In the United States, everyone is owed a standard of care. This means that you and the people around you have an obligation to help each other stay safe by not acting recklessly or carelessly. This is to protect one another against an unreasonable risk of harm.
Sometimes, though, people don't exercise this standard of care. This is known as legal negligence. Not surprisingly, injuries can result, and the person responsible doesn't typically walk away scott-free. When this happens, people often find themselves with a negligence case on their hands.
If you've been injured in any type of accident, be it a car crash on the highway or a nasty fall in a poorly maintained restaurant, you can hold the responsible person or entity accountable through legal negligence. If it is determined that your injuries were caused by another party's legal negligence, you can file a Georgia personal injury claim against them and receive compensation.
The 5 Elements of Legal Negligence in Georgia Personal Injury Claims
To recover damages for your injuries in a Georgia personal injury claim, there are 5 common elements that must exist in any legal negligence case:
- Duty - a duty of care was owed to the plaintiff.
- Breach of Duty - the defendant did not follow that duty.
- Cause in Fact - there was a connection between that failure of duty and your injury.
- Proximate Cause - whether the harm could have been predicted.
- Damages - you were hurt as a result of the defendant's failure to exercise a duty of care.
Determining legal negligence can be tricky; even harder is proving it. An Atlanta personal injury attorney can help you make sense of what caused your injury and put together a case to hold the negligent party financially responsible.
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