The 4 Elements of Personal Injury Law You Should Know About in Texas

In Texas, personal injury legal claims occur when one person gets injured because of another party’s actions or negligence. For example, if you get injured in a car crash or a slip and fall incident in a city like Houston and get hospitalized, you might be able to make a personal injury claim in a Texan court. A Houston personal injury attorney can tell you a lot more about this.

However, with that said, it’s not a bad idea for you to have an idea about some of the important elements of personal injury claims in Houston, Texas. This article will highlight the four elements of personal injury legal claims in Texas. Remember, if you’re undergoing great hardship or are hurt because of an accident, you may have the right to get compensated.

Duty to Exercise Reasonable Care

One of the first things your lawyer must establish in a personal injury legal claim is the duty of care that appears in your specific situation. The duty of care in personal injury claims is the obligation to avoid hurting another party by taking certain measures or precautions. For instance, a driver has the duty of care not only to drive the car safely but to avoid drinking while driving as well.

It’s easy to establish in some cases, like the one we’ve just mentioned above, because there’s legislation that governs how you’re meant to act. In other scenarios, the legal rules and regulations are not as clear. For example, business owners have a duty to ensure the safety of their customers, but there’s a lot of room for interpretation in such cases. Therefore, your lawyer may need to establish the reasonable steps one would need to take.

Negligence

For starters, your attorney will have to show that the other party breached his duty to exercise reasonable care. For instance, if you happened to slip and fall in the grocery store on a recently mopped part of the floor that had no signage warning you about the wet floor, your lawyer might argue that the owner of the store failed to ensure a sign was up and breached their duty of reasonable care.

However, with that said, not all personal injury cases are because of negligence. Other claims may be brought forth because of another party’s intentional, harmful actions or reckless behavior. But, regardless of the lack of intention or the intention itself, the party who breached their duty is still legally held liable for any outcomes their actions might cause.

Image Source: Freepik

Causation

Another major element is that your lawyer will need to prove that your losses or injuries were caused by the recklessness or negligence of the other party. Even though there may be other things that played a part in causing you to get hurt, your lawyer must be able to demonstrate that the party who breached their duty of reasonable care played a role in causing loss or injury via their actions.

Furthermore, in Texas, you can only get compensation if your degree of fault is 50% or less. The court will reduce your damages by the percentage you’re personally found to be at fault. This brings us to the next and final point.

Damages

Even if your lawyer can prove the above elements, you’ll only be able to get compensation if you can prove damages. In simpler terms, you don’t have grounds for a personal injury claim if you’ve not suffered any losses or injuries from the incident.

If your lawyer can’t show any damages caused by the accident, then you probably shouldn’t expect to get any compensation. You don’t have to do all this on your own. Hire an experienced lawyer, and let them take care of your case.