How Do I Establish Another Party’s Duty of Care?

If you place a personal injury claim against another party, you are essentially accusing them of being primarily or entirely at fault for your accident. In other words, you are saying that they breached their duty of care. Without further ado, please follow along to find out how to establish another party’s duty of care in your argument and how a proficient Passaic County personal injury attorney at the Law Offices of August R. Soltis can help build a concrete legal case from the ground up.

How do I establish another party’s duty of care in my claim?

To establish a duty of care in your personal injury claim, the defendant must have been in a certain role, and your accident must have transpired in a specific context. For example, say you were made the victim of an auto accident. Well, the defendant must have been another driver on the road at the time, who negligently disobeyed the enforced traffic regulations, signs, and/or signals.

Or, you may have slipped and fallen on a premises that the defendant owns or is otherwise responsible for managing. With this, though, you must ensure that you were a welcomed visitor who entered onto an accessible part of the property.  In a final example, you may have been a patient who wholeheartedly trusted your treating medical professional to provide you with the utmost care, per the standards established by the New Jersey medical community.

How do I prove liability in my personal injury case?

Firstly, you must prove that the defendant owed you a duty of care. That is, you shared the road with them, you were a welcomed visitor on their property, or you were their assigned patient. Then, you must establish that they ultimately breached their duty of care. This may require you to cite federal and state traffic laws, building codes, or medical standards, respectively.

Next, you must demonstrate that this breach of care caused you to enter a personal injury accident and suffer bodily injuries. Regardless of the accident type, this is generally proven through medical records and bills, photos and videos of your bodily injuries and the general accident scene, and testimonies from bystanders who witnessed the event.

Finally, you must show the economic and non-economic damages directly linked to your accident and injuries. Again, this may be done through medical bills (i.e., medical expenses) and witness testimony (i.e., pain and suffering). But also, past pay stubs for your lost wages and repair invoices for your damaged property, among other things.

All of this to say, if you cannot effectively exhibit the defendant’s duty of care and subsequent liability in your accident, you may not have a valid and successful personal injury claim on your hands. And so, if you need help with executing this, do not be afraid to reach out to a talented Passaic County personal injury attorney. Our team at the Law Offices of August R. Soltis is more than capable and eager to assist you with your upcoming legal proceedings.