During a personal injury case that resulted in debilitating and expensive damages, there may be one or multiple parties that caused the accident. The party responsible for the accident is negligent, which means that they can be held liable for the injuries and damages that they caused. Negligence can’t just be appointed to a party because there may be complex circumstances that involve multiple parties or shared fault.
If there are multiple parties involved that were negligent in some way, they can all be held liable for some of the damages. This is the same for someone who may be partially at fault for their personal injury, in which case, under the comparative negligence law, they’d only receive a percentage of the damages. Because multiple people may have been neglectful, liability can be split based on the circumstances.
Negligence has to be proven before it can be used to obtain compensation from another during a personal injury case. This means that there must be reliable evidence that shows how the other party was negligent. Proving negligence can be done in a number of ways:
Personal injury cases can be strengthened by pictures. This can include pictures of the scene where a victim was injured, which can show broken glass, property damage, or other tell-tale signs that an accident occurred. The victim can also take a picture of their wounds before and after medical treatment.
The accident may have been caught on camera in some personal injury cases. There can be surveillance cameras on a property or traffic cameras nearby. The camera footage can be scrutinized by a personal injury attorney and used to prove negligence by showing how the other party’s negligence caused the victim’s injuries.
The personal injury victim can also prove negligence by holding onto evidence and keeping it preserved and untampered. This allows them to show the other party the physical evidence because it is in the same state as when the victim experienced their injury. The attorney and insurance adjuster can then examine and analyze it.
Witnesses who may have been there when the victim was injured can also be very helpful. They can provide their account of what they saw, which could corroborate the victim’s story. Additionally, witnesses can provide extra details that weren’t known before. These testimonies can be used to help support a personal injury case.
If the police were called, they would show up and later write a report that provides details of the accident. The police will ask questions and try to include as much detail as possible. A police report can also indicate if one party was negligent. If the police wrote a citation, this is also helpful evidence and will be mentioned in the police report. The personal injury attorney can later obtain this report and use it in a settlement claim.
Personal injuries can result in many costly bills, such as medical bills, repair bills for damaged property, wage loss, and more. Even pain and suffering and other non-economic damages can create bills because some forms of emotional stress may require psychiatric therapy. The financial cost of the damages is another form of evidence that can help prove how the accident affected the victim’s life.
