Establishing Negligence in Your San Antonio Personal Injury Claim

In any San Antonio personal injury case, being able to establish negligence is the factor that determines whether or not you can win. Establishing negligence requires your lawyer to prove four key components to win compensation. If you or a loved one has been injured recently in San Antonio, you’ll want someone on your side who can help you do this. The experienced team at Carabin Shaw can help. Our staff of San Antonio accident attorneys has been working cases just like yours for over two decades, so we have the first-hand knowledge of what it takes to win in any personal injury claim.

Negligence is equivalent to fault. Legally, negligence is defined as the failure to exhibit a level of reasonable care that someone of ordinary prudence would have shown in a similar situation. To prove negligence, San Antonio personal injury attorneys must demonstrate the four key elements to a personal injury case: duty of care, breach of duty of care, causation, and damages:

• Duty of care - Regardless of the type of San Antonio personal injury case, people legally owe some level of duty of care to others in most circumstances, meaning they have an obligation to avoid placing someone in harm’s way or directly injuring them. Depending on the specific situation of your case, the legal questions become, to whom did the defendant owe a duty of care, and how broadly is their duty of care defined? In a trucking accident, for example, the truck driver owes a duty of care to other drivers to pay attention on the road and follow normal traffic laws. To learn more about duty of care, talk to an attorney.
• Breach of duty of care - The second part to establishing negligence in your San Antonio personal injury claim requires you show there was a breach of duty of care. Once you have determined what the defendant’s duty of care was, you must show how they breached it, which proves their carelessness or negligence. Sometimes, proving a breach of duty of care is easy. When driving a car, every driver is supposed to follow the posted speed limit. If the defendant was speeding, that’s all you need to show they breached their duty of care. Other times, it’s more difficult to prove. If you experienced a slip and fall because of a spill in a grocery story, questions arise about how long that spill had been there, or if there was a warning sign about the spill, and would a reasonable person under the same circumstances have seen and been able to avoid the spill. Lawyers can review your case to determine how you can prove a breach of duty of care.
• Causation - After proving a breach of duty of care, you need to show that your injuries were the direct result of the defendant’s negligence. Proving this often requires using medical records. Be sure to document your injuries and make sure you can show that your injuries were the direct result of your accident. If you have questions, consult San Antonio accident attorneys.
• Damages - The last step is damages. After establishing causation, you and your attorney must lay out all the compensation you are owed. This includes economic damages like medical bills and loss of income, as well as non-economic damages like pain and suffering and loss of consortium. To know what damages apply to your case, talk to San Antonio personal injury attorneys.

When it comes to San Antonio personal injury cases, it can be difficult to get the compensation you deserve alone. Working with an experienced lawyer can make all the difference. Our staff at Carabin Shaw knows what it takes to win any type of personal injury case. When it comes to establishing negligence in your San Antonio personal injury claim, we’re the experts. If you need help with your case, call us today at (210) 222-2288.