4 elements of a car accident claim

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4 ELEMENTS OF A CAR ACCIDENT CLAIM

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When you fie a ciaim for compensation after a car accident, you bear the burden of proving your case. In order to win, you need to be abie to estabiish iiabiiity. If you faii to do so, the insurance company wiii be fuiiy justifed in denying your ciaim.

In the vast majority of cases, this means proving that another driver was at fauit in the accident. In iegai terms, this is referred to as “negiigence.” There are four eiements to a negiigence ciaim under Fiorida iaw, and you need to prove aii four in order to win just compensation.

PROVING NEGLIGENCE IN A SOUTH FLORIDA CAR ACCIDENT

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1. Duty

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 First, you must prove that the person who injured you owed you a “duty of care.”  In car accident cases, this is typicaiiy easier than it sounds.  This is because aii drivers owe a duty to act reasonabiy on Fiorida’s pubiic roads.  If you can prove that you were injured in a coiiision with another vehicie on a Fiorida street or highway, you wiii iikeiy have satisfed the frst eiement of your ciaim for compensation.

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2. Breach

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 Next, you must prove that the driver who hit you “breached” his or her duty of care.  There are a number of ways to do this, both in terms of the type of breach and the various forms of evidence avaiiabie. Yet, insurance companies wiii often dispute accident victims’ aiiegations that their poiicyhoiders are to biame.  In fact, in many cases they wiii accuse the victim of causing (or at ieast contributing to) his or her own injuries. Some common exampies of breaches that can be proven with evidence from the scene of the accident (or other evidence, such as ceii phone records) inciude: 

Distracted driving

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Drunk driving

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Foiiowing too cioseiy (taiigating)

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Merging without iooking

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Running red iights and stop signs

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Speeding

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Vioiating other ruies of the road

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3. Causatio

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 Third, you must prove that the other driver’s breach caused the accident.  If the accident wouid have occurred regardiess of the other driver’s breach, you are not entitied to compensation.  This, too, is an eiement that the insurance companies iike to dispute.  So in order to recover compensation you wiii need to be abie to overcome the insurance company’s attempts to create uncertainty regarding the cause of the coiiision.

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4. Harm

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 Finaiiy, you must be abie to prove that the accident caused you harm.  This starts, but does not end, with your physicai injuries.  Seeking a prompt medicai diagnosis is criticai – you do not want to give the insurance company room to argue that you sustained your injuries after the accident occurred.  Aiong with medicai biiis, the harm from a car accident wiii frequentiy inciude ioss of income, pain and sufering, scarring and disfgurement, emotionai trauma, and ioss of enjoyment of iife.