What Constitutes Personal Injury in California?

Do You Have a Strong Personal Injury Claim?

It’s not always immediately apparent that an accident victim has grounds for a personal injury claim. While multiple factors can lead to an accident, a personal injury claim hinges on one crucial factor: negligence. Most personal injury cases are built on a theory of negligence. Common examples of accidents where negligence is at play include:

• A driver running a stop sign and crashing into another vehicle or person
• A driver exceeds the speed limit and hits another vehicle or person
• A customer slips and falls on a dirty restaurant floor
• A pedestrian trips and is injured because of an uneven sidewalk
• Faulty brakes cause a driver to crash
• A malfunctioning toy injures a child

In these accidents, there is an apparent reason and person or entity who can be directly linked to the cause of the accident and the harm suffered. However, proving negligence is not always easy, even in cases where it seems obvious. Strong personal injury claims consist of establishing the following:

1. Duty of Care

Duty of care is a critical element of negligence. It’s the foundation of a personal injury claim. For a person or entity to be negligent, they must first be able to be held liable. Liability is the term used to describe the fact that a person, company, property owner, or governmental entity can be held legally responsible for the monetary compensation awarded to an injured person.

An individual or entity is held to a legal standard of reasonable care when there is a chance that someone may be injured if a standard of care isn’t abided. This holds true for drivers, product manufacturers, medical professionals, governments, and other groups that could possibly cause harm.

2. Breach of Duty

California acknowledges that certain companies, people, and governments can potentially harm someone with the action or lack thereof which is why there is an established duty of care they are legally obligated to adhere to at all times. When a driver fails to follow traffic laws or regulations, a government agency fails to maintain infrastructure, or a doctor fails to follow proper medical procedures, they are breaching their legal duty of care.

Legal duty of care is the expectation that the safety of others will not only be kept in mind, but prioritized. Failing to account for others’ safety and acting in a way that places them injured, whether actively or accidentally, is a breach of the legal duty of care.

3. A Direct Link or Proximate Cause

The primary purpose of filing a personal injury claim is to recover monetary compensation to cover the financial burdens incurred because of the accident and injury. However, recovering compensation isn’t just about proving the other party was negligent. It requires demonstrating the other party’s negligence is the direct or proximate cause for the accident and your injuries. This means establishing that without the negligent behavior, neither the accident nor your injuries would have occurred.