During an auto accident case, a large component in a civil case involves the plaintiff’s legal team demonstrating that the other party behaved and acted in a negligent way leading up to the accident. Cornell defines negligence as “a failure to behave with the level of care that someone of ordinary prudence would have exercised under the same circumstances.”
Additionally, there are elements involved in a negligence case. These four elements of negligence are duty, breach of duty, causation and damages.
Duty
In certain accident cases involving acts of negligence, the plaintiff's legal team will attempt to demonstrate that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty. A duty is recognized as a relationship that was formed between the parties and a judge will normally rule regarding whether or not one party owed the other party a duty of care. An example of duty of care involving an auto accident may include a defendant that ran a red light and caused an accident. Another example is how an individual could have overloaded or unsafely loaded a vehicle that resulted in an accident. If an individual unsafely loaded too much equipment on the top of their vehicle, and the equipment came loose and fell from the vehicle that caused the accident, this could be considered as negligence. It is the duty of an individual to act with reasonable care as to not physically injure anyone else.
Breach of Duty
This act of negligence occurs when an individual’s conduct does not meet the applicable standard of care. If the defendant’s conduct failed to meet the necessary standard of care, the defendant is said to have breached their duty of care.
Causation
The element of negligence involving causation requires that a plaintiff proves that the negligence caused the plaintiff’s injuries.
Damages
The last element of negligence is damages. This element requires that the legal system compensate the plaintiff for their injuries suffered. This compensation is generally done through monetary damages for the injuries suffered including medical care, medical bills, property repair, loss of consortium, loss of quality of life or loss of work.