Personal Injury Lawyer
If you were injured by someone else’s actions, then you may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit to be compensated for your injuries. For a case to be viable, the other person needs to be at fault for your injury. This is a legal definition that you need to be aware of. It will be up to your attorney to prove it, but understanding fault will help you decide whether or not to file in the first place. It is always a good idea to speak with an attorney before making any decisions.
The Four Components of Fault
There are four things needed for someone to be at fault for an injury:
- Duty
- Breach
- Causation
- Damage
First, to be at fault, someone must first have a duty to act a certain way. This may sound like only professionals who fall short of their requirements are able to be at fault, but everyone has a duty to act certain ways. For example, we all have a duty to avoid driving while intoxicated.
Second, to be at fault, it must be shown that someone breached the duty that he or she had. Essentially, it must be shown that a reasonable person would either not act as the person did, or would act in a way the person did not.
Third, to be at fault, someone’s actions must be shown to be the causation of the incident. Even if someone breached their duty, that does not necessarily mean that it caused the injury. It could be that the injury was coincidental to an individual breaching their responsibilities.
Finally, to be at fault, there must be some tangible form of damage. For personal injury cases, this means some injury took place. If someone breached his or her duty, and this breach led to the incident, that individual is only at fault if the incident caused damage. This is just another way of saying that you need to prove that your injuries were real.
You probably realize at this point that it is a fairly complicated process to prove that someone was at fault for an incident. This is one of the biggest reasons why it is so vital that you hire an attorney, rather than trying to represent yourself. There are legal requirements that must be met to win a court case, rather than just winning an argument. The first step you should always take is to speak with a personal injury lawyer in Trenton, NJ.
Thanks to Davis & Brusca for their insight into personal injury claims and what it means to be at fault.
