Compensation may be available in a situation where someone is injured because of another party’s negligence. Under state laws, courts can assign liability to someone if they failed to fulfill their responsibilities in a particular situation and that failure caused the accident.
For instance, the driver of a truck may not have intended to hit another vehicle, but if the driver operated at speeds that were too fast to be safe in the given road conditions, and the excessive speed prevented the driver from stopping in time to avoid a collision, the truck driver can be held liable for the resultant injuries of another person.
Generally, a person may be held liable for negligence when certain conditions are proven. The elements of a personal injury case involve proving:
- A person owed a duty of care to others, such as a driver’s responsibility to monitor conditions on the road and obey traffic laws
- The person breached that duty or failed to live up to their responsibilities
- The breach of duty must have directly caused the injuries
- The breach of duty must cause actual harm for which compensation may be provided
In many cases, proving that the breach of duty was the proximate cause of the injury is the biggest hurdle to overcome. This usually includes showing that the breach of duty was the factual cause of the injury and that a reasonable person could foresee that the injury (or a similar outcome) could result from it. There may be more than one proximate cause of an accident.