Personal Injury Attorneys Serving St. Petersburg

How to Prove Negligence

For a personal injury claim to be strong and stand up to the opposition, we need to be able to prove that the other party was negligent. Furthermore, we have to show that their negligence is what directly caused your injury and damages, which would make them liable.

To prove negligence, we can resort to a variety of methods and investigative procedures. Oftentimes, we can work with outside experts to lend their insight and testimonies. For example, if a doctor’s mistake caused you to suffer a new injury, then we will want to speak with a third-party medical expert from the same field of practice to explain what went wrong and why it is unacceptable that it did.

What is “Duty of Care”?

A significant component to liability or the lack of it is the defendant’s “duty of care” that they owed to you. At all times, everyone owes a duty of care to everyone else, but in varying degrees. The general idea is that each person should behave reasonably to help prevent accidents and mistakes that could hurt themselves and others.

Just how much attention must be given to uphold a duty of care depends on one party’s relation to the other. For example, store owners owe a high duty of care to customers, who are invitees under the law. But the same store owners owe a much lesser duty of care to trespassers who enter the property illegally and after store hours.

What to Do If You’ve Been Injured

How you behave and the decisions you make after being in an accident or otherwise injured by another party are important for the strength of your personal injury claim. Whether a medical professional’s mistakes hurt you or a defective product did, taking the right steps can make all the difference later.

After being injured by another party’s negligence, you should always:

1. Call for help: Dial 911 if you are seriously injured and require immediate medical attention. Always prioritize your health and safety in all situations.
2. Get evidence and information: You need to know who caused your injury and how to identify them, so be sure to exchange insurance information and IDs with all other parties. You can also take a moment to collect any evidence that might be available, which might involve taking pictures and talking to eyewitnesses.
3. See a doctor: If you are not taken to the hospital or emergency room immediately after your injury, you should still arrange to go to urgent care within a few hours or fewer. Have a medical professional evaluate and diagnose your injury.
4. Speak to a lawyer: Lastly, you should speak with one of our attorneys once you have seen a doctor. The sooner we can start to work on your case, the better chance we will have at getting helpful evidence to build it.