What You Need to Know About Negligence and Personal Injury Accidents

When you sustain personal injuries in an accident, you might have grounds to file a personal injury lawsuit against the other party; if they were negligent. Negligence is an essential component to all personal injury cases. If there was no negligence caused by the other party, then you may not have a case.

What Is Negligence?

The concept of negligence is often confusing for most people, who have been injured in an accident. Negligence is determined by examining the events and evidence surrounding the accident. A Toronto personal injury lawyer will review the details of the accident and determine whether the other party had a “duty of care” and was negligent.

What Is “Duty of Care?”

“Duty of Care” is a legal term that related to the responsibility the other party had in preventing the accident and causing personal injury towards you. The first thing your accident injury lawyer in Toronto will determine is was there a “duty of care” and who was responsible for the “duty of care.” It is important to determine who is actually at fault as there are time limitations in filing a personal injury lawsuit.

If the lawsuit is filed incorrectly against the wrong party, it could affect your ability to obtain compensation settlement. Personal injury cases take time to process through the legal system, and by the time it is discovered the case was filed against the wrong party, the limitation to file a case, could have expired, and would prevent filing the case against the correct party. This is why it is vital you work with an experienced injury lawyer in Toronto.

In addition, two concepts, related to “duty of care”, are whether the other person should have taken action or not taken action. This might seem confusing, but whether someone took action or failed to take action helps determine if they had a “duty of care” and were negligent. To further illustrate this concept, consider the following situation:

A business is aware the sidewalk outside their business is cracked and damaged and in need of repair. Yet, they take no action to have the sidewalk fixed. You are walking on the sidewalk outside the business, slip or trip and fall down and sustain personal injuries. Since the business was aware of the damage, yet did not take action, they had a “duty of care,” where they could have prevented your injuries.

On the other hand, the business is aware of the damaged sidewalk, yet they do not own the building. They contact their landlord and inform them of the damage and that it needs to be repaired to prevent someone from possible getting hurt. The landlord does not take action to fix the sidewalk. In this case, the business took action, while the landlord failed to take action. Who is responsible for a “duty of care?” The business or the landlord?

While it might seem the landlord was negligent, in certain situations the business could still be partially at fault. As you can see, determining who is negligent and had a “duty of care” can be a rather complex process, and requires the expertise of your accident injury lawyer. In addition, in some cases, there could actually be more than one party who had a “duty of care.” For these types of situations, your lawyer would file a lawsuit against each negligent party.

If you or a loved one has sustained personal injuries as the result of another party’s negligence, it is highly recommended to contact Grillo Law
today by calling 416-614-6000 to schedule a free consultation and case evaluation appointment with one of our Toronto injury lawyers. During your appointment, we will perform an in-depth review to determine who had a “duty of care,” explain your legal rights, and answer any of your questions. Even if you are not entirely sure whether you have a case, it never hurts to speak to a personal injury lawyer.