An Attorney’s Duty in Handling Negligence Claims

Have you been involved in accident due to other party’s neglect? Did you sustain any injuries or damages from such incident? Certainly, the law protects the right of any injured victim to demand compensation against whoever inflicted harm to him/her.

Majority of the lawsuits or personal injury claims being filed by the plaintiffs are due to negligence on the part of the defendants.

A person may be guilty of negligence if he/she failed to do something that a normal prudent individual would exercise under a particular scenario or doing something that a normal prudent individual would not exercise under such scenario. These actions involve breaches of lawful duties, contracts or owed responsibilities of the defendants to the injured plaintiffs.

Therefore, in order to support his/her accusations of negligence, a victim must establish the following elements of his/her claim:

• the defendant has a duty to ensure his/her safety
• the defendant has breached such duty
• the breach was the proximate cause of the accident that resulted to his/her injury

Duty

The law imposes two general kinds of duty:

• to implement ordinary prudence in performing actions from which injuries and damages might reasonably be foreseen (California Civil Code section 1714(a))

• to perform affirmative actions to warn or safeguard others if one has a special relationship to the person in need of protection or to control other people’s conduct if it is expected to cause harm to others

In a negligence claim, the court will use the following issues in weighing the duty and possible liability of the defendant:

• the level of possibility that the defendant’s act would cause harm to the injured party
• the degree of connection between the defendant’s neglect and the injuries sustained by the plaintiff
• the moral responsibility of the defendant
• the extent of injuries and damages that the plaintiff has sustained
• the existing policies to prevent future harm
• the resulting consequences brought about to the community
• the availability cost and procedures of acquiring insurance for the particular case involved

Getting a Negligence Claims Attorney’s Help

Knowing that the process of establishing the defendant’s duty to a particular negligence claim, it is therefore necessary for any injured victim to seek the advice of an expert attorney. Especially if he/she has insufficient knowledge about the laws that cover his/her case, the injured person must have an advocate to make sure that his/her rights are well defended.

Primarily, a negligence claims attorney, with appropriate skills in handling these types of cases, would also increase the chances of the victims in recovering suitable amount of compensatory damages. With his/her ability to evaluate the elements of a plaintiff’s case, an attorney can prepare a winning legal tactic for his/her client.

In preparing a negligence claim, an attorney will perform these functions:

• gathering of the plaintiff’s medical records
• calculating the possible recoveries that the plaintiff may acquire from the case
• getting the statements of credible witnesses
• bringing the injured victim to a specialist for further medical examination to enhance the possibility of a positive verdict
• instructing the plaintiff on how to answer the questions of the insurance adjuster

These things explain how vital it is to appoint a negligence claims attorney. Without their assistance, pursuing a lawsuit may just bring about more burden to the injured victims.