Legal negligence comes into the limelight most commonly with a Georgia personal injury claim. To most effectively assess and establish the 5 elements of any negligence case, an Atlanta personal injury lawyer may prove especially useful.  

Duty of Care & Breach of Duty in a Georgia Personal Injury Claim

Many factors can affect whether someone violated a duty of care, such as a violation of other laws. For instance, if you were driving your car and a drunken driver struck you head-on, that driver has already broken their duty of care by ignoring traffic laws and driving under the influence of alcohol. It's then up to your Atlanta personal injury lawyer to prove those actions directly resulted in your injuries and to show proof of how your injuries have affected your life to determine how much compensation you should request.

If, however, you were on a private loading dock marked with multiple no trespassing signs and you tripped over some debris and broke your leg, a judge may determine that indeed a standard of care was not owed to you because you were trespassing.

Cause in Fact in a Georgia Personal Injury Claim

In any legal negligence claim, if you've been injured you must prove that your injury was a direct result of the other party's action. For example, if you break your arm in a slip and fall accident at a grocery store, you have to prove that had it not been for the actions or inactions of the grocery store, you would not have fallen and broken your arm.

Proximate Cause in a Georgia Personal Injury Claim

This means that legal negligence can only go so far. If you sustained a head injury after a truck struck your motorcycle, the truck driver cannot be held liable for an arm injury you sustained in a car accident on the way to a doctor's appointment for that head injury.

Damages in a Georgia Personal Injury Claim

To receive compensation for your injury, you have to show physical harm to your body or property, whether in the form of photographs, medical bills or repair bills.

Determining the elements of legal negligence can be time-consuming and tedious in any Georgia personal injury claim. If you have an Atlanta personal injury lawyer to strategize and work with you to prove the role negligence played in your injury, you may increase your chances of securing a fair settlement. 

Contacting an Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer

If you are the victim of someone else's legal negligence or carelessness, whether in a traffic accident or some other type of accident, you have certain rights guaranteed by law. To help you understand these rights and seek the compensation you may be eligible for to help get your life back in order, contact the Atlanta Law Offices of Sheryl L. Burke for a no-cost consultation on your injury case.