When you’re thinking about filing a injury case or contacting an injury lawyer, you’re probably wondering: “how can I be sure I have a good case?”  That’s not always easy to determine but you can be sure you need to know at least one thing; can you prove liability in your injury lawsuit?  In an injury case, liability is when a person (including a company) is legally or financially accountable to another person (or society) as a result of an act that has caused damages.  That is a long definition and it is not a black or white definition. This is why having an experienced personal injury attorney is so important to the success of your case.

Determining liability in an injury case will vary depending on the type of accident. For example proving liability in a slip and fall accident is going to be different than it will be in a car accident.  There are also times when more than one party is liable for an accident. Sometimes a Court will decide that a person is, in part, liable for their own injuries!

The most common type of liability in an injury case is called negligence.  Negligence is the failure to take reasonable precaution or care to prevent an injury to others. In a slip and fall case, if a property owner neglects to clear a high traffic walkway of ice, he could be deemed negligent.  This is especially true if said property owner has had ample time to address the problem or was aware of the problem and neglected to do so.  To prove that a party is negligent in an injury case the plaintiff has to prove that the defendant had a duty to act with reasonable care and failed to do so.  The defendant’s failure to act then directly resulted in the plaintiff’s injury.

In many injury cases it will be difficult to prove liability. Having a lot of strong evidence is important to support your claim that the defendant is liable. If you’re trying to prove liability against a corporation they may be on hook for your damages and if you were severely injured those damages may be sizeable.  Because of the large amount of money at stake everything in the case will be thoroughly scrutinized. Furthermore the defendant will probably be willing to spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to make sure they won’t have to spend more. You can be sure they’ll have a tough, experienced legal team on their side.