Legal Definition of Negligence
Posted February 12th, 2021 by Anthony Carbone.
Categories: Legal Topics.
Negligence is to act without proper care to result in consequences that injure or harm another person. For an act to be classified as negligence, damage to the plaintiff must be a result of causation. Additionally, the defendant’s action must have been below the reasonable standard of care. If you suffer an injury due to someone else’s negligence, you are the plaintiff, and the other party is the defendant. You will also require legal representation to help you prove negligence for a case to be successful. Call to book a Jersey City personal injury attorney in New Jersey for full compensation.
In this article, we look at the legal definition of negligence and how to legally prove it to have a successful personal injury case.
Elements of negligence
To prove negligence, an attorney must show that the defendant did not act like a reasonable person would when faced with the same situation. Therefore, courts now have standard steps to prove negligence. These are the four elements:
1. Duty of care
In a civil case, you will have to prove that the subject had a duty of care to a certain degree. It is one of the simplest things to prove when filing for personal injury compensation. For example, drivers have a duty of care to everyone else using the road. Employers and building owners also have a duty of care towards their subjects.
2. Breach of duty
Once it is beyond doubt that the defendant had a duty of care towards you, you must then prove that their actions did not follow the standards of reasonable care. For example, a driver who failed to follow traffic rules acted contrary to reasonable care. Once you’ve proved the two elements, you are already halfway and have established liability.
3. Causation
Here, you have to show that the defendant’s actions resulted in your injury or harm. Their action and your injury must have a cause and effect relation. Although the court may not need you to show a direct relationship, it must be a proximate cause that is reasonably related. For example, if the driver’s crash caused you direct injury, it would be called causation.
4. Damages
After proving the three elements, the final one is meant to show real harm and quantify the damage to money. Each type of harm must be translated into dollars, which can be a bit challenging. This includes medical bills, pain, suffering, and monetary losses.
Do you need a lawyer?
According to the law, you have to prove all the four elements to show negligence. The defense team and insurance companies do what they can to show that arguments are unsatisfactory. That is why you need an experienced attorney by your side to represent you and help you to prove all elements beyond a reasonable doubt. Call a Jersey City personal injury attorney Anthony Carbone on 201-829-3805 for aggressive and relentless legal representation. You can always count on success because he has had over 30 years’ experience dealing with negligence cases.
