Personal injury law covers a varied set of circumstances. Whether you’ve been in a car accident that is not your fault, or have been exposed to toxic fumes in a home you rent, or have been prescribed a medication with harmful side effects that have not been adequately explained, or if you’ve slipped and fallen while out in public due to an unsafe surface area, these all fall into the realm of personal injury.
Personal injury lawyers most often prove negligence to make their cases. That is, they prove that an individual or a company has been negligent, and that they have neglected to do what they needed to do to make a location or product safe.
When your Cincinnati personal injury lawyer works to establish “negligence” in court, they rely on four key elements of a negligence claim. Here are those four elements.
Damages
Property destruction, lost income, physical injuries, and emotional injuries all add up to “damages.” As the plaintiff, you must prove that you suffered damages.
Causation
What caused your injury? Were you responsible for inattention or carelessness that many have caused your injury? If so, your case may not hold up. Your Personal injury lawyer will advocate for you and work to prove that the negligent party’s actions caused your accident.
Duty of Care
This is the duty of the business — or person — to its visitors or customers. A post office has a duty to its patrons, that the floors will not be slick or covered in slippery cleaning liquids. This is their duty of care. If the floor is too slippery to walk across, and your grandmother breaks her hip after sliding on the post office floor, then the post office has not honored its duty of care.
Breach of Duty
We, as personal injury attorneys in Ohio, understand that there is a duty of care involved, but did the post office breach or defy its duty? By not keeping the floor dry and walkable, is this considered a breach? The question of breach-or-not can become more complicated when talking about an individual’s responsibility. Did a driver breach his or her duty of care by running a yellow light that was nearly red?
You need a knowledgeable personal injury attorney to help you navigate the sometimes-confusing legal nuances and paperwork of personal injury, so that costly and time-consuming mistakes can be avoided that could delay treatments and compensation or damage your case. For instance, what kind of care may be covered or reimbursed versus what type is not. A lawyer can help preserve your rights and make sure you receive fair and just compensation for any pain and suffering that may have been caused by your accident.
Cincinnati Personal Injury Lawyers Who Work For You
If you are in need of an attorney to assist you with an injury, contact Clements, Taylor, Butkovich & Cohen, L.P.A., Co. today.