When you are harmed as a result of another person or entity’s carelessness or reckless behavior, you may be entitled to compensation through the personal injury legal system. However, before you can be awarded damages, you must be able to prove that their negligence caused your accident and injury. For more information, read on and speak with a skilled Middlesex County personal injury attorney today.
How Can I Prove Negligence Caused My Injury in NJ?
In order to prove that another party’s negligence caused your injury in New Jersey, you must provide evidence demonstrating the four main elements of negligence. These key elements are as follows.
- Duty of care: Establish that the defendant owed you a legal duty to act responsibly and prevent damage. For example, store owners have a responsibility to maintain a reasonably safe environment for all kinds of guests.
- Breach of duty: Show that the defendant breached the duty through their actions. For example, if a store owner knew about a dilapidated staircase but failed to rope off the area or fix the hazard, it could be considered a breach of duty.
- Causation: Prove that the defendant’s violation of the duty directly caused or contributed to your accident and injury. For example, if the broken staircase caused you to fall and hurt yourself, their breach of duty is linked to your accident.
- Damages: Demonstrate that you sustained actual damages and harm as a result of the incident. This can include medical expenses, property damage, lost wages, pain and suffering, and more.
Be sure to collect relevant evidence like medical records, photos and videos from the scene of the accident, witness statements, police or incident reports, and expert testimony.
What is Comparative Negligence?
You may be wondering what your legal rights are if you contributed to the accident in some way. Comparative negligence is a tort principle used to reduce the amount of damages a plaintiff can recover, depending on the degree of negligence each party contributed to the accident. Through this process, each party is assigned a percentage of fault depending on the details of the situation. For example, suppose that you tripped on a broken staircase in a retail store, but you were texting on your phone while climbing the stairs. The property owner may be considered 75% liable, and you can be considered 25% liable because you were distracted.
New Jersey operates under a modified comparative negligence system. This means that you can recover compensation for an injury even if you were partially responsible, given that you are not more at fault than the other party. If your responsibility is 50% or less, you can still recover damages, though they will be reduced by the percentage of your fault. However, if you are 51% or greater at fault, you are barred from recovering compensation from the other party.
