How Do You Know if You Have a Personal Injury Case?

If a person owed you a legal duty and then neglected that legal duty, causing an injury to you, then you have grounds for a lawsuit. According to the laws in Texas and most states, every person owes every other person the responsibility of taking reasonable care to ensure safety for all other innocent parties. For instance, when you’re cruising down I-35, you’re expected to follow the rules of the road and operate your vehicle in a way that is safe for the other drivers around you. If you ignore this duty and drive carelessly, even for a brief moment, and you get into an accident injuring someone, then you are legally responsible for the monetary costs of the injuries caused.

What is Needed for a Successful Personal Injury Claim

In order to successfully litigate a personal injury claim, the plaintiff carries the burden of proof for demonstrating that the defendant owed a legal duty and ignored the responsibility, resulting in the plaintiff’s injuries. What legal duty is owed is a matter of context and the parties involved. For example, the standard of care owed by one driver to the other motorists on the road differs greatly from the standard of care a doctor owes his or her patients. The standard of care is a matter of circumstance, situation, and intention. A doctor is perfectly within his or her standard of care to perform surgery on a patient, but if the same doctor barges into a patient’s house and stabs the patient with a knife, then he or she has clearly violated his or her legal duty. Legally speaking, the two situations are entirely different; even though, the act committed by the doctor is basically the same. Context and the situation determine whether or not the doctor has violated his legal duty.

Various Manifestations of Neglect

Obvious violations of legal duties blatantly cause personal injuries and are simple to prove in some cases, but some neglect of legal duties is vague and harder to prove. For example, an employee of a construction company suffers a concussion when another employee shoots him with a nail gun, so the employer has the legal duty of providing a safe workplace. If the same incident happened to a victim who was a contractor and not an employee; however, then the construction company would not be liable, for no expectation of a safe workplace is owed contract or temporary labor in the state of Texas. Contractors are expected to maintain their own worksite safety. Once again, context determines liability.

There are a lot of factors that come into play when determining if your case is valid or not. That’s why it is best to always contact an experienced personal injury lawyer to find out. If you’ve been injured in an accident please contact us today at (512) 400-3278 for a free consultation.