Elements of a General Negligence Claim in Los Angeles

General negligence refers to an individual’s recklessness and lack of caution that causes injuries or damages to another person. General negligence is the most common cause of tort.

There are more negligence cases than intentional torts. A negligence claim can be very complex than it may seem. A lawsuit on a case like this in Los Angeles will do best with a legal assistance of a personal injury attorney.

There are four primary elements of a general negligence claim – each of which needs to be established with accuracy and determined with preciseness. Each will be discussed at length one by one.

1. Duty

California Laws on negligence and personal injury compel people to behave or act with reasonable care in order to prevent others from being harmed and to provide security for them. This is our legal obligation towards others.

This legal standard of duty is based on how a reasonable individual would act under similar instances. It is basically founded on safety and rationality.

2. Breach of Duty
The second element of a general negligence lawsuit is a breach of duty. If the defendant acted negligently, or failed to act in a manner believed reasonable and safe, then he/she may be considered to have breached his duty of care to the plaintiff.
An individual is considered negligent when he/she failed to behave like a standard reasonable person. The point of contention here is just how a “standard reasonable person” is expected to act in the same situation.

The decision of whether a certain individual has met his or her “reasonable person" standard is often a matter that is determined by the court or jury following argument and presentation of evidences in trial.
If the defendant's breach of duty causes injury to the plaintiff, then he may be held liable for all damages to the personal injury plaintiff caused by his breach of duty.
3. Causation

The third significant element of a negligence claim is the causation. The actual and proximate causes are taken into consideration. The harm to plaintiff must be actually AND proximately caused by the defendant’s actions.

The failure of another person to act reasonably and conform to an applicable law cannot be grounds for a negligence claim. The negligence should result in actual harm in order for a claim to be valid.

Actual cause means that a plaintiff wouldn’t have suffered from the injury in the absence of the defendant’s negligence. It questions whether the defendant was the actual cause of the injuries incurred by the plaintiff.

Proximate cause, also called as legal cause, looks at the issue of probability. In assessing the incident, it is examined whether or not the harm could have been foreseen, or if it was too remote to be blamed to the defendant.

4. Damages

The last element of this claim is the damages being sought. These are the monetary compensation being asked by the plaintiff for his or her recovery. Compensatory and punitive damages can be rewarded to a plaintiff once the factors above had been proven.

Among these compensatory damages, there are special and general damages.

Our personal injury defenders are well respected in handling general negligence claims. For your other inquiries regarding the matter, please log on to our website.