Proving Negligence in the Eye of Law

An act of negligence comes from actionable wrong. “Negligence” is a legal theory that is the basis for many accident law suits. These accidents may cause either by car accidents or by falling on other's property (generally termed as “slip and fall cases”).
In the eye of law, “negligence” is carelessness that causes personal injury to someone else.  For that, the person or a company, who has committed the negligent act, will be legally held liable. A person can be negligent by doing something that he should not have done or has not done something which he should have done.

The basic principles of proving negligence and claiming for damages are as follows:-

• Duty of Care – The Plaintiff i.e., the person injured has to prove that the Defendant i.e. who has done the wrong  owed a duty of taking care to the Plaintiff under the circumstance
• Breach of Duty – The Defendant has failed to perform his duty rather caused breach of duty
• Direct Cause  – Due to negligence, accident has taken place
• Causing Harm – The Plaintiff has suffered injuries due to accident

The following example will give a clear idea on the above discussion.
For example, the floor of a grocery shop is spilled with water and also there is no sign of warn to the customers. X, a customer enters the shop, slips and falls in the spilled water and gets injured.  Now, X, who has been injured in order to file a suit of personal injury, has to prove that:-

• The shop owner  owed a legal duty to keep the floor clean and safe
• He has failed to perform this duty
• As a result X fell down and an accident took place
• In the accident X has suffered injuries

Generally proving negligence and claiming for damages end up in trials in personal injury law suits.