It is very well known that whenever you are involved in an accident on the road and you get injured by another individual you have the right to file a personal injury lawsuit against the person who is responsible for the accident. This way you may be able to obtain a settlement or award for your pain and suffering, as well as being able to recover any other damages due to the other party’s negligence. In a auto accident lawsuit, your lawyer has to prove to the court that the other party is responsible for the accident involving your vehicle, due to his failure to maintain a reasonable duty of care. For example, maybe he failed to pay attention on the road due to his negligence, lack of concentration, or even being under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
How do you prove that a person is legally responsible for causing the accident with your vehicle? What documents do you need to show to the court? In order to prove that the person was negligent while driving, you need to show a few things. First of all, you must show that there is a legal duty to use your own carefulness and responsibility. Next, you must prove that the other party did not exercise this prescribed duty of care. You must then prove that the failure to maintain this reasonable duty of care directly cause the automobile accident which led to the subsequent injuries.
If you are able to prove all of these factors in a court of law, you will then be able to recover a financial award to compensate your for any damages to your body or personal property.
Standard of Care
Generally, an auto accident lawsuit will focus on whether a person exercised the proper duty of care while operating their vehicle. The law imposes a particular standard of care while operating any motor vehicle. In order to meet this duty of care, the driver must operate the vehicle at reasonable rate of speed. Additionally, he must keep the vehicle under proper control. Finally, he must be aware of the entire situation and avoid any action or omission which could result in an accident.
Intervening Causes
Under certain circumstances the court may not find the other party negligent, as when a third party actually caused the accident to happen. For example, a motorcyclist’s negligence may have caused a collision with another vehicle, which caused a collision with a third vehicle. In this instance the party in the vehicle hit by the motorcycle may not be found negligent, even though he was involved in an accident with the second vehicle.
