duty.
Causation – It must be proven that the action—or inaction—of the defendant led to the breach of duty that caused the personal injury.
Damages – This is the compensation that the victim receives for the injury that they suffered.
An Experienced Personal Injury Attorney Can Help You With Your Case
As you can see, there are several different scenarios that can result in a personal injury and a personal injury lawyer can help you with whichever one of them applies to your case. The reason is that, regardless of how different each case may be, they all have the same element of negligence in common. And once your lawyer proves that all of those elements are present, there is a greater chance that you will receive the compensation that you need.
