Generally speaking, negligent conduct is recklessness that leads to personal injury to another person. It might be an activity, like thoughtlessly knocking a rock off a rooftop, or a failure to take action, like a landlord who doesn’t repair a worn out stair. Negligence typically creates the justification for injuries legal cases.
For you to file a legal cause of action for negligent conduct, the injury victim (the person filing the lawsuit) has to present four elements: That the negligent party (the individual or entity being sued) owed the plaintiff a duty of care; that the accused failed to exercise due care towards the plaintiff (i.e. breached the duty); that the defendant’s breach of duty caused the plaintiff’s an injury; and that the plaintiff suffered damages as a consequence.
Duty of due care: The injured party needs to show that the defendant had a duty of reasonable care toward the injured party. An individual has a duty to avoid causing an injury to another if a reasonable man or woman in the same circumstance could foresee that an behavior (or failure to act) could result in an injury. Some cases are very clear. We all know that somebody might be injured if we run a red light, so we have a duty of reasonable care to follow traffic laws and signals. Other instances are more difficult. If a property owner has a private swimming pool in a fenced yard, does he have a duty to prevent a neighbor child from climbing the fence and accidentally drowning in the pool? How much care would a reasonable man or woman take in that scenario? In each circumstance, the factors concerning the personal injury play a crucial role in deciding whether or not a negligent party had a duty of reasonable care towards the injury victim.
Breach of Duty: The injured party must show that the accused failed to carry out their duty of reasonable care. For example, an average man or woman could foresee that a car full of explosives may ignite, so someone who parks such a vehicle in a congested parking lot has breached the duty of care to the other men and women nearby. If the vehicle ignites, the driver may be guilty of negligence. Somebody may also foresee that a car that isn’t fixed correctly might malfunction, so if the brakes on a poorly repaired car fail and the car hits a child, the owner of the car may have breached the duty of due care to that child. Every car owner has a duty to maintain the car in a safe condition. On the other hand, if the owner frequently maintains and repairs the car and the brakes failed because the brakes were faulty or the mechanic made a mistake, the owner did not breach a duty of reasonable care, though the brake manufacturer or the mechanic might be to blame.
Result in: The plaintiff needs to show that the defendant’s breach of duty caused the harm for which the injured party is suing. Many times causation is apparent. If you run a traffic light and hit a person, you plainly caused the injury. If the pedestrian’s elderly mother has a heart attack and dies when she hears of her daughter’s injury, did you cause that injury? Not likely, but those are the kinds of issues that have to be settled in a negligent conduct claim. There can also be issues about what injuries was caused by an accident. People often have more than one accident in their lives, so if an individual has had two prior back injuries, just what injury to the back was caused by the most recent fall down a flight of stairs?
Damages: Damages in a negligent conduct claim try to put the injury victim in the same situation he or she would be in if the accident hadn’t happened. A injury victim has to show the economic value of his or her injuries. For example, if a person is disabled and might no longer work, a calculation of damages would consider the career of the injured party and the amount he or she would have earned during the time left in a normal working career. Damages would also include medical fees and estimated costs for medical treatment, special accommodations, and assisted living.
In some situations negligent parties are accountable for negligent conduct as a result of the operation of law, and not because they specifically caused an injury. As an example, since an employer is held to blame for injuries caused by employees during work, UPS may be liable if a UPS driver has an accident while making deliveries. A hospital could be held liable for injury caused by only one nurse. Plaintiffs typically make claims against several negligent parties to make sure there will be enough assets (money) to pay a judgment.
If you have been injured in a car accident, you should speak with a New Jersey car accident law firm about your case. Talking to experienced New Jersey injury lawyers will help you understand your rights and options.