The foundation of personal injury law is the proving of duty and care. In a nutshell, a Decatur auto accident attorney must establish negligence by proving that the defendant had a duty; that the duty was breached; and that the breach led to an accident which caused injury to another.
Applying Duty and Care to Your Auto Accident
The first thing that your Decatur auto accident attorney will determine before taking on your case is that you were injured. This may seem obvious, but it is an all-important component of an injury claim. Without an injury, there is no claim. You cannot sue someone because you could have been injured.
Duty: Duty of care means that a defendant has a legal obligation to make sure that the potential for an injury does not exist. In the case of an auto accident claim, duty is established by the mere fact that the defendant was driving a vehicle, for by law drivers have certain responsibilities for driving safely when they get behind the wheel.
Breach of Duty: This is the point on which most auto accident injury claims are developed. Your attorney needs to prove that the defendant breached the duty to drive safely, and that this led to the accident in question.
Causation and Injury: Your Decatur auto accident attorney then needs to show that your injuries arose out of the defendant’s breach of duty. In other words, he caused the accident which, in turn, caused your injuries.
Damages
Once Breach of duty has been established, your attorney can assess the damages, that is, the full cost of your medical treatment, lost wages, pain, suffering, scarring, damage to your vehicle, and more.
If you have been injured due to the fault of another, call Decatur auto accident attorney John Cannon today for a free consultation at 1-800-373-6050
.