LAWYER HELPLINE: ☎ 855 804 7142

There are over 500,000 motor vehicle collisions in Canada every year which cause almost 250,000 people to be injured, over 20,000 of which are critical injuries of which about 3,000 are fatalities. There are about 8 deaths every day on Canadian roads and there is a serious injury every 2 minutes resulting in over 100,000 claims for compensation ever year in Canada. If you would like to talk to a Newfoundland car accident lawyer without further obligation then just use the helpline or send the contact form or email our offices and a Newfoundland car accident lawyer who deals exclusively in personal injury accident claims will speak to you with free advice and information on how best to preserve your legal rights to compensation for your injuries.

Newfoundland Car Accident Lawyer - Negligence

 

Negligence is a complex legal term that comes up in situations where a person has become the victim in an accident or other types of injury and believes that someone else is responsible for his or her injuries and losses. The offending party can be a single person, a government agency or perhaps a corporation or other organization. The victim usually hires a Newfoundland car accident lawyer to see if negligence has taken place because, without negligence, no compensation claim can be made by the injured party.

Negligence is defined as any behavior or action that is not the same as what a reasonable person would do under the same circumstances. The action can be one of omission, which implies a failure to do the proper action. The action can also be one of commission where the offending party committed a specific act that resulted in the victim’s injuries.

In negligence cases, the Newfoundland car accident lawyer must be able to proof that a “duty of care” existed regarding the situation. For example, an airline has a duty of care to insure that all of the flying passengers make it to their destination safely. In the same vein, the doctor who treats a patient has a duty of care to perform only those actions that are in the best interests of the patient in order to make sure the patient’s health does not suffer.

Further, the lawyer must show that a breach of care existed. This means that something in the behavior of the offending party could be considered substandard and falling below the generally acceptable standards of care. Sometimes it can be difficult to determine exactly what the standard of care is. This is why Newfoundland car accident lawyers often use the concept of a “reasonable person’s” behavior to measure the behavior of the offending party.

Lastly, in order to be able to file a compensation claim against the offending party, the lawyer needs to show that the victim sustained losses in the incident. The losses can be obvious, such as the victim having to lose wages as a result of the incident. The losses can be more nebulous, such as losses incurred by the victim being unable to enjoy his or her favorite hobby. If losses can be shown to have happened to the victim, then these things can be totalled and a claim can be filed with the court.

Losses can be threefold. The first kind of losses are known as “special damages”. These damages are easy to determine because their monetary value is a known figure. Things like wage losses and medical bills are considered to be special damages.

“General damages” are those damages that are more nebulous in terms of their monetary value. Things like loss of ability to do activities of daily activities or loss of ability to enjoy one’s hobbies are considered general damages because the attorney must look hard to place a monetary value on these activities.

The third category of damages is known as “punitive damages”. Punitive damages are sometimes asked for by the lawyer for the victim if the behavior of the offending party was somehow malicious or egregious. Cases where a person intentionally harms another are good examples of situations where punitive damages might be asked for.

When negligence has been shown in a given injury situation, the lawyer can compile the values of all the special, general and punitive damages and can create a legal claim against the offending party, who subsequently can be called the defendant. The claim is filed before the court, and the defendant’s lawyer gets together with the victim’s lawyer and attempt to settle the claim out of court. If this is not possible, a trial is held.

LAWYER HELPLINE: ☎ 855 804 7142