From car accidents to slip-and-falls to medical errors, negligence is a foundational concept in personal injury lawsuits. At its simplest, negligence means carelessness – a failure to behave with sufficient caution or attention demanded by a specific set of circumstances.
Someone who suffers an injury because of someone else’s negligence can hold that party liable for the consequences, including medical bills, lost income, pain, suffering, and property damage.
What Are the Different Types of Negligence in Personal Injury Claims?
Virginia’s sample jury instructions recognize three types of negligence in personal injury law. In increasing order of severity, they are:
- Simple negligence (ordinary negligence), or a failure to exercise the care a reasonably prudent person would exercise under the circumstances
- Gross negligence, or negligence showing an indifference to the well-being of others that would shock fair-minded people
- Willful or wanton negligence, or a conscious disregard for others’ rights, or a reckless indifference to the consequences of one’s actions
Contributory negligence is another critical issue in Virginia personal injury cases. Unlike many other states that use comparative negligence laws, Virginia uses a strict contributory negligence system. A plaintiff in a personal injury case cannot recover damages if they are found to be contributorily negligent – in other words, if they share any percentage of fault for causing the accident that injured them, provided the Plaintiff’s negligence was a proximate cause of the accident.
What Are the Four Elements of Negligence?
As a general rule, simple negligence has the following four elements:
- The existence of a duty of care – The circumstances required the defendant (the at-fault party) to behave in a certain way not to harm the plaintiff (the injured party). For example, motorists have a duty of care to other road users and must operate their vehicles to avoid causing crashes. Shopkeepers owe customers a duty to keep their premises free from unreasonable hazards.
- A breach of that duty – The defendant’s behavior did not meet the duty they owed the plaintiff. Perhaps a motorist was texting while they should have been paying attention to the road and hit another vehicle. Maybe a customer slipped and fell on a spill caused by a leaking refrigerator unit the shopkeeper did not address. Those are examples of potential breaches.
- The plaintiff suffered an injury – Carelessness without negative consequences does not rise to the level of negligence. In the above examples, the other driver and the customer must have been hurt in some way to have a case against the texting motorist or inattentive shopkeeper.
- The breach directly led to that injury – Finally, the plaintiff must show that the defendant’s breach of the owed duty is the direct and proximate cause of their injuries. The driver would not have been hurt had the other motorist paid attention to the road, and the customer would not have slipped on the spill had the shopkeeper cleaned it up and fixed the refrigerator unit promptly.
Why Does the Type of Negligence Matter?
The type of negligence does not matter in most personal injury cases, where simple negligence is enough to prove that a defendant is liable and owes the plaintiff compensation. However, certain claims may require the plaintiff to establish a higher degree of negligence to win their case. Moreover, courts can award punitive damages only in instances of willful and wanton negligence. Unlike compensatory damages, these damages are meant to punish the at-fault party rather than to help a plaintiff offset the consequences of their injuries.
Get Help from Our Virginia Personal Injury Attorney Today
Are you dealing with the aftermath of an injury you suffered because of someone else’s negligence? If so, call us at (703) 762-2142 or contact D. Michael Mullori, Jr., Attorney at Law, to discuss your case with an experienced Virginia personal injury lawyer. We’ll explain your rights and analyze what your case could be worth at no upfront cost to you.
