St. Catharines Car Accident Lawyer - Personal Injury Compensation Claim

LAWYER HELPLINE: ☎ 855 804 7142


Personal Injury Lawyers

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

 

St Catharines Car Accident Lawyer - Negligence

 

Negligence is a civil litigation term that best applies to situations in which an injury or accident has happened and an individual or individual was harmed in the incident. In order for the injured parties to file a civil litigation claim against the persons who were believed to have caused the accident, the attorney for the injured parties must prove that negligence occurred.

Negligence is best defined as acting or behaving in such a way that an ordinary, reasonable person would not. For example, if a company had bad safety practices or had safety practices but didn’t enforce them, this is an act that no ordinary person would subscribe to or actually does.

When proving negligence, the lawyer for the injured party must show that a duty of care existed in the case. A duty of care means that the individual who caused the accident had some responsibility over the health and welfare of the injured party. In fact, legally every motorist has the duty of care to drive according to the rules of the law so that no other motorist is harmed. A doctor also has a duty of care to perform in a way that does not harm the patient.

When proving negligence, the St Catharines car accident lawyer for the injured party must also prove that a breach of the duty of care existed regarding the incident. What this means is that the behavior of the persons responsible for the incident was somehow substandard. The lawyer must show that an actual standard of care existed and that the person who caused the accident showed behavior that fell below the standard of care.

Lastly, the St Catharines car accident lawyer for the injured party must show that his or her client had losses related to the incident. The losses experienced may be simply the cost of medical treatment or the cost to repair a car. Alternatively, losses can be more nebulous, such as the “cost” of alienation of affection or the “cost” of an inability to advance in one’s career.

When negligence has been demonstrated by the St Catharines car accident lawyer, he or she must compile the components of the civil litigation claim. The components of the claim are as follows: specific damages, general damages and punitive damages.

In the case of special damages, the St Catharines car accident lawyer needs only to tabulate the cost of things that already have an intrinsic monetary value. Special damages include lost wages, the cost to repair or replace a vehicle and the cost of medical care for the injured party.

General damages become harder to define because they have no intrinsic monetary value. Things that have no monetary intrinsic value include those things like pain and suffering, alienation of affection, loss of ability to advance in one’s career and loss of ability to perform activities of daily living.

Punitive damages may or may not be asked for. They represent a way to punish the person or persons for their bad behavior. For example, if a company intentionally falsified documents in order to avoid litigation, they may be expected to pay punitive damages for punishment related to their behavior regarding the case.

When a civil litigation claim is complete, it is filed before a judge in civil court. The other lawyers regarding the case have a chance to respond and often an out of court settlement is achieved that is satisfactory for all parties. If a settlement is unable to be reached, the civil case goes to trial where a judge or jury will decide the fate of the claim.

The lawyer for the injured party must respect the statute of limitations regarding the case. The statute of limitation is the time required for the plaintiff’s attorney to file the claim.

LAWYER HELPLINE: ☎ 855 804 7142