Filing a personal injury lawsuit does not mean you will automatically win. You must prove your case. So, what must be proved in a personal injury lawsuit?
Well, the first thing you must understand is that you have the burden of proof as the suing party, called the “plaintiff.” This means that you and your attorney must understand the things that must be proven and then actually prove them beyond a preponderance of the evidence. The defendant is not required to do a thing till you do so.
Most personal injury lawsuits are based on claims of negligence. There are exceptions because, hey, this is the law, but a vast majority of cases will be focused on this claim. So, let’s look at the elements that must be proved.
The first thing you must establish is the defendant had a duty to do something. This is not something often disputed at trial. A defendant will usually file papers to have the lawsuit dismissed if they have no legal duty to act in the case and a judge will dismiss the case. To be honest, most attorneys will not even file your case if there is a problem in this area. As you can probably guess, the next step is to prove the defendant breached the duty. In a car accident, it is not enough to say the defendant was supposed to comply with normal driving standards. You must show he or she breached that duty by speeding, swerving, drunk driving and so on.
The next element is causation. Your attorney must prove that the failure of a duty was the proximate cause of an injury you suffered. Assume a person has a duty to drive safely. Assume the person breaches that duty. How did it cause your injury? If that person was in a crash, but you were standing down the block and just heard it, you were not “caused” any injury and cannot recover.
Now you have to prove that you were injured because of the defendants negligent actions. In most cases, this means proving a physical injury. While you can testify to injuries, it is best to have the testimony of a doctor, medical records showing the injury and so on. At this point, the jury has to be convinced that you were damaged in a certain amount. They will base their award on this figure. All hard costs such as medical bills, car repairs and so on should be presented. In addition, your attorney will make an argument regarding your “pain and suffering.”
That is it. If you prove the above elements, you win. Most defendants focus on trying to disprove only one or two of the elements. If they are successful, you lose.
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Aazdak Alisimo writes about how to find an accident lawyer and other legal issues for http://FindAnAccidentLawyer.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aazdak_Alisimo |