Understanding Negligence

Negligence is an important concept when it comes to personal injury law. Without negligence, you likely don’t have a path forward to receive compensation if you’ve been injured. In our brief post, we’ll explain this term and provide some examples.

Duty of Care

There are many roles we have in life where we owe others a certain amount of care. For instance: 

• Coaches and teachers have responsibilities to keep kids safe.
• Drivers must obey traffic laws to avoid collisions with other vehicles. 
• Property owners must keep their premises free of hazards for guests. 

Not surprisingly, many of these basic duties are outlined in our state’s laws. 

Breach of Duty

What happens when someone fails in their duty? This breach of duty is considered negligence.

The motives behind a breach can vary. It’s possible that someone wasn’t intending to hurt anyone, they were just careless. Other times, the breach is due to someone’s intentional wrongdoing or maliciousness. 

Negligent Acts Resulting in an Injury 

Of course, people’s mistakes don’t always result in injury or death. But when that does happen, the negligent party can be held financially responsible. 

Some examples of negligence that might arise to legal action include: 

• Drunk driving related collisions 
• Medical malpractice 
• Defective products 
• Injuries at school or a playground 
• Pedestrian involved accidents 
• Falls on someone else’s property 
• Dog bites

Suppose you were seriously injured. If you can prove that someone else owed you a duty of care, and they failed, you may be able to file a claim. 

Do You Have a Case? 

Even if you’re pretty sure after reading this blog post that someone else’s negligence caused your injuries, you should call a personal injury lawyer for help. Our attorneys always offer free case evaluations. Plus, we work on a contingency basis which means we’ll only charge a fee if we’re able to win you a settlement. 

Whether you’ve been in a car accident or harmed at a doctor’s office, please reach out. We’d be happy to hear what happened and explain your legal options.