Pursuing Fair Compensation
LEGAL ELEMENT
For a successful personal injury case, the victim (“plaintiff”) generally must show negligence on the part of the adverse driver (“defendant”). To do so, the plaintiff must prove the elements of duty, breach of duty, causation, and damages. In other words, the defendant must have failed to act with the appropriate level of care under the circumstances. Further, the accident must be an actual and foreseeable cause of this failure. The plaintiff must establish each of these elements by a preponderance of the evidence. In simpler terms, the jury must believe their version of events is more believable than the defendant’s version.
A defendant may try to argue that the plaintiff did not act with the appropriate level of care. Washington, DC and Maryland are both contributory negligence jurisdictions. So, this defense may defeat the plaintiff’s case entirely and bar the right to compensation. However, there are exceptions in the caselaw. Skillful DC personal injury lawyer Roger Gelb understands how to fight back against contributory negligence defenses. Our legal team can use its decades of experience to win your case.
MONETARY ELEMENT
In a successful personal injury case, a plaintiff should receive compensation for all reasonable damages causally related to the accident. This can include past, present, and prospective, both special and general. Damages are an essential element of a victim’s prima facie case for negligence. To recover any damages in a negligence claim, your legal team must prove that you did suffer the harm. In addition, the fact that the extent of your harm is not foreseeable by the defendant does not relieve him or her from liability. This is the “eggshell plaintiff” rule.
This may apply where you already have preexisting injuries that have been aggravated. The law in DC treats this as a new injury. Our DC personal injury lawyers have decades of experience. They understand the value of your case once you finish treating and your case is ready for trial. While the insurance company’s goal is to pay you as little as possible, we fight to make sure that does not happen.