The Role of Negligence in Personal Injury Cases

Most personal injury claims are based on the concept that an individual or business failed to fulfill its duties to another individual as a result of carelessness, neglect, or disregard for safety. Negligence may be defined as the failure to act with the level of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised under similar circumstances.

Generally, a party whose negligence has led to another’s injury may be held financially responsible for the injured party’s losses. The injured person may sue the negligent party and demand compensation for the costs and losses associated with the injury.

If you have been injured as a result of another’s negligence, turn to the Kentucky personal injury lawyers at Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer to help you with an injury claim. We will focus on how your injury occurred and who may be financially responsible. If we believe you have a valid personal injury claim, we will proudly represent you. Our goal will be to help you seek maximum compensation. We won’t charge you a legal fee unless we are successful.

Four Elements of Negligence in Personal Injury Cases

For a defendant to be held liable in a personal injury case, the injured party must establish certain things. An experienced Kentucky Courage personal injury attorney can seek evidence on your behalf to develop a strong case for compensation. The four elements of negligence, which our attorneys will work to establish, are:

• Duty of Care. In general, we all owe a duty of care to one another and to refrain from actions that could harm others. In a personal injury claim, the duty of care is often established through some relationship between the two parties:
  • A driver has a duty to obey traffic and safety rules to ensure they do not endanger others on the road. If a driver runs a red light and causes a crash with another vehicle, the driver has failed to fulfill the legal obligation to obey traffic laws and drive safely.
  • The owner/manager of a store, theater, park, or apartment complex has a legal duty to ensure the premises are safe for customers and lawful visitors and to warn adequately of any hazards they cannot readily remove.
  • A doctor, nurse, or other medical care provider has the duty to provide patients with a standard of care equivalent to what another reasonable healthcare worker would provide in the same situation.
  • An adult who is supervising children has an obligation to step in as necessary to stop them from being harmed.
• Breach of duty. In most cases, the facts establish the relationship between the injured person and the defendant. The first contested point is usually whether the defendant neglected to act as a reasonable person would have been expected to act in similar circumstances and thereby violated their duty of care. A plaintiff would present evidence that:
  • A driver talked on their cell phone and texted friends while behind the wheel, neglecting distracted driving laws and endangering others on the road.
  • A store owner failed to promptly clean up a spill or post a wet floor sign, thereby neglecting a slip-and-fall hazard.
  • A doctor failed to communicate the results of diagnostic tests and thereby allowed a patient’s cancer to spread undetected and become more difficult to control.
  • A day camp director neglected to hire a qualified lifeguard to supervise pre-teen campers’ afternoon swimming sessions
• Causation. The plaintiff must show that the defendant’s negligence was the cause of the injury. This means it was the cause of injury that would likely not have happened otherwise. For example:
  • The plaintiff suffered a traumatic brain injury when she slipped and fell in juice spilled in a grocery store aisle, and records show the spill occurred 90 minutes prior to the accident – time enough to have cleaned it up.
  • The defendant’s cell phone records and other evidence show the driver was texting when they ran a red light and hit the plaintiff, who was walking in a crosswalk.
  • A young day camper among a group of 12 drowned during a swimming session with no lifeguard present.

  Causation must be foreseeable. A civil court jury will look at the foreseeability of the particular accident. It’s foreseeable that someone could slip and fall if a spilled liquid is left on a grocery store floor. It’s foreseeable that if a driver disregards a red light and runs through the intersection, the careless driver may collide with another vehicle that has the right of way to enter the intersection.

• Compensability. The plaintiff must show that the injury they suffered can be made better with compensation. An injured plaintiff can seek compensation for medical expenses, funeral and burial expenses in a loved one’s death, lost income, property damage, and pain and suffering.

When a personal injury claim results in compensation, Kentucky law follows a doctrine of pure comparative negligence. A jury award can be reduced if the injured person was partly negligent and this contributed to their injury. The award will be reduced according to the share of blame the jury assigns them, but a plaintiff in Kentucky may recover some compensation as long as they were not 100% at fault for their accident or injuries.

Contact Our KY Personal Injury Attorneys

The challenge in a personal injury claim is proving negligence on the part of the individual or institution responsible for the accident. Establishing negligence is a complicated process. You will need an experienced lawyer to have the best chance of a positive outcome. The lawyers of Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer know what to look for and how to find the evidence to develop a successful personal injury claim. We can bring experience and investigative resources to a case that most accident victims don’t have.

Don’t try to deal with insurance adjusters whose job is to pay you as little as possible for a claim. Our attorneys have the Kentucky Courage to stand up to big insurance companies and seek justice for you. Let our experienced team of Kentucky personal injury lawyers put together a strong case and demand the money you need. Call us at (877) 809-5352 today for a free consultation, or reach out online for the help you need.

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