(Newswire.net — March 24, 2023) — Negligence is among the most common reasons why personal injury lawsuits are initiated. According to Maho Prentice, LLP, to establish negligence in a personal injury case, personal injury victims need to prove that the other party owed them a duty of care, breached that duty through their negligent actions or behavior, and this breach caused the victim harm.
In society, each and everyone one of us has a duty of care to one another. When that duty is breached, we are entitled to monetary compensation for our troubles and the damage caused. Here are five examples of negligence resulting in a personal injury to understand better how it works.
#1 Car Accidents
Automobile accidents are among the best examples of negligence in personal injury cases. As a driver, you have a duty of care to avoid injuring other drivers or pedestrians. You also have to abide by driving rules as well.
Most car accidents occur due to distracted driving, speeding, driving while under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and sometimes bad roads. While it’s easy to see the first motives as legal grounds for establishing negligence, things take a different turn when it comes to bad roads or defective parts.
The entities or businesses responsible for the bad roads or faulty products will be held liable instead of the driver, or they may sometimes share the blame depending on the circumstances of the case and how the accident occurred. In some situations, car accident victims can initiate a personal injury claim under strict liability grounds, not negligence.
This is when a defendant, usually a manufacturer, is held liable for a victim’s injuries as the victim used the defendant’s faulty products, which resulted in their injuries.
#2 Premises Liability
Slip and fall accidents are among the most common types of premises liability cases. For example, as a property owner, you have a duty of care to maintain your premises safe and minimize injury risks.
If you have a supermarket and fail to clean your wet floors for an extended period of time and your customers slip and fall, you have breached your duty of care to the customers.
#3 Dog Bites
In California, it doesn’t matter whether or not you know about your dog’s viciousness. If your dog bites another person, you will be held liable for the damages suffered by the victim, and you can’t argue that you didn’t know that your dog was dangerous.
This doesn’t apply just to public spaces but private spaces as well but under one condition. If the dog bite victim was on private property lawfully, meaning they had a legal duty to be there, such as delivering mail, and they were bitten, then you are again liable as the dog’s owner for the injuries of the victim.
#4 Medical Malpractice
In medical malpractice cases, victims can sue for either malpractice or negligence. You could sue for medical malpractice if your doctor’s actions were intentionally reckless, or you can sue for medical negligence if they accepted and violated a medical standard of care.
#5 Workplace Accidents
In workplace accidents, victims can receive greater compensation through their workers’ compensation claim, even in no-fault states such as California, if they work with a worker’s compensation attorney and prove whether the accident was accidental or caused by negligence.
One good example of a workplace accident caused by someone’s negligence is slip-and-fall accidents, which may have been prevented if the employer-provided safety equipment
For example, the employer failed to use wet floor signs to maintain a reasonably expected level of care for the workers.