How to Prove Negligence in a Personal Injury Claim
- Home / Personal Injury /
- How to Prove Negligence in a Personal Injury Claim
May 18, 2017
An injury caused by another’s negligence can impose a serious burden on your life by building up expensive medical bills and causing disruption to your daily activities.
In order to pursue legal action against the at-fault individual for compensation for your loss and suffering, you will need to prove his or her negligence caused your injury.
What is Negligence?
Negligence is a term used to define a person or party’s disregard for the safety and well-being of others by acting carelessly or recklessly.
This is an important factor in establishing a legal case against a party who has caused others a great deal of pain and suffering, such as in a medical malpractice or car accident claim.
There are four elements that must be present in order for a victim (plaintiff) to prove the at-fault party’s (defendant) liability in a personal injury claim.
Duty
When bringing a negligence claim, the first step you must take is to determine whether the defendant owed you a legal duty of care.
In claims involving negligence, the defendant has a legal obligation to ensure your safety and the well-being of others.
This could refer to a legal obligation that a motorist would have to drive safely and within the state’s traffic laws. A motorist’s duty is to ensure the safety of all others sharing the roadway and to refrain from behavior that would cause a traffic collision.
The defendant’s duty could also be a professional obligation that he or she had to the plaintiff, such as a doctor-patient relationship.
In a medical malpractice claim, the doctor’s duty would have been to provide the patient with competent and high-quality care that reflects the standards held by the medical community.
Breach of Duty
Once you establish the defendant had an obligation to ensure your safety, you must prove that he or she breached this duty.
A breach of duty is considered any action that does not reflect the behavior or decisions a reasonably prudent person would make under similar circumstances.
A reasonably prudent person is a legal term that refers to an individual who acts responsibly and with regard for the safety of others.
Proving that the defendant breached his or her duty would require you to show that a reasonable person, given what the defendant knew at the time, would have behaved differently and reached an outcome that would not have caused your injury.
A motorist, for instance, has an obligation to drive in a manner that would ensure the safety of everyone sharing the roadway. The motorist can breach this duty by driving recklessly like being under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Causation
In a negligence claim, it is not enough to show that the defendant breached his or her duty to ensure the safety of others. You must definitively prove that your injury was caused by the defendant’s negligence.
Proving causation will require you to produce evidence that shows the defendant’s actions or inactions caused your injury. In civil claims, there are two types of causations:
Cause in Fact
A cause, in fact, occurs if the plaintiff’s injury would not have occurred had the defendant’s actions not caused it.
This means the defendant’s actions were a direct cause of the plaintiff’s injury. A scenario in which a cause in fact injury occurs would be when a motorist runs a stop sign and strikes a cyclist crossing the street.
The defendant’s actions directly injured the cyclist, who would have remained unharmed had the defendant stopped.
Proximate Cause
Proximate cause occurs when the plaintiff’s injury was an obvious and foreseeable result of the defendant’s actions leading up to the accident.
Proximate cause is also referred to as “but for causation” because it means that although a particular breach may not have directly caused your injury, it would not have occurred had the defendant not breached his or her duty.
An example of proximate causation can occur when a property owner neglects to fix a broken sidewalk and a pedestrian trips and falls on the pavement.
Although the property owner did not cause the pedestrian to trip and fall, he or she would not have been injured had the property owner not breached his or her duty of maintaining the sidewalk.
Damages
In the final step for proving negligence, you must show that the defendant’s breach of duty resulted in you suffering actual damages.
Actual damages include any expenses directly related to the defendant’s failure to exercise reasonable care. This can include medical expenses from treating your injury or damages to your personal property, such as vehicle repair costs.
In order to file a personal injury claim, you must be able to list a monetary value the court can use to compensate your physical injury or financial loss. Because of this, you will need to prove the defendant’s negligence caused you to suffer financial despair.
Experienced Attorneys
Proving negligence is not always straightforward and can become complicated when you attempt to build a case that supports your claim.
Our Phoenix personal injury attorneys have decades of combined experience in representing victims of negligence and understand the fundamentals needed to successfully represent your claim.
Contact us for a free, no-obligation consultation so we can review your claim and determine if you are able to proceed with legal action. We provide all of our services for no upfront cost. The only time we require payment is if we recover damages for your claim.
Call 1-800-706-3000 if you were injured because of another’s negligence.
Free Case Evaluation
By submitting your contact information, you agree that we may contact you by telephone (including text) and email in accordance with our Terms and Privacy Policy

Your message has been sent
Thank you for your message, we will get back to you soon.
-
I was recently served court documents that I was being sued from an accident that happened years ago. For someone who has never been through something like this and not familiar with the court lingo or where to even begin, it was very frustrating and stressful. I reached out to a family member who knew Tracy Laskos and the great reputation of Phillips Law Group and within the hours of the initial call for help, I had a direct number to Lead Attorney Nassar. Nassar heard my case and almost instantly put me at ease by explaining the process and how easy it was to handle. Nassar spoke to me like he was a friend, not like I was a client. I am so grateful to Tracy, Nasar and of course my cousin Stephanie for helping out and giving me the direction that I needed to get through this situation. I plan on referring my friends, family and patients that are in need of a personal injury Attorney to Phillips Law Group. Thank you!!
-
My Attorney Sean Davis and his paralegal Hannah Dustin worked on my case. They listened to the problems that I was having with my case and they both got right to work. First they found me a doctor that actually listened to my problems from my car accident and worked quickly to form a plan that was comfortable for me and the doctor. The doctor was the best and after a couple of procedures the pain in my neck was gone. Behind the scenes Sean and Hannah were working hard to get my case settled with the insurance company. They kept in contact with me on all aspects of my case. They settled my case much faster than I expected and for more than I was expecting. If you want two real professional legal people to work on your case, I would highly recommend Sean and Hannah to you. I cannot say enough nice things about these two. Thank you so much, Rickey Hart .
-
I just wanted to thank Phillips law Group and Vanessa Rodriguez for all the help that she did for my daughter’s case. She was involved in her first accident and she needed the help to deal with these adjusters. Thank you again.
-
I want to thank attorneys Tim and Robert and the paralegal Bethany for all they had done on my case. They were all empathetic, knowledgeable and professional. All my questions were answered, emails returned in a timely matter, and promises fulfilled. I recommend Phillips Law Group if you need help with your injury case.
-
It’s an Honor and a Privilege to work for a company that cares about its employees and clients for 12 years. I’ve seen Management go out of their way to help someone whether it’s a personal matter or work related. I am also reminded of many occasions where a Client needed urgent help and we as a Team were able to get the person immediate assistance. At Phillips Law we make that happen through Teamwork and a dedication to our profession. I’ve had numerous jobs in several other fields, those were just jobs. This is a home. Many of us have been here for quite a few years, it feels like one large extended family.
-
A friend of mine recommended Phillips Law and I’m so grateful, because they were so wonderful, so down to earth, so professional. I felt like they were family.
-
If you are in need of legal support for a motor vehicle collision of any kind, I highly recommend going to Phillips Law Group Injury Lawyers. Sean Davis has exemplary knowledge and experience in this field, compassion for his clients, and excellent judgment and communication skills.
-
Great company and awesome service. Thanks Caroline fabos. Kudos to all.
-
Liz was great
-
Although my accident was fortunately not a major one, The Phillips Law Group AZ treated it as such. Their staff, specifically Mr Juan Roque was very professional, courteous and most importantly very informative. Mr Roque's attentive service was phenomenal and I highly recommend this firm!