Personal Injury SpecialistWhen you are deciding which Phoenix Arizona Scottsdale Arizona personal injury specialist to hire concerning your case, at the initial consultation, make sure they explain the basic rules of legal responsibility.
Although most Phoenix Arizona Scottsdale Arizona personal injury specialists would like people to think that legal responsibility or liability for an accident is complicated, in most instances it is not. Liability for an accident directly relates to someone's carelessness or negligence in what they were doing. To this, the law applies a basic rule:
- If one person in an accident has been less careful than another, the less careful one must pay for at least a portion of the damages suffered by the more careful one
As you may know, only a small percentage of cases are decided in court and most are fought out in settlement negotiations. However, settlement negotiations are for the most part, information exchanges in preparation for a possible trial.
In court, Phoenix Arizona Scottsdale Arizona personal injury specialist the Hislop Law Group must prove four basic things to determine liability:
- The person who caused the accident had a legal responsibility call a "duty of care" to avoid harming our client who has been injured
- The person who caused the accident failed to live up to that legal responsibility committing what is called a "breach of duty"
- The accident resulted from the breach of duty called "causation" and
- Injuries and their consequences known as "damages" resulted from the accident
The Phoenix Arizona Scottsdale Arizona personal injury specialist HIslop Law Group will initially determine liability through the rules above. These basic rules are sometimes supplemented by one or more of the following propositions:
- If an accident is caused by a defective product, the manufacturer and seller of the product are both liable even if the injured person doesn't know which one was careless in creating or allowing the defect or exactly how the defect happened
- If the injured person was also careless, his or her compensation may be reduced by the extent of such carelessness was responsible for the accident
- If an accident is caused on property that is dangerous because it is poorly built or maintained, the owner of the property is liable for being careless in maintaining the property, regardless of whether he or she actually created the dangerous condition
- If a negligent person causes an accident while working for someone else, the employer may also be legally responsible for the accident
Call the Phoenix Arizona Scottsdale Arizona personal injury specialist HIslop Law Group today to schedule your free consultation and begin the process of getting compensated for your injuries. |
