Personal Injury Law: Liability, Damages and Time Limitations for Lawsuits

Here is some useful information on personal injury law:

Massachusetts personal injury law provides that in order to prevail against the person who caused your injury, your personal injury attorney must prove the following elements by a preponderance of the evidence (or in other words, when all of the evidence is weighed that the matter is more probably true than not).

Duty: That the defendant owed you a duty to exercise reasonable care. Duty means an obligation to conform to a particular standard of conduct toward another person which is recognized and enforced in the law.

Breach of Duty (Negligence): That the defendant breached its duty of care or, in other words, failed to exercise that degree of care which a reasonable person would exercise under the circumstances. This is known as negligence. The mere happening of an accident is not proof of negligence.

Proximate Cause: That the defendant’s negligence was a substantial cause of your injury or harm. In addition, you must show that the harm was reasonably foreseeable to a person in the defendant’s position at the time of the defendant’s negligence.

Damages: That you suffered injury or harm.

Massachusetts has a Comparative Negligence Law which applies when:

• The defendant raises the issue of your negligence, and
• The defendant proves by a preponderance of evidence that you were negligent and your negligence contributed to the cause of your injuries.

If the defendant meets his burden, the jury will determine what percentage you were negligent and what percentage the defendant was negligent. If your negligence was equal to or less than the defendant’s negligence, then, under Massachusetts personal injury law, you will prevail on the issue of liability. However, your damages will be reduced by the percentage of your negligence.

The following is an example of how comparative negligence applies in a personal injury claim. A jury finds that the defendant was responsible for your injuries, awards you $20,000.00, and finds that you were 40% comparatively negligent. Your award would be reduced by 40%, leaving you with an award of $12,000.00.

If the jury decides in your favor on the issue of liability, it will then consider your claim for damages.

Personal injury law allows three years from the date of the accident to file a lawsuit. If you fail to do so, you will be forever barred from obtaining compensation for your personal injury claim.