The most important aspect of an accident and compensation claim is establishing liability which, in other words, comes down to the assessment of who was at fault and who was not.
We will run out of causes if it comes to accidents – some are stranger than what your fertile imagination might even think about. Some accidents are very commonplaces such as, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice etc. Regardless of the type of accident, the ultimate deciding factor boils down to the question: Did the injured act reasonably or carelessly that actually caused the mishap? This article sheds lights on few important elements to expound on the concept of negligence with some suitable real-world examples.
Duty of Care
The concept of ‘Legal Liability’ in some accident cases focuses on if ‘Duty of Care’ is properly exercised to prevent injuries to someone who was not supposed to be present at the site of the accident when the mishap happened.
Example: Jacob was curious to know whether his injury, which he sustained while going through an ‘Employee Only’ entrance at a local supermarket where he went for customer survey, is worth a compensation claim.
Answer: Jacob’s case does not stand a strong chance of liability claim because the store cannot be held responsible for injuries to someone who ignored the ‘Employee Only’ heading and tried to get into through it.
What is Liability?
The ‘Nuts and Bolts’ of Negligence get distilled down to the concept of ‘Reasonable Care’, lack of which causes injuries to others. Reasonable Care is a variable that keeps changing with place and time. Relationship between people also factors in the equation. With all these taken into consideration, the same conduct might get the label of an ‘Act of Negligence’ in one instance but get absolved of any such labeling in another.
Example: While a group of boys were playing football with reasonable care, a ball accidentally hit one of the audiences on his head and he fell down. As hitting ball is a part of the game, the player who stroked the ball cannot be called negligent and so cannot be held liable.
Example: One of the baseball players threw his bat in a fit of rage and it hit someone sitting close to the fence. As such an act of arrogance is considered misbehavior on part of any player and the audience had every right to be there, the bat-thrower is Liable for the injuries caused to the person due to Negligence in his action.
Key Points in a Case of Negligence
Regardless of how the accident took place, receiving a fair amount of compensation for your injuries involves penning an application in a layman’s language with a focus on a few basic principles.
If you stay committed to applying basic rules to your application for compensation, you stand a good chance of receiving a fair amount of settlement regardless of peculiarity of facts or situations in your accident. It’s also important for you, as a plaintiff, to contact an experienced Seattle personal injury attorney for a definite and dependable guidance at each step of the claim procedure.
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