How Do You Prove Negligence in an Injury Case?

• July 07, 2024
• Personal Injury

Negligence is most often the basis for personal injury lawsuits. In basic legal terms, negligence is failing to take reasonable and ordinary care to avoid injuring another person. When someone acts negligently and accidentally injures another person, the injured party is entitled to payment for their damages, which are all the costs related to the accident and injuries, including both current and future costs.

Proving negligence isn’t necessarily easy, however. While some cases are more cut-and-dried than others, many people who commit negligent acts that hurt others do not readily admit that they are to blame. They may even claim that you were negligent or that you shared liability for the accident.

So how do you prove negligence in an injury case? Read on to learn more. To get legal advice specific to your situation, reach out to an experienced personal injury attorney in Yakima who will assess the facts of your case and advise you of your options.

Proving Negligence in a Personal Injury Claim

Proving negligence in a personal injury claim requires establishing four things. You must prove all four elements of negligence for your personal injury claimed to be successful.

Elements of Negligence

To establish negligence in a personal injury claim, the following must be shown:

• Duty of care – The person you are suing, the defendant, owed you a duty of care not to cause harm. For example, in a car accident scenario, the driver of another vehicle has a duty to obey traffic laws and drive properly so as not to cause an accident or hurt other road users.
• Breach of duty – The defendant breached their duty of care through a negligent action.  For example, the driver ran a red light and hit you.
• Causation – The defendant’s breach of the duty of care caused the accident that injured you.  When they hit your car after driving through the red light you suffered injuries as a result of the accident.
• Damages – You were physically, mentally, or financially injured as a result of the defendant’s negligence and are owed damages in the form of financial compensation.

The damages you are owed once you prove negligence will depend upon the specific losses you experienced because of the accident.

Damages in Personal Injury Cases

Damages in personal injury cases in Washington State fall into two general categories: economic and non-economic.

• Economic damages – Economic damages are all the losses that are monetarily quantifiable. These damages include such things as payment for accident-related medical bills now and into the future, in-home care or other assistance you may require for daily living, lost wages and benefits when you miss work while recuperating, and loss of future earning capacity if you can no longer work and earn at the same level.
• Non-economic damages – Non-economic damages are losses that are not easily quantifiable, such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, mental anguish, disability and disfigurement, and humiliation and embarrassment.

When determining the amount of compensation to seek in a personal injury case, your attorney will assess all the damages you have already suffered and those you may experience in the future due to your injuries.

Types of Claims Based on Negligence

A variety of personal injury claims are based on proving negligence. They include the following:

• Car accidents and crashes involving other kinds of passenger vehicles.
• Commercial truck or semi-truck accidents.
• Motorcycle accidents.
• Crashes that injure pedestrians.
• Wrongful death claims in which someone dies due to an accident are also based on establishing that the at-fault party was negligent. The personal representative of a deceased person’s estate can file a claim on behalf of the decedent and survivors.

Comparative Negligence Law

Washington State follows the law of comparative negligence, also called contributory fault, in personal injury cases. This rule means hat if you also acted negligently and those actions contributed to the accident in which you were injured, any compensation you may be awarded will be reduced by your share of fault.

As an example, if you were injured in a car accident and it was determined that the other driver was 75 percent at fault and you were 25 percent responsible, your compensation would be reduced by 25 percent. Let’s say you were awarded $60,000. You would only receive $45,000 because your compensation would be reduced by $15,000 (25 percent).

However, it should also be noted that Washington follows a pure comparative negligence rule, which means that you may still be able to recover damages even if you share more fault than the other party.

Evidence Personal Injury Attorneys Gather to Help Prove Negligence

To prove the elements of negligence in personal injury cases, attorneys will investigate the evidence in accidents. Evidence that attorneys may gather and examine, depending upon the type of accident and circumstances, includes:

• Eyewitness statements
• Police reports
• Statements from first responders such as paramedics and emergency medical technicians
• Doctor reports and medical bills
• Video footage of accidents
• Photographs of the accident scene and damage to vehicles
• Products or parts of products that malfunctioned and caused injuries
• Recall notices of defective products
• Expert witness testimony

It is not only individuals who can be found negligent and at fault in personal injury cases.  If a person acts negligently while performing their job duties and injures you, the company that employs the negligent person may be liable for your injuries.

Sometimes more than one party may be responsible for negligently caused injuries.  If more than one person is responsible for injuries that you suffered in a car accident, they may both be liable.  In certain instances, they may each be liable for all of your damages; a concept known as joint and several liability.

There are a wide variety of circumstances that affect your ability to obtain damages in personal injury cases. If you have been in an accident, you likely need assistance from a skillful personal injury attorney in Washington to prove negligence so that you can receive maximum compensation from all liable parties responsible for your injuries.

Do Not Wait to Speak to a Lawyer About Your Personal Injury Claim

If you are considering pursuing a personal injury claim for an accident caused by negligence, you should contact a lawyer as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the more likely it is that the evidence will be damaged or lost. Witnesses’ memories can grow faint as time passes, which can harm your case. As evidence is damaged or disappears, proving that the at-fault party was negligent becomes much more difficult.

Additionally, Washington State has a three-year statute of limitations  for filing personal injury and wrongful death claims. If you miss this filing deadline, you may lose your ability to claim compensation for your injuries. There are some exceptions to the deadline, so always speak with a Washington State personal injury attorney to determine your case’s deadlines.

Turn to an Experienced Yakima Personal Injury Lawyer for Help

At Montoya Hinckley our attorneys have extensive experience in successfully proving negligence in personal injury and wrongful death cases, and in getting our clients the compensation that they deserve. We may be able to help you, too.

Call our law firm at 509-895-7373 to schedule a free and confidential consultation with an experienced personal injury attorney. When you meet with us in a free consultation, we will take the time necessary to thoroughly familiarize ourselves with the details of your accident and injuries.

Once we understand what happened, we can determine whether you may have a claim and formulate a plan with you to move forward.  Do not hesitate to reach out at your earliest convenience to learn more about your options, and compensation that you may be entitled to, if you have been the victim of another party’s negligence.