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Personal Injury
Automobile accidents represent the majority of personal injury claims in the state of California. Most vehicle accidents are caused by negligent driving and driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Claims arising from automobile accidents are generally negligence claims. The law requires a person to act as an ordinary, reasonable person under similar circumstances. A reasonable, prudent person uses reasonable care to avoid collisions. A jury usually decides whether a driver conformed with the “reasonable person” standard of care. In addition to fault or liability, the claimant must prove that this fault caused his or her damages. Thus, issues such as severity of the impact, amount of the property damage, claimed injuries, whether any of these injuries pre-existed the accident and if so, were they aggravated by this accident, and timeliness and necessity of medical care, are all issues that will have to be addressed and proven. If after this accident, another person or event intervened and broke the chain of causation between the original driver’s actions and the claimant’s injuries, the driver may be relieved of liability. Personal injuries also result from motorcycle accidents, boat accidents, train accidents, mis-leveled elevators, bus accidents, and trip and fall incidents. |  |