Seaside Personal Injury Lawyer

The Four Elements of Proving Negligence

No matter the type of personal injury claim you are filing, you will have to prove another party acted negligently, and that their negligence caused your injuries. Some elements of negligence are easier to prove but others almost always present challenges. A Seaside personal injury lawyer will help you prove the following four elements:

• Duty: Proving duty in a personal injury claim requires you to show that the liable party owed you a duty of care to keep you safe. Duty is sometimes implied, such as the duty drivers have to keep other motorists safe. Other times, duty is not implied and in these cases, you must establish it.
• Breach of duty: Once you have established that the liable party owed you a duty of care, you must then show that they breached that duty. This is essentially proving that the other party acted negligently. If an impaired driver crashed into your car and caused serious injury, they have breached their duty because they did not act with the same prudence another reasonable person would have.
• Causation: A negligent act alone is not enough to file a personal injury claim. For example, if a driver ran a stop sign but did not cause an accident, it is not possible to file a personal injury claim against them. You must prove that the act of negligence caused your accident, essentially establishing the link between the carelessness and the accident.
• Damages: The whole purpose of filing a personal injury claim is to recover damages for your losses. If you did not sustain any losses, there are no damages to recover and so, you cannot file a personal injury claim.

The Statute of Limitations on Personal Injury Claims

Like all states, Oregon places a time limit known as the statute of limitations on all personal injury claims. This time limit is very important because if you do not file your claim before the statute of limitations expires, you will forfeit any legal right you had to file a claim. A time limit on personal injury claims sounds fairly straightforward but as with most legal matters, it can become complex.

The statute of limitations that governs your case will depend on the type of personal injury claim you file. In most personal injury cases, the statute of limitations is two years from the date of the accident that caused injury. In medical malpractice cases, though, the statute of limitations is two years from the date the injury was sustained, or two years from the date the injury was discovered.

In wrongful death claims, the statute of limitations is three years from the date of the accident that resulted in death. It is important to note that the time limit on these cases does not begin on the date of death but rather, the date of the fatal accident.