Types of Negligence in Personal Injury Claims 

By Your Health Magazine Contributor

Your Health Magazine Contributor

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Types of Negligence in Personal Injury Claims 

Each state looks at negligence a little bit differently, and that can have a big impact on how much money you are able to recover after an accident. In Florida, knowing what is considered negligence can help you determine if you are able to collect on your damages or not.

“Negligence is all about responsibility. It establishes who is on the hook when someone gets hurt,” says Allan Ziffra, a personal injury lawyer at Rue & Ziffra.

Let us break down how Florida considers negligence, how it differs from other places, and why that matters if you are considering making a claim.

What is Negligence?

Negligence occurs when one person fails to act as another person would have under the same circumstances. To show negligence, you must show that there was a duty, a breach, causation, and damage.

Let us say that a person is not paying full attention to the road and runs a red light. They hit another car. They had a duty to follow the rules of the road, but they did not. This is the breach. They caused an accident, and someone was injured.

There are different types of negligence, such as comparative negligence, contributory negligence, gross negligence, and vicarious negligence, all with different applications depending on the circumstances.

Florida’s Comparative Negligence 

Florida uses a comparative negligence system to determine fault in an accident. In this system, everyone involved in the accident gets a certain percentage. That percentage reduces the amount that can be claimed.

There are two ways in which states can follow this system. In pure comparative negligence, you can still make a claim even if you are 99 percent at fault for the accident. In modified comparative negligence, you can make a claim only if you are less than 50 percent at fault.

Florida follows the modified system. So, let us say that you have an accident with another car. The damages amount to $100,000. If you are 40 percent at fault for the accident, you may still be paid $60,000.

Contributory Negligence 

Other states have a much harsher contributory negligence policy. If you are one percent at fault for an accident, you get nothing, not a single penny. One little slip-up, and you get nothing.

Places like Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, and D.C. still follow this policy. The judicial system is very harsh on this policy and holds people liable for their own acts, regardless of how minor their role in the incident is. Winning cases here is a real challenge compared to Florida.

Gross and Vicarious Negligence

Gross negligence is when a person completely ignores people’s safety, such as a person running through a school zone or a hospital employee ignoring all the alarms going off because they are irrelevant. That is gross negligence, and it is as simple as that. When the victim decides to do it, the court can impose punitive damages to punish that person and to scare everyone else straight.

Vicarious negligence takes a different form. In this type of negligence, the courts place the blame for another person’s actions on a different person. Injuries to employees fall into this category. For instance, a delivery van company can be held liable for an accident caused by one of its employees as long as the employee was on the job at the time.

The Role of a Lawyer in Proving Negligence 

A good attorney in a negligence case is one who brings all of these elements together and proves all four elements of negligence, who is at fault, and what you have lost. 

When you are looking for a lawyer, you want one who is familiar with Florida personal injury law. You want to know about their experience, what they have accomplished for other clients, and what they plan to do for you. 

A good attorney is one who not only establishes a good claim for you but who is there for you throughout the process.