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We meet many people who have questions about negligence, especially in relation to personal injury cases. If you’ve suffered an injury and believe it was someone else’s fault, we will need to establish that the other party was negligent so we can recover your damages.
But how do you know if someone was negligent?
We’ll review the details of your case, including any official documents related to your injury, such as police accident reports, medical records, etc. Additionally, we may ask you questions to clarify how your injury occurred, who was there at the time, and more.
As we learn about your injury, we’ll look for evidence of the four elements of negligence:
It’s helpful to understand that negligence can occur in a wide array of situations. If your injury meets the criteria listed in the last section, we may be able to file a claim because of the other party’s negligence.
However, here are some common categories of personal injury claims:
Motor vehicle accidents are among the most common scenes where a person might experience negligence. These include collisions involving cars, trucks, tractor-trailers, motorcycles, buses, RVs, and other motor vehicles.
Some car accidents also affect pedestrians or bicycle riders who are struck by a negligent driver.
Although some crashes are unexpected and unavoidable, most are caused by negligence. Usually, the negligent party is one—or both—drivers.
Because Connecticut uses modified comparative negligence rules for personal injury cases, it’s possible for both parties to have some responsibility in an accident. If you are less than 51 percent at fault, you can collect damages from the other party but will sustain a reduction in your final award.
For instance, if you were 10 percent at fault, you could recover 90 percent of your damages. In less common situations, a third party may be negligent, such as the manufacturer of a defective car part that caused an accident.
We also see injuries involving golf carts, ATVs, boats, and other recreational vehicles. In these situations, there are often multiple parties who might be negligent depending on the circumstances of the accident:
Motor vehicles aren’t the only places where a defective product or component can cause injury. Many household products have also caused harm, including toys, children’s products, appliances, furniture, and more.
Drugs and medical devices also fall under defective product claims if they cause injury.
In order to successfully pursue a product liability claim in Connecticut, we will need to show the following:
These are situations in which a person is injured on someone else’s property—it could be a private residence, like a friend’s home, or a public place like a store or shopping mall. However, being injured on the property doesn’t necessarily mean the property owner was negligent.
It’s necessary to show that you were hurt because of a hazard the property owner/manager knew or should have known about and failed to fix.
One example is the “slip and fall” case. If you slip or trip on a hazard in a store, for example, the store may have been negligent if they failed to clean up the mess or block off the area until a more significant repair could be effected.
Puddles, debris on the floor, loose tiles or floorboards, snags or holes in carpets, and poorly lit stairwells are all potential hazards that may indicate negligence in these cases. If possible, try to take pictures of the area where you fell so we can examine them later.
While slip-and-falls are very common, they are not the only type of premises liability claim; in many cases, we find evidence of negligent security. This often occurs when a person is injured as the victim of a crime on a public property, like a store parking lot or a hotel room.
Businesses have a responsibility to take reasonable care to keep their guests safe, and if they fail to do so, they could be negligent. For example, let’s say that you were mugged in a grocery store parking lot, and the mugger knocked you down, causing you to break your wrist.
Say we investigate and learn the parking lot lacked security cameras and had several lights that had been out for weeks. We also found that several other muggings had been reported in this parking lot in the past few months, but the store’s management team made no effort to improve security.
In this case, the store may have been negligent in providing a reasonably safe environment for shoppers.
People suffer severe health problems for a number of reasons, including genetics, infection, injuries, exposure to toxins, and other causes. But what if you suspect you suffered a severe complication due to a doctor’s or healthcare worker’s mistake?
As a layperson, you may struggle to understand if your health problem was a preventable medical error or merely bad luck, but you shouldn’t have to wonder about it. A Bridgeport negligence lawyer will review your case and help you determine if medical negligence caused your serious health condition.
If you believe or suspect you were injured due to another party’s negligence, please contact Bert McDowell Injury Law for a free, confidential consultation. We’ll learn about your injuries, answer your questions, and explain your options for seeking compensation.
Bert McDowell Injury Law was founded by Bridgeport personal injury attorney Bert McDowell, Jr., who has recovered millions of dollars in damages for injured clients. He has been included in the National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 and 40 Under 40 Connecticut Magazine.
Additionally, Mr. McDowell has been a Super Lawyers Rising Star for four consecutive years and serves on multiple nonprofit boards. In 2017, he received the 100 Men of Color Award for this community service and legal work.
If we take your case, there is no fee until we win or settle it, so you never have to worry about upfront costs. Call us today at (203) 590-9169.