What Is Negligence in Law?
Under personal injury law, negligence occurs when a person fails to act according to a duty of care they owe to another person, and that breach of duty causes the other person to suffer injuries. If you’ve been hurt through someone else’s negligent conduct, you may have the right to recover compensation through a personal injury claim. A San Antonio personal injury attorney can help you pursue financial recovery and justice from the party responsible for your injuries.
Types of Negligence
Personal injury law recognizes several types of negligence, including the following:
Ordinary Negligence
Ordinary negligence involves actions or omissions that breach one’s duty of care owed to another person. Ordinary negligence, sometimes called carelessness, represents a lesser form of culpability than other types of negligence. However, someone who commits ordinary negligence may still be liable for someone else’s injuries and losses.
Gross Negligence
Also sometimes called recklessness, gross negligence involves consciously disregarding a substantial risk that one’s actions will injure others. Although a person who engages in gross negligence does not intend to harm anyone, reckless behavior involves a higher level of culpability than ordinary negligence. It may subject a grossly negligent party to liability for punitive damages (compensation that serves as a punishment for the negligent party and a warning against similar acts by others) in a personal injury claim.
Contributory Negligence
Some states follow the traditional doctrine of contributory negligence. Contributory negligence acts as a complete defense to a personal injury claim based on negligence. The contributory negligence rule bars an injured party from recovering compensation if they bear any share of fault for causing their injuries.
Comparative Negligence
Many jurisdictions, including Texas, follow some version of the comparative negligence doctrine. In contrast to contributory negligence, comparative negligence allows an injured person partially at fault for causing their injuries to recover compensation from another at-fault party. However, any share of fault an injured party bears can proportionally reduce their financial recovery in a personal injury lawsuit.
Vicarious Liability
Under the doctrine of vicarious liability, a party will bear liability for another party’s negligence. In personal injury claims, vicarious liability typically arises in the employer-employee context. A person who suffers injury due to a negligent act someone commits while working can pursue a claim against the negligent person’s employer.
Elements of Negligence
Proving that a party acted negligently requires a plaintiff to establish three elements: the duty of care, a breach of the duty of care, and a causal link between the breach of duty and injuries.
The Duty of Care
The law imposes a duty of care upon everyone, which includes refraining from actions or omissions that might cause harm to others. The duty of care requires individuals and entities to act reasonably to avoid injuring others. In determining whether a party’s action complied with the duty of care, a jury must consider how a reasonable person would have acted under identical circumstances.
In some cases, statutes or regulations can determine the applicable duty of care. For example, traffic laws govern how motorists must operate their vehicles. A driver’s duty of care includes following applicable traffic laws, such as obeying the speed limit or stopping at stop signs and red lights.
Breaching the Duty
A party commits negligence when they breach their duty of care owed to another person. A breach of the duty of care occurs when an individual or entity fails to act in the same way that a reasonably prudent person would in the same or similar situation. What constitutes reasonable action will depend on the circumstances.
For example, a driver may breach their duty of care by texting while driving on the road, but not while texting and driving down a private driveway or road on their property. The law may deem a party to have breached their duty of care when they violate a legal requirement in an accident, such as when a driver operates a vehicle while over the legal limit for alcohol.
Harm Caused by the Breach
Finally, a negligence claim requires an injured party to prove that the defendant’s breach of their duty of care directly and proximately caused the plaintiff’s injuries. Direct causation means that the plaintiff’s injuries would not have occurred but for the defendant’s actions or omissions. Proximate causation means the defendant’s conduct constitutes the most direct cause of the plaintiff’s injuries, and no other intervening or superseding event caused the accident.
An injured party must also establish financial and personal losses they’ve suffered due to their injuries, typically through evidence like:
- Medical records
- Bills
- Invoices
- Receipts
- Pay stubs
- Testimony from medical, vocational, and financial experts
- Testimony from the injured person or their family members and friends
Examples of Negligence
Common examples of negligent behavior that can lead to injuries and personal injury claims include the following:
- A car accident caused by a speeding driver who runs a red light and T-bones another vehicle passing through the intersection
- A motorcycle crash caused by a driver who fails to signal a lane change and cuts off a motorcyclist, causing them to swerve, lose control of their bike, and crash
- A slip and fall accident caused by a grocery store’s failure to clean up a spill that had remained on the floor for several hours
- A dog bite or attack that occurs when a dog owner fails to maintain the dog’s enclosure and the dog escapes, or when the owner doesn’t keep their dog on a leash and the dog runs off and bites someone
- Negligent medical treatment that occurs when a doctor fails to order diagnostic testing that other physicians would have ordered in identical circumstances and, as a result, lacks the information necessary to diagnose the patient correctly
Get Legal Advice From a Personal Injury Attorney in San Antonio
After suffering physical trauma in an accident caused by another party’s negligence, get the help you need to demand accountability for your injuries and losses. Contact Law Offices of Troy A. Brookover today for a free, no-obligation consultation.
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