What Is A Personal Injury?

Negligence is when someone fails to carry out certain standards of conduct - that a reasonable, prudent person in the same circumstance would do or not do - causing harm or loss to another person (the claimant/plaintiff). When the responsible party violates these standards, the law requires the responsible party to compensate the claimant/plaintiff for their harm or loss caused by the responsible party. Four key elements must be proven for negligence. The claimant/plaintiff must prove the existence of a duty, breach of that duty, causation and damages.

DUTY: The first element of determining negligence is whether or not the defendant owed the plaintiff a legal duty of care. A legal duty is created when a relationship exists between the plaintiff and the defendant. A duty of care arises when the law recognizes the relationship between the two parties, and because of this relationship, one party has an obligation to exercise the same level of reasonable care that another person in a similar situation would exercise.

      Examples of duties: 

     -All drivers are required to stop for a red light; a driver who faces a red signal should stop before the marked line or before entering the crosswalk or intersection....Or, drivers shall not drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater that is reasonable or prudent... and in no event at a speed that endangers the safety of persons and property. California Vehicle Code - Rules of the Road - VC Sections 21453 and 22350

     -Property or business owners and occupiers have a duty to take reasonable care to ensure their premises are safe for their customers by regularly inspecting, maintaining and repairing their property for dangerous conditions and curing/fixing the dangerous condition within a reasonable time, as well as warning/cautioning customers of a hazardous condition.

BREACH OF DUTY: A defendant breaches a duty by doing or not doing something that an average, prudent person would do in a similar circumstance.

       Examples of a Breach of Duty: 

      - A driver rear ends a vehicle stopped at a red light because the driver did not allow adequate distance between the two vehicles and failed to bring her vehicle to a timely stop for the red light.

      - A grocery store does not regularly inspect its floors. A customer spills milk on the white floor which remains on the floor for a long time without store personnel cleaning up the puddle of milk and without placing any caution or warning signs next to the spill. Sometime later, another customer not knowing or seeing the milk on the floor, steps in it, slips and falls to the ground becoming injured.

CAUSATION (cause- in- fact):   

A plaintiff must show that the defendants breach of duty was the cause of the plaintiff's injury and losses. Consideration is also given to whether the defendant could have foreseen that her/his actions might cause an injury to another.

      Examples where cause in fact exists:

     - A pedestrian is lawfully crossing the street in a crosswalk with a green light for the pedestrians direction of travel. A driver is texting while driving. The driver, not being attentive to the roadway ahead, does not see the red light for her direction of travel, nor does she see the pedestrian crossing the street. The driver's vehicle strikes the pedestrian causing the pedestrian to fall and suffer a broken leg. The pedestrian would not have been hurt nor suffered a broken leg if the driver did not strike the pedestrian. The driver's failure to follow the rules of the road and exercise reasonable care while driving is reasonably related to the injuries suffered by the pedestrian.

     - A store employee sees a customer eat a banana in the store and drop the peel on the floor in the produce department. The employee does not pick up the banana peel, clean the area, nor does the employee tell any other store employee to clean the area or place a caution/warning sign next to the banana peel on the floor. The employee merely walks away. Sometime later, a customer not seeing the peel on the floor (which discolored due to the amount of time it was on the floor) steps on the peel, slips and falls sustaining serious ankle fractures. The broken ankle is reasonably related to the store's breach of the duty of the care because if the store employee had picked/cleaned up the banana peel, the customer would not have stepped on the banana peel and fallen. 

PROXIMATE CAUSE (legal cause): An event related to an injury that is the primary cause of the injury. It is an act or omission significant enough in the chain of events leading to an injury - an action that produced the foreseeable consequences without intervention from another. Courts have determined that "but for" the wrongdoer's conduct, the accident would not have occurred. Therefore, the defendant's conduct is legal cause of plaintiff's injury.

DAMAGES: The final element of negligence is proving damages. When a plaintiff suffered an injury or loss that a reasonable person in the same circumstances could expect or foresee, then monetary compensation is the form of relief to compensate a plaintiff for their injuries. Damages in personal injury cases include both economic and non-economic compensatory damages.    

         Example of Damages:

   Economic damages (also known as special damages) usually has a dollar value such as vehicle repairs, medical bills/expenses or lost earnings/wages. Non-economic damages (also known as general damages- which are more difficult to place a dollar value) include - for example - the pain and suffering of the plaintiff due to the injuries suffered from an accident. 

   -The customer who broke her ankle in the grocery store when she slipped and fell on a banana peel on the floor had a surgery costing $50,000.00. She was unable to work for one month after her surgery. Within one year, she fully recovered from her injuries. She would be entitled to seek recovery for the amount paid on her medical bills, her lost earnings/wages, and compensation for the pain and suffering she experienced from the time of the injury until she recovered.