Personal Injury Primer - Negligence Explained

The most important tool a person can have when deciding whether or not they have a meritorious claim for personal injury is information.  Today begins the first in a series of informative articles regarding various aspects of a personal injury claims designed to help readers conduct a rudimentary evaluation of their claim prior to contacting an attorney.      

Who's Fault Is It?

The first step in evaluating your claim for personal injury is determining who is at fault for the injury.  Ohio requires that, in order to recover for a injury, the claimant must prove that the other party was " negligent."  A person is negligent when they fail to exercise " ordinary care" in their course of conduct.  Proving negligence involves establishing the following four elements:

• The other party that caused your injury owed you a "duty."
• The other party failed to satisfy or breached their duty to you.
• The other party's breach of their duty caused some type of damage to you such as an injury. 

Even if you can show that the other party was, in fact, negligent, your amount of recovery could be reduced if it is determined that you were also negligent.  This legal theory, known as "comparative negligence", will reduce your recovery in proportion to the amount that the accident is determined to be your fault.  Further, if it is determined that you were more negligent than the other party, you will not be able to recover at all.

Determinations as to the existence and proportion of negligence can be complex and subject to specific legal principles.  Accordingly, evaluation of personal injury claims are best handled by experienced attorneys. 

If you have been injured by the negligence of another individual, contact an Akron Personal Injury Attorney today.