In a car accident lawsuit, the plaintiff generally has to show that the defendant was negligent, meaning they did something they were legally required to do but failed to do it properly. The process requires the plaintiff to prove several things, including that the defendant owed a legal duty of care to the plaintiff, breached that duty, and then caused an injury. Here are 4 critical ways of proving negligence in a car accident lawsuit.
1. Duty of care
This is a vital element in proving negligence, and it’s a pretty straightforward one. For the plaintiff to win their case, they need to show that the defendant owed them a duty of care. Courts go out of their way to ensure that people are treated equally under the law, so this duty of care doesn’t just apply to people injured as a result of an accident but also applies to everyone on the road at all times.
2. Breach of duty
This requires the plaintiff to show that the defendant failed to perform a legal duty of care, and this failure caused the plaintiff’s injuries or made them worse. The breach is NOT an element that must be proven; it’s simply presumed, so as long as the defendant can prove they didn’t breach their duty of care, it doesn’t matter how strong the rest of the evidence still comes out in favor of your case.
3. Causation
In order to win your case, you need to prove that the defendant’s breach of duty caused the accident. That requires you to show that the defendant’s actions were a direct cause of your injuries; there are some exceptions, such as if the defendant was injured in their own actions, but it wasn’t attributable to their negligence.
The rule of proximate cause is applied in these cases. A car accident attorney in Chicago explains that there has to be a direct cause and effect relationship between the defendant’s actions and your injuries. So, if a deer hit your car because you were driving on the wrong side of the road, that’s a direct cause of your injuries. But if another driver was speeding down the road and you hit them, and they plowed into you, that would be a negligence case.
4. Damages
The final element is showing that you are, in fact, entitled to compensation under the Personal Injury Protection of Illinois Act and proving how much your injuries were worth. Damages, simply put, are monetary compensation for your losses. That includes medical expenses; lost income, work or school opportunities; the cost of therapy and rehabilitation, and things like that.
The total is calculated based on several factors, including the injuries themselves and your likelihood of recurrence resulting from them.
In summary, the stated elements of the case are pivotal when seeking to prove another person’s negligence. As you can see, proving all of these elements is tricky and sometimes complicated. The objective, in this case, is to prove fault, not a precise extent of damages.