Most personal injury claims in Northbrook, IL are based on the legal theory of negligence. This includes claims involving car accidents, slip and fall accidents, and more. To recover compensation for their injuries, an accident victim must prove all the elements of negligence, including a breach of duty.
A breach of duty generally occurs when someone fails to uphold a legally required standard of conduct. The specific conduct required may vary depending on the circumstances.
Keep reading below to learn more about a breach of duty and how it can affect a personal injury case.
The Legal Elements of a Personal Injury Claim
Negligence occurs when someone acts carelessly and another person is injured. Proving negligence requires proving all four of its legal elements. Those are:
- Duty of care
- Breach of duty
- Causation
- Damages
Before determining whether a breach of duty occurred, an injured victim must first prove that the defendant owed them a duty of care. A duty of care is the standard of conduct required by law, moral, or custom in a specific situation. In most cases, a duty of care requires people to act reasonably to prevent accidents and injuries to others.
For example, when you drive a car, you owe others on the road a duty of care to operate your car safely and reasonably. All the facts of the situation must be considered when determining the duty of care owed by one person to another.
Breaching a Duty of Care
A breach of duty occurs when the defendant acts outside of the established standard of care. Generally, this means that they failed to act in a reasonable manner given the circumstances of the situation.
In personal injury cases, the judge or jury must first look at all the circumstances to determine the expected standard of behavior. Next, they may examine the defendant’s behavior to determine whether it fell short of this standard. If it did, then the defendant acted negligently. Some examples of a breach of duty may include:
- A motor vehicle driver decides to text while driving, thus taking their eyes off the road and putting themselves and others in danger of a car accident.
- A dog owner knows that their dog has a history of aggression, yet they choose to let their dog walk without a leash at a local park.
- A property owner knows about a crumbling sidewalk but refuses to repair it because of the cost.
- A restaurant owner knows about a wet floor due to a leaking ice machine, but they do not warn customers or clean the spill.
You may be wondering how you can prove a breach of duty. In some cases, this can be challenging because the reasonableness of the defendant’s behavior is somewhat subjective. You must be able to prove that a reasonable person would have done things differently in a similar situation. An experienced personal injury lawyer can help you gather the evidence required to prove your case.
What Kind of Damages Are Available to Accident Victims?
Victims who can successfully prove all the elements of negligence are entitled to recover both economic damages and non-economic damages. Economic damages are used to compensate victims for their financial losses after an accident. These damages can quickly rise into the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars following an accident.
Some common examples include:
- Emergency medical treatment
- Ambulance transport
- Physical therapy
- Ongoing rehabilitation costs
- Out-of-pocket expenses
- Lost wages
- Reduced earning capacity
Non-economic damages are the intangible losses a victim suffers after an accident. These damages compensate victims for the physical and emotional pain, and proving their value can sometimes be a challenge. Victims are entitled to recover many types of non-economic damages, including:
- Pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Permanent scarring or disfigurement
- Loss of quality of life
- Loss of consortium
- Anxiety
- Depression
- PTSD
In some situations, these damages can be worth as much as five times the value of your economic damages. An experienced lawyer can help you determine the value of all your damages so that you can get all the compensation you are owed.
How Long Do I Have to File a Personal Injury Lawsuit in Illinois?
In Illinois, injured victims typically must file a lawsuit for damages within two years from the date of their accident in most cases. In some special cases, this deadline could be sooner or later than the general rule. Failure to file a lawsuit before the deadline may cause you to lose all your rights to recover compensation. This is why you should always get help from an experienced lawyer as soon after your accident as possible.
Call Our Northbrook Personal Injury Lawyers Today for a Free Consultation
If you have been hurt in an accident in Northbrook, IL, the experienced team at Kass & Moses Personal Injury Lawyers can help. To get compensation for your injuries, you must prove that the defendant breached their duty of care, and our team can help you gather and present the evidence necessary to do so.
Give us a call today at (847) 513-9582 to schedule a free consultation with one of our Northbrook personal injury lawyers.
