Determining and Proving Liability

Determining fault in a personal injury claim is a key issue to knowing the person responsible for paying compensation. Therefore, there is need to know who is responsible for the accident and prove it. This article will discuss determining and proving liability using negligence to prove fault and other methods of proving fault.

Deciding who is at fault in a personal injury claim depends on the circumstances of the case. However, people represented by an accident attorney can expect their attorney to investigate the case. So as to discover all potential at-fault parties and make a final liability determination. If the parties involved cannot agree on liability they may be forced to file a personal injury lawsuit and the determination of fault is left to a civil court jury.

Many personal injury claims are as a result of one or more parties acting negligently. Negligence is basically where conduct:

• Falls below the standard of care expected of a reasonable person, and
• Causes harm to another person

Elements of negligence that must be proven in order to hold a party liable for personal injury damages are:

• Duty
• Breach
• Causation
• Damages

It is important to realize that not all injury claims involve the traditional negligence. A plaintiff can still prove fault using other methods, including the following:

• Establishing intentional conduct – this is undertaken voluntarily with a desired purpose or substantial certainty of the circumstances.
• Proving negligence per se –  this is when there is an unexcused violation of a statute
• Showing the claim is subject to the strict liability standard of proof – this applies to a limited number of situations and does not require defendants to be negligent in order to be liable for damages. The only requirement is proving that the plaintiff suffered a foreseeable injury while involved in a qualifying situation.