Georgia Injury Lawyers Blog
If you’ve been injured in an accident, you may be wondering how you can get your life back. You can’t undo what happened, but you can seek compensation for your injuries. In order to prevail, however, you need to understand the basic elements of your case that you will need to prove. You will not be able to recover compensation for your injuries unless you can prove each element of your case.
The personal injury attorneys at Slappey & Sadd can help you prove your case so that you can get the compensation you are entitled to. We work with accident victims in the Atlanta metro area and across the state of Georgia. If you’ve been injured and don’t know what to do, contact us at 404-255-6677 to schedule a free consultation with one of our personal injury attorneys.
Negligence
Negligence is the crux of every personal injury case. Negligence is when one person acts or fails to act in the same manner as an ordinarily prudent person would in the same circumstances. The definition of negligence may sound straightforward, but it can be quite difficult to prove that someone was negligent in a given situation. Here are some common examples of negligence that arise in personal injury cases:
- The owner of a shopping center refuses to repair the sidewalks at their facility. Cracked and broken pavement causes a patron to trip and fall, resulting in serious injuries.
- A driver is speeding while talking on his phone and don’t see the light change from green to red. They run the light and cause a serious car accident.
- A doctor performs a medical procedure without adequate training and preparation, resulting in a lifelong medical condition.
- A construction company fails to have adequate safety measures in place resulting in a scaffolding collapse. The collapse causes serious injuries to employees and passersby.
The Negligence Caused the Accident
Once you’ve proven that the other party was negligent, you need to prove that their negligence caused the accident. This may seem obvious – the other driver ran a red light, after all. However, it’s often more complicated than it may appear. The other driver may claim that he couldn’t stop because their brakes failed, or because the light was obscured by overhanging tree limbs that the city had failed to trim. In many cases, the other party will try to argue that some other party or circumstances are what caused the accident.
In other cases, the other party may argue that your negligence at least contributed to the accident. In other words, the other party is claiming that the accident is actually your fault. The good news is that, under Georgia law, you may still be able to recover compensation if you are less than half-responsible for the accident.
The Accident Caused Your Injuries
This is typically easy to prove. You were perfectly healthy and able-bodied before the accident and were injured immediately after the accident. However, many people are shocked when the other party claims that their injuries were not actually caused by the accident. They may argue that you are essentially lying, or they may try to assert one of the following defenses:
- You are suffering from pre-existing injuries
- Your injuries arose because you failed to seek prompt medical attention
- Your injuries were caused by your failure to follow the prescribed treatment plan
Generally speaking, it’s uncommon for someone to argue that the accident in no way caused your injuries. Instead, they typically use these defenses to limit their responsibility by arguing that most of the harm you suffered was your own fault.
Injured? Contact the Atlanta Personal Injury Attorneys at Slappey & Sadd
If you have been injured and think you may need to pursue a claim, you need an attorney who can evaluate your case and help you prove that you are entitled to compensation. The personal injury attorneys at Slappey & Sadd have decades of experience in helping people across the state of Georgia rebuild their lives. If you’d like to schedule a free consultation, call us at 404-255-6677 or contact us online to speak with one of our personal injury lawyers today.