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When you've been injured due to someone's negligence, it's normal to wonder if you can make a claim against the other party for your losses. After all, you likely have a number of medical bills piling up, lost wages, and significant pain and suffering — all of which should be compensated.
In order to make a claim, however, you have to show that the negligent party owed you a certain "duty of care" to ensure your safety and failed, one way or another, in that duty. Here's what you need to know about how that works.
Establishing the Other Party's Duty of Care Toward You
A duty of care is usually imposed on whatever party has the most capacity to prevent an accident from happening. That duty of care confers a legal obligation on that party to behave in a way that is both reasonable for a given situation and sufficient to minimize the risks posed to anybody else.
For example, if you have a driver's license, every time you get behind the wheel of your car, you accept a certain duty of care toward other drivers and pedestrians. That duty of care requires you to observe traffic laws, respond properly to weather conditions, control your speed, and so on. If you fail in that duty, you can be sued for any injuries you cause.
What Happens If There Is No Duty of Care?
If there is no duty of care, the other party cannot be held liable for any accident that results. That can actually be a fairly common situation.
Take, for example, a situation where one small child pushes another off of a swing in the school playground. Since young children don't even always understand the consequences of their actions, they don't have a legal duty of care on their behavior. That means that, even if your child is injured, you can't hold the other child liable.
On the other hand, careful investigation and a clear understanding of the law can often turn up other parties that can be held accountable for a serious accident. In the example involving a young child being pushed at school, for example, you may be able to hold the school itself responsible for your child's injuries. All you have to do is show that the school authorities should have been watching the kids on the playground more closely and could have prevented your child's injuries with due care.
Duty of care is one of the most complex parts of a lawsuit. A personal injury attorney can help you determine who owed you a duty of care — and who might be held liable for your losses. Contact a lawyer like Kilgore Smith LLC to learn more.
Share28 December 2019
