What Makes Somebody Liable For Your Injuries?

When a personal injury attorney meets with a potential client, the central question of the discussion is about liability. You may wonder what makes a defendant legally liable for your injuries, though. Look at what liability is and how it might apply to a defendant.

Defining Liability

Although the term liability sounds a lot like responsibility, there's a specific legal difference between being liable versus responsible. Liability supposes a duty of care. This is a legally recognized obligation to prevent others from coming to harm due to your actions, choices, or missions.

Someone can be responsible for an injury without being liable for it. For example, a person might have punched another party but claimed self-defense. If the self-defense claim held up, they wouldn't be liable for injuries even though they had caused them.

What Makes a Defendant Potentially Liable?

Frequently, a defendant assumes a duty of care by taking particular actions. The classic version of this is the duty to safely operate your vehicle. An auto accident attorney doesn't have to prove whether a motorist had a duty of care if the incident occurred along a public roadway. The law assumes it.

Many activities besides driving assume the duty of care automatically. For example, most licensed work like construction and renovation assume a duty of care. A company installing a sidewalk can't just leave an unmarked hole in the ground for someone to fall into.

An invitation is another way a defendant takes on a duty. Stores are liable for injuries that they cause through poor care for their locations. This is because the act of inviting the public into a store assumes liability. Similarly, a person who invites a neighbor into their home accepts a duty of care.

Proving Liability

Generally, it's not enough that a person has a duty of care. A personal injury attorney usually has to also prove a defendant failed to observe their duty. If a customer at a store ignores a "No Employees Beyond This Point" sign, for example, the store probably isn't liable for what happens after that.

Typically, a personal injury attorney wants to prove that a defendant neglected to do something to provide for the safety of others. Suppose the landlord of a multistory apartment building had installed a handrail that was too short to pass local regulations. A lawyer would use that as proof of negligence if someone fell over the rail. Consequently, if the landlord's failure represented the main reason a victim was hurt, the landlord would be liable.

Reach out to a personal injury attorney to learn more.