Personal injury claims are tort claims based on the negligence of the other party. Negligence has been the standard of civil liability in accident cases for approximately 150 years, and is defined as the failure to exercise the care of an ordinarily prudent and careful man. A negligence claim has four elements, or things that must be proven in order to win the claim: duty, breach, causation, and foreseeabilty.

Elements of Negligence

In order to be successful in a personal injury claim, one must first prove that the defendant owed them a duty of care. Many things we do in our everyday lives create a duty to those around us to protect them from any foreseeable harm our actions may cause. Things such as owning a dog, driving a car on public roads, and owning a home all create a duty of care to others. Once it has been established that a defendant owed a plaintiff a duty of care, one must prove that the defendant breached that duty. A person breaches their duty of care if they knowingly expose another to a substantial risk of harm. A defendant, who fails to realize the risk his actions create, when a reasonable person would have realized the risk, has also breached his duty.

After establishing a breach of duty, one must prove that the breach caused their injury. In the U.S., causation is established when one can prove that an event sufficiently related to a legally recognizable injury to be held the cause of that injury, this is called proximate cause. Once causation has been proven, the plaintiff must prove that the injury he suffered was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the defendant''s action or inaction. For example, it is foreseeable if you allow your dog to roam loose, he will bite someone, or if you run a red light, you will crash into another driver and injure him or her.

Damages in Negligence Claims

After proving a negligence claim, a plaintiff will have to prove the amount of their damages. Damages in a negligence claim are compensation for the plaintiff’s losses, and are meant to return them to the state they were in before the accident. Punitive damages, are not compensatory, and therefore, not available in negligence claims.  Punitive damages are only available in cases of willful misconduct, such as accidents caused by a drunk driver.