In the field of personal injury law, the concept of negligence dominates most judgments that are rendered. It might seem simple to say an action or lack thereof was negligent, but an injury lawyer would tell you that the concept is a bit harder to define, especially when you're trying to meet a legal standard of proof. Before you get too far into pursuing a claim or a lawsuit, it's worth familiarizing yourself with what negligence means legally.

The Duty of Care

Being a member of a society carries with it an expectation that you actually make an effort to not harm others or cause them to come to harm. This includes making sure that people aren't hurt through your own omissions, errors or decisions. The overall concept is described as the Duty of Care.

In any situation where you can foresee that something bad might happen and it may lead to someone being hurt, you have a duty of care. A common example is when a driver is making a left turn at an intersection. Motorists can not simply race to an intersection and swing a hard left without looking. They have a duty of care to see that no vehicles, people, objects or animals are in the area where their car will pass.

Reasonable Care

The legal standard of care is grounded in the idea that a reasonable person would be expected to take certain precautions. Reasonable care is where a personal injury lawyer will tell you that advancing a claim can enter into a bit of a gray area. While insurance carriers' adjusters will often try to muddy the waters about reasonable care, you do always have the right to ask a judge and jury to clear things up if it's not possible to come to an agreement.

One regularly cited example of reasonable care is the responsibility of a store owner to make the entryway to a business safe for customers. In northern climates, it's common for snow to accumulate in winter months, and this leads to multiple hazards for customers. The snow on the sidewalks and in the parking lot needs to be shoveled and plowed, and care needs to be taken to prevent melting snow from becoming a hazard in the entryway of the store. A reasonable person would consider it negligent for a business to not take care to clean up such conditions.

Share