Elements of an Injury Claim

Personal injury claims arise when a person is injured through the fault of someone else.  Personal injury claims can arise in a variety of circumstances such as:  a car accident, a construction site, a restaurant, a shopping mall, and even a neighbor’s house.

The Two Purposes of Personal Injury Lawsuits

1. To compensate the injured person for damages caused by someone’s negligence and
2. To help prevent future injuries by making people aware of the importance of using reasonable care.

All people who are injured are not entitled to compensation.  There will always be instances where people are injured but it is no one’s fault.  If a customer slips on the ice in the parking lot of a store and breaks her hip, there are important factors a judge or jury will consider when deciding whether the customer is entitled to compensation.  Some things to consider would be:  Did the store have time to remove the ice, or was the ice forming at the time of the fall?  Was the ice an obvious hazard?  Was there a sign in the parking lot warning of an area that tends to get icy?  Was the sign in an obvious place?  Did the customer use reasonable care in walking through the parking lot or was she running in high heels?  Determining fault in what seems like an easy case can actually be very complicated and fact-specific.

A Personal Injury Claim Must Have the Following Four Elements

1. A duty owed.
2. A breach of that duty.
3. The breach must be the cause of the injury.
4. There must be damages.

Duty Owed

In order to prove a personal injury claim, one must first prove that a duty was owed to the injured person. We all have a duty to act reasonably toward one another, but when we invite people into our homes or businesses we have an even greater duty to make sure the people on our premises do not get hurt.  Judges and juries will consider the level of duty when determining whether someone is at fault for an injury. 

Breach of Duty

A business must keep its customers safe.  When the parking lot is icy, it is the responsibility of the store owner to keep it safe for customer use.  If someone is hurt because the owner was negligent because he ignored the ice, then he has breached his duty to the customer.  When a chef fails to properly cook a meal and causes a customer to end up in the hospital that is a breach of duty. 

Causation

The most difficult element to prove in a personal injury case is the causation element.  In the case of the chef, the person injured would have to prove the cause of her illness was the food which came from that specific restaurant and not any other food or illness she may have had.  In the case of the icy parking lot, the injured person would have to prove the ice was the cause of her injury and not the fact that she was wearing high heels, or carrying packages and not watching where she was going.

Damages

Finally, the injured person must have damages, such as lost wages, medical bills, or loss of enjoyment of daily activities or hobbies.  If the woman injured in the icy parking lot bruises her knee in her fall but is otherwise uninjured, the injury will not rise to a level that is worthy of a lawsuit.

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