When you get hurt in a car crash or a slip and fall, you may decide to sue for damages. The key in any personal injury case is showing that someone else’s negligence caused you to get hurt. This can be tough to prove on your own, but a Tom Green County, Texas personal injury lawyer from our firm can help you build a case and hold any negligent parties accountable for their actions.
What Can Be Defined As Negligence?
Negligence is a failure to behave in a way that would prevent foreseeable harm to others. Think about a driver who speeds and hits a pedestrian or a company that knowing puts out a defective product that could hurt someone. These are not random incidents. The driver and the company in these examples would both be able to reasonably surmise that their actions could hurt someone, but they did not care. This is negligence.
Is Proving the Defendant’s Negligence Enough?
If you can show negligence with your personal injury case, that’s great. It’s usually not enough though. A lawyer from our firm will also help you draw a direct line between the defendant’s negligence and your need to seek out damages. This means exploring a few more legal concepts:
Duty: You need to establish that the defendant owed you some kind of duty of care. They knew that their behavior could adversely affect you and others and they acted negligently anyway. A good example of this would be the driver who gets behind the wheel after drinking and causes a crash. A store owner who fails to address a slipping hazard and allows a customer to get injured also owed that customer a duty and did not act responsibly.
Breach: When someone owes someone else a duty but does not act in a way consistent with that, this is a breach.
Causation: Then we can show that this breach of duty led directly to you getting injured.
Damages: As a result of your injuries, you are owed damages. This only occurred because the defendant was negligent and breached their duty.
How Long Do I Have to Sue Over Someone’s Negligence?
In Texas, victims have two years to sue for damages after being injured. We recommend starting the legal process as soon as possible though. That two-year statute of limitations can pass quicker than you would expect, and you don’t want a case thrown out just because you filed it too late. Plus, the sooner you take legal action the easier it can be for your lawyer to gather crucial evidence that could prove someone’s negligence.
Talk to a Personal Injury Attorney
If you or a loved one have suffered harm due to someone else’s negligence, you may be owed compensation. Contact the Mathis Law Firm and ask to schedule a free case consultation. We can tell you more about your legal options and how our lawyers can help you pursue damages.