Pursuing Claims in Encino with the Help of Personal Injury Lawyers
Accidents happen anywhere when you least expect it. In most cases, accidents often result in injuries or worst, lead to serious cases such as spinal cord injury, brain injury or death.
When an accident causes harm or damage to another person through negligence or recklessness, a victim may take legal action against the person or persons responsible for his injuries.
A tort is a wrongful act committed by another person against another, which often result in injury. The objective of torts law is to hold the persons responsible for the injuries. The ultimate goal of a personal injury action, therefore, is to make the liable persons compensate for the injuries caused on accident victims.
In this respect, a person who causes the injury, called the tortfeasor, may be held liable for causing the accident by direct, intentional, or reckless action.
Some of the components of tort may include negligence, intentional tort, and vicarious liability. An intentional tort arises when harm is done on purpose or intentionally. Intentional tort is much on a higher level than negligence in terms of liability.
If the accident is caused by negligence, a person can be held accountable for his actions under the following factors or elements:
• the tortfeasor owed the victim a duty of care
• a breach of that duty
• an actual causal connection between the tortfeasor’s conduct and the resulting harm
• proximate cause, which relates to whether the harm was foreseeable
• damages resulting from the tortfeasor’s conduct
On the other hand, vicarious liability occurs when a superior is held liable for the act of his subordinate based on the doctrine of respondeat superior. This often applies in accidents that involve an employee and his employer. For instance, liability in a trucking accident may find both driver and truck owner responsible for damages to an injured or dead victim. Thus, when a negligent employee causes accident, the employer may also be accountable for the injury or damage the employee causes through vicarious liability.
However, some situations would not require one to prove negligence using the four elements. In cases where one’s injuries are serious enough to say that there is no other way the victim could have been injured other than through the tortfeasor’s negligent actions, the doctrine of res ipsa loquitor applies. Literally, the phrase means, “the things speaks for itself” and applies only to limited situations. In cases like this, the tortfeasor is often presumed to have acted negligently and the burden of proving himself otherwise is left to his concern.
Generally, in most personal injury cases, the following persons may be held liable by either negligence or recklessness:
• car accident – the driver of a vehicle
• slip and fall incident – the owner of the property under premise liability
• defective products – manufacturer of vehicle parts, distributor
• medical malpractice – health provider or health professional
The success of a claim in a personal injury case depends so much on how well one can establish fault and liability in his case. In California, for example, most personal injury cases are pursued through strict liability. And in cases where one or more people are involved, comparative liability is sometimes applied.
If you happen to get involved in an accident in Encino, you can consult with Encino personal injury lawyers to discuss with you issues regarding your case.
Our Los Angeles Lawyers are expert in providing legal assistance on personal injury cases in Encino and other cities in LA County. For immediate help and advice, log on to our website and fill out our case evaluation form.
About the Author: Before becoming an online writer, Manuel worked as a journalist, a newspaper columnist, a scriptwriter, a fiction writer, a magazine editor, and a tutor. He acquired his legal background as a Senate legislative officer and later on, as a researcher and paralegal staff in various law offices. Someday he hoped to go back and devote more time to writing fiction, which is his first passion.
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Print Article | Download PDF | 17 views | Jul 11 2008
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