How to Prove Negligence in a Personal Injury Claim

If you’ve been injured due to someone else’s carelessness in New Mexico, you may be eligible to file a personal injury claim. However, securing compensation requires proving negligence. This legal concept is the foundation of most personal injury cases, including car accidents, slips and falls, and medical malpractice.

Understanding the legal definition of negligence, how negligence works, and how to establish it in a New Mexico court can make a significant difference in the outcome of a case. In the meantime, contact an attorney as soon as you can. An experienced Albuquerque personal injury lawyer will handle every aspect of your claim so that you can focus on your recovery.

Understanding Negligence in New Mexico

In the United States, everyone is responsible for taking reasonable precautions to avoid putting others in danger. If this responsibility is disregarded or violated, the offending party may be held financially responsible for any harm or damages that result. This is defined as a "duty of care" in New Mexico. That said, showing fault in an accident can become complicated.

Proving negligence in a personal injury claim is essential. Negligence occurs when an individual or entity fails to exercise reasonable care, resulting in harm to another person. In personal injury law, proving negligence requires establishing four key elements:

• Duty of Care: The defendant had a legal obligation to act in a manner that would prevent harm.
• Breach of Duty: The defendant failed to meet that obligation.
• Causation: The breach directly caused the plaintiff’s injuries.
• Damages: The plaintiff suffered actual losses as a result.

Proving Duty of Care

The first step in a negligence claim is to establish that the defendant owed a duty of care, which varies depending on the specific circumstances of the case. For example, drivers have a duty to operate their vehicles safely and obey traffic laws. Property owners are responsible for maintaining safe premises for lawful visitors, while medical professionals must provide treatment that meets the accepted standard of care.

In most cases, proving duty of care is straightforward. However, unique situations—such as injuries that occur on private property or due to third-party actions—may require a more profound legal analysis.

Showing a Breach of Duty

Once duty is established, the next step is to show that the defendant breached that duty. A breach occurs when someone acts in a way that a reasonable person would not under similar circumstances. There are key characteristics that must be proven in order to secure damages if you file a personal injury claim in New Mexico, regardless of the type of accident involved. For instance, a driver who runs a red light or speeds in poor weather conditions breaches their duty of care. Similarly, a store owner who ignores a spill for hours, leading to a slip-and-fall accident, may be considered negligent. A doctor who misdiagnoses an illness by failing to order necessary tests could also be seen as breaching their duty.

Proving a breach often requires evidence like eyewitness statements, surveillance footage, police reports, business records, and medical records. In some cases, expert testimony from industry professionals may be necessary to demonstrate what a reasonable person or business should have done in the given situation.

Proving Causation in a New Mexico Personal Injury Claim

A breach of duty alone does not automatically lead to liability. The plaintiff must show that the defendant’s actions directly caused their injuries. This is known as causation and has two components:

• Cause in Fact: Also called “but-for” causation, this means the injury would not have happened but for the defendant’s actions.
• Proximate Cause: This considers whether the injury was a foreseeable consequence of the defendant’s actions.

For example, if a drunk driver runs a red light and hits another vehicle, causing the driver to suffer a broken leg, there is clear causation. However, if a driver runs a red light, causing a minor fender bender, and the other driver suffers a heart attack hours later, causation may be more difficult to prove.

Causation is often supported by:

• Medical records linking the injury to the accident
• Accident reconstruction reports
• Expert testimony on how an accident caused specific injuries

Comparative Fault or Negligence in New Mexico

Keep in mind that numerous states have adopted a "no-fault" system. For example, if you are injured in a car accident in a no-fault state, your own vehicle insurance will cover your property damage and a portion of your medical expenses up to the no-fault limitations.

Most states include exclusions for deaths and catastrophic injuries. If your injuries are so serious that they surpass your insurance coverage, you may sue the responsible party for the remaining amount. On the other hand, New Mexico follows a tort-based system, which is the same as a fault-based system. In other words, under New Mexico's pure comparative negligence law, the amount of compensation available to an injured party is limited by an amount proportional to that party's degree of fault.

Personal Injury Involving Multiple Parties in New Mexico

When more than one accident occurs, or when one injury leads to further damages or dramatically exacerbates the first injury, personal injury lawsuits can become extremely complicated. Successive tortfeasor liability is the legal term when comparative negligence laws apply to more than one negligent party in a single claim. This occurs when the same third-party plaintiff suffers harm from two or more seemingly unrelated acts of negligence. For instance, after an accident victim is sent to the hospital, they could sustain secondary injuries or losses due to medical negligence.

Contact a New Mexico Personal Injury Attorney

If another party was responsible for the accident that left you injured, you may be entitled to seek financial restitution. There are several reasons to pursue a claim for damages against a negligent party. A sense of fairness is fostered by the fact that negligent persons will be held liable for their acts, accountability is strengthened toward the negligent people, and victims can receive compensation for their losses. However, personal injury lawsuits are difficult to win. The cause of your accident and the parties responsible for your injuries need to be determined, so an investigation is required. You'll need to collect evidence and negotiate a settlement. Fortunately, a New Mexico personal injury attorney from Will Ferguson & Associates is here to take your call.

Call our accident attorneys at Will Ferguson & Associates at (505) 243-5566 to find out whether you are eligible for compensation for your injuries. Contact us immediately for a free, no-obligation consultation when you've suffered injuries at the hands of a negligent party in New Mexico.