Protecting Your Rights after You’ve Been Hurt
When you’ve suffered any kind of loss because of the wrongful act of another person—the loss of income when you can’t work or the loss of companionship or consortium; the costs of un-reimbursed medical care or the loss of enjoyment of life caused by your pain and suffering—you have a right to seek compensation in a personal injury lawsuit. While those types of legal action can be based on intentional acts of the wrongdoer, as a practical matter, they are almost always based on a legal theory of negligence.
What Is Negligence?
As the laws governing personal injury have evolved over many centuries, three requirements have been set forth to prove a claim based on negligence:
- The injured party must show that the wrongdoer (the defendant) failed to meet (breached) the standard of care required under the circumstances
- The injured party must show causal links (both actual and proximate cause) between the breach of duty and the accident
- The injured party must show some actual loss as a result of the accident
In this blog, we will look more closely at the standard of care.
What Is the Standard of Care in a Personal Injury Lawsuit?
Under the principle of negligence, all persons in society have a duty to act as a reasonable person would, in whatever endeavor they are engaged in. Accordingly, when driving a car, manufacturing a product or maintaining property, a “reasonable” amount of care must be exercised.
Unfortunately, there is no concrete standard for what will be construed as “reasonable.” Instead, the appropriate standard of care is determined by a jury on a case-by-case basis. Juries are not, however, without guidance. Under the principle of stare decisis, juries must give weight to the prior decisions of courts in similar situations. But the standard is still a vague one and can vary to some degree from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
Contact the Law Offices of David J. Karbasian, PC
Send us an e-mail today or call us at 856-667-4666 / 856-600-HURT to schedule an appointment.
Evening and weekend meetings can be arranged upon request. We’ll come to your home or the hospital to meet with you, if necessary.
