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 Edmonton car accident lawyer without further obligation then just use the helpline or send the contact form or email our offices and a Edmonton 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.

 

Edmonton Car Accident Lawyer

 

Negligence is not just a fancy legal term used by lawyers trying to prove a person was at fault in an accident or injury. Instead, negligence carries a complicated set of requirements necessary in any personal injury case where the victim of an accident or injury is attempting to receive compensation for their losses.

Simply put, negligence is involved in situations where a person has performed an action or behavior that resulted in harm to another person and the action or behavior is something no reasonable person would do. The Edmonton car accident lawyer must be able to demonstrate what a reasonable person would do in the exact same circumstance as the incident that caused the victim’s injuries and that the defendant deviated from what that reasonable person would do.

The Edmonton car accident lawyer must also show that a duty of care existed between the defendant and the victim during the incident. Having a duty of care involves the implication that the defendant carried some responsibility over the care and welfare of the victim. For example, each and every motorist owes a duty of care to every other motorist and must drive in ways that do not harm others. Another example would be a railroad company that owes a duty of care to have policies and corporate actions that keep its riders safe.

Furthermore, the Edmonton car accident lawyer needs to show that a breach of duty existed regarding the incident. This means that something in the actions or behaviors of the defendant was substandard and that the substandard behavior resulted in the accident or injury. This means, for example, that in medicolegal cases, the attorney must show that the doctor or medical device company did not live up to acceptable standards of care and an injury to a patient or patients occurred.

Lastly, losses must have been incurred by the victim. The patient’s losses may be no more than the cost of medical care but can include things like lost wages, the loss of ability to advance in one’s career and the loss of ability to share in one’s selected hobbies.

When negligence has been proved, the lawyer needs to assemble the components of a compensation claim. He or she must add up the value of “special damages”, which are damages that have an intrinsic monetary value. Special damages include the cost of medical care, the value of lost wages and the cost of repairing or replacing a damaged vehicle.

The other kinds of damages that must have a monetary value placed on them are called “general damages”. General damages are more difficult to identify and determine a value for because they have no intrinsic monetary value. The value of pain and anguish and the value of alienation of affection are two losses that have value but putting a money value on them is not easy.

Punitive damages are asked for in certain circumstances. In cases where an individual purposely injured another person or behaved in an egregious way, punitive damages become a way for lawyers to punish the defendant for his or her bad behavior.

When the damages have been assembled, the lawyer then files the claim with the courts and attempts to work with the lawyer for the defendant in order to settle the claim out of court. If this is not possible, the case then becomes a trial matter to be decided by a judge or jury.

The lawyer must respect the statute of limitations for the claim. The statute of limitations for personal injury cases varies. If the lawyer fails to file the claim within the allotted time of the statute of limitations, the claim will not be accepted.

LAWYER HELPLINE: ☎ 855 804 7142