What is negligence?

Every personal injury case can be boiled down into two major components; liability and damages. Basically, liability is whether the Defendant is legally responsible for the incident and any losses which may arise from the accident. For the party to be legally responsible, he must first be found to have been negligent. Negligence is the failure of an individual or party to use reasonable care. Negligence is defined in the instructions a judge would give to a jury as follows:

“Negligence refers to a person’s failure to follow a duty of conduct imposed by law. Every person is under a duty to use ordinary care to protect himself and others from injury or damage. Ordinary care means that degree of care which a reasonable and prudent person would use under the same or similar circumstance to protect himself and others from injury or damage. A person’s failure to use ordinary care is negligence”

Negligence must be proven in order for a personal injury claim to be successful and you, the injured party, has the burden to prove the other party was negligent.