General Negligence in Perspective

In personal injury cases, the basic query is: who is to blame for the injury?

In answering this question, one must consider the person who has been negligent in his or her affairs that resulted to the injury.

So how do you know if the one who caused the injury is negligent or not?

Well, that is a simple yet a tough question to answer. It leads us to a question of what is negligence then.

In its broadest sense, negligence means carelessness. Negligence, in its strict sense, is a “conduct that is culpable because it falls short of what a reasonable person would do to protect another individual from foreseeable risks of harm.”

So what then are act-causing-injuries that are considered ripe for legal claim?

To be able to answer this in its truest nature, consultation with a lawyer is the best remedy. If the injury happened in Los Angeles, you won’t have to worry about legal representation since the place is a home to high caliber and experienced general negligence lawyers.

Elements of Negligence

You may have been injured but does it entitle you automatically to a claim?

Sad to say no, not all acts of carelessness result in a legal claim for negligence. To recover damages, a plaintiff must prove the following:

• that the defendant has a duty in the circumstances to take care of you (duty of care)


• that the behavior or action of the defendant did not meet the standard of care which a reasonable man would observe in the circumstances (breach of duty)


• that the plaintiff has suffered injury or loss which a reasonable person in the circumstances could have foreseen (damage)


• that the damage was caused by the defendant’s breach of duty (causation)

Only when the above elements are alleged and proved that a plaintiff is entitled to a claim for damages.

Comparative Negligence

Ideally, when someone caused you injuries, that person will pay for the expenses incurred for your treatment. However, that rarely happens. In fact, as much as possible, the defendant will do any thing to defeat your claim.

He/she may even allege that you also failed to exercise due care. What if you really did fail to observe due care? Does it mean you will not recover any damages?

Well, not necessarily. The negligence of one shall be mitigated by the negligence of the other.

Comparative negligence comes into play when it is asserted that two or more parties failed to perform the standard of the "ordinary reasonable person".

For instance, one person was driving too fast on a curve on the highway and hit a car but the car that was hit did not have its lights on or breaks as it should have.

In a situation like that, the liability to the other person is mitigated by the others' degree of negligence. Such that if the jury decides that the driver going too fast in a curve was 60% responsible for the accident, while the driver without vehicle lights on or brakes is 40% responsible, the driver who did not have his lights on or breaks would only recover $6,000.00 in an ward of $10,000.00 because of his 40% contributory negligence.