Negligence In South Carolina Personal Injury Cases

If accidents just happen, why are there personal injury lawsuits?  Isn’t the definition of an accident an occurrence that is no one’s fault?  When you look more closely at the factors that led to the accident, you might find that, while no one caused the accident on purpose, there are one or more actions that someone could have taken to prevent the accident.  If you get injured in a preventable accident, you have the right to file an insurance claim or lawsuit against the party responsible for the accident and seek compensation for your accident-related medical bills and other financial losses that you suffered because of the accident.  The laws are clear about who is responsible for which kinds of accidents, but proving that the defendant’s negligence is the direct cause of your injuries is not always simple.  To find out more about proving negligence in personal injury cases, contact a Columbia personal injury lawyer.

Examples of Negligence

The first thing you must prove in a personal injury lawsuit is that a duty of care existed.  This means that the defendant had a legal responsibility not to cause injuries.  This is easy, because drivers have this duty of care toward passengers and other drivers, professionals, and businesses have this duty of care toward customers.  The second thing you must prove is that the defendant breached the duty of care.  A breach of the duty of care is called negligence.  The following are examples of negligence:

• A driver makes an illegal turn and collides with another car.
• A physician does not read a patient’s medical records carefully enough and makes an error based on an incorrect understanding of the patient’s medical history.
• A dog owner walks his dog without a leash, and the dog bites a child.
• A hotel does not hire lifeguards for its swimming pool, and an inexperienced swimmer drowns.
• A supermarket does not have employees inspect its floors frequently enough, and a customer slips and falls on water that dripped from a freezer case.

In other words, negligence can be something the defendant did or something that the defendant failed to do.

What Is Comparative Negligence?

You might have heard the term “comparative negligence” before, especially in the context of car accident insurance claims.  South Carolina is a modified comparative negligence state.  This means that, if you were partially at fault for the accident, you can still get an insurance settlement or a lawsuit judgment for the portion of the fault that is not yours.  This rule only applies if you were less than 51 percent at fault for the accident.  If you are struggling with medical bills after an accident, then it makes a difference if the party mostly at fault for the accident pays a portion of them.

Let Us Help You Today

The personal injury lawyers at the Stanley Law Group can help you if you were injured because of someone else’s negligence.  Contact The Stanley Law Group in Columbia, South Carolina or call (803)799-4700 for a free initial consultation.