Why Is Negligence Theory The Basis For Most Personal Injury Lawsuits?

That is the negligence theory: Failure to avoid causing harm to others. A demonstration of careless or neglectful behavior would qualify as negligence.

Legal issues that are linked to the elements of negligence

Duty of care: The information found in various laws and guidelines might be used to prove the existence of a duty of care.

Actual and proximate cause: Could be shown by evidence of a causal connection between the defendant’s actions and the injury-causing accident.

Evidence of measurable damage: That could be found in proof of economic or non-economic damages.

Defenses possible, for someone that has become the target of a charge of negligence

Evidence that the charged person or institution did not have a duty of care towards the plaintiff.

A claim that the defendant’s actions did not fall into the category of “proximate cause.”

An allegation that the plaintiff’s actions had contributed to creation of the accident: In some states that would make them examples of comparative negligence; in other states the same actions might get classified as contributory negligence.

In some cases, a recreational facility that has been accused of negligent actions by one or more employees could claim that the plaintiff had accepted an assumption of risk. In other words, the plaintiff had recognized the level of risk associated with the facility’s activity, and had agreed to accept that same risk.

Failure on the plaintiff’s part to mitigate the effect of the injury that had been caused by the accident: That defense could be used to lower the amount of money owed by the defendant. It could not guarantee removal of the plaintiff’s charge.

Methods used by personal injury lawyers, when fighting allegations made by a defense team

If the defense team has claimed assumption of risk by the plaintiff, then the personal injury lawyer in Waterloo for the plaintiff could try showing that the actions taken by the owner or employees at a particular facility had been especially egregious in nature. Evidence in support of such allegations would rule out utilization of “assumption of risk” as a defense tactic.

In addition, the court might not accept the “assumption of risk” defense, if the charged facility had not been clear about the nature of the form that the plaintiff had signed, before using the same facility. For instance, if the customer/plaintiff had said that the form was hard to read, because he or she lacked glasses, the holder of the form might have urged him or her to go ahead, and to sign it anyway.

If that possible scenario had become a reality, then that fact would diminish the strength of the argument made by the defense. In other words, the defense team’s argument would be rather weak.