Negligence

Negligence Defined

Negligence is the area of law that most of us deal with relating to accidents.

Negligence is comprised of the duty of a person to do or not to do something that other reasonable people do or refrain from doing.
It is the duty on the part of the defendant to use due care in whatever it is the defendant is doing, such as maintaining property or driving an automobile.
The breach of that duty is negligence
That negligence has to have caused some damage to the plaintiff.

We all know that, if we are rear-ended while we are stopped at a light, the person behind us was negligent and that person's negligence caused damage to our car (property damage) or caused us injury (personal injury). This person is liable for our damages.

Uncontrolled Intersection Auto Accident Example & Negligence

This is a little more complicated in other facts situations such as if there is an uncontrolled intersection and both automobiles get to the uncontrolled intersection at approximately the same time. Who is negligent?

It also gets a little more complicated when both of the parties are negligent. Does that mean neither side gets paid for its damages? Do both sides get paid for their damages? Or does one side or the other get paid for part of its damages and there is an offset for its percentage of negligence?

Slip & Fall Example on Property & Negligence

Another example would be in a supermarket, when another customer spills something immediately before the person falls down and the owner of the store did not have enough time to find the spilled material and clean it up. So then in negligence, it is not strict liability, whereas the owner of the property is liable if anyone gets injured on their property, but it is the standard of negligence. In other words, if the owner of the property caused the defect or problem, they will be liable. But if they did not directly cause the spill and someone else caused the spill, it had to have been on the property for a long enough period of time for the owner to be able to know about it and to be able to clean it up.

Bus Example & Common Carrier Negligence

When a person is riding in a bus, this is a different situation for negligence because a bus is considered a Common Carrier. A Common Carrier has a higher duty of care than a regular person who is taking people in their car and does not get paid a fee for transporting people.

Further information on the subject of Common Carrier & Negligence may be found in the Aviation section of the Personal Injury Law Guide, found at the bottom of this page.

Doctor's & Medical Negligence

Within the area of negligence there are special rules relating to various people and/or various categories regarding their particular duty. The same would be true for a doctor's negligence. A doctor's negligence has to be measured by other doctor's of similar standing in the community. If you are claiming that an orthopedist was negligent in diagnosing or misdiagnosing or performing surgery, it would be required that another orthopedist be able to testify that the doctor not only caused some damage, but the damage was caused by his doing or failing to do something that was below the standard of care for orthopedists in that community. This would also apply to any other profession, such as attorneys and other medical personnel.

Collecting Damages

It is not enough to be able to prove negligence and that the person suffered damage. Usually, most people do not have enough money to pay those damages unless they have insurance. In California, if you do not have automobile insurance, and you are injured by someone else, even if it is their fault, you can only collect your special damages, i.e., your medical expenses and loss of earnings, but not general damages, i.e., your mental suffering and emotional distress. That law was passed to encourage people to drive with insurance. Also, if you do not have automobile insurance, you can lose your driving privilege in California.

For further information see the following sections:

Negligence Attorney

The key to choosing a truly capable negligence attorney is to find a negligence attorney who has, among other things, substantive trial experience. You may never have to go to trial; nevertheless, having a negligence attorney known for his talents in the courtroom increases your chances of winning a superior settlement, because many defendants will shrink from the risk of a costly loss. Cameron Brock, founder of the Law Offices of Burg & Brock, has established an impressive reputation, one victory at a time, for his aggressive, take-no-prisoner’s style in the courtroom. Since 1996, his firm has handled over 5,000 personal injury cases, and has garnered a stellar 97% success rate.

Cameron Brock brings to the table extensive experience representing individuals and families in catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases arising from acts of negligence. He has built up a solid reputation as a high-caliber negligence attorney who carefully selects only cases that he thinks have merit. And by merit, he doesn’t mean cases that necessarily offer a potential windfall for his firm. What is most important to Cameron Brock and his associates is that your case has legitimate legal underpinnings. Leave the frivolous litigation to the ambulance chasers. You want a negligence attorney who is willing to speak plainly to you and not make a bunch of empty promises. You have to implicitly trust your negligence attorney, because they are your primary advocate, not just in the court room, but through the whole process of recovering from your ordeal and eventually getting on with your life.