Breach of duty of care refers to someone’s failure to meet the applicable standard of care under the circumstances surrounding the accident and your injuries. Someone who breaches a duty of care may be liable for an accident victim’s injuries and losses.
In a personal injury claim, you can recover compensation by proving that another party caused your injuries due to negligence. Breach of duty is just one of the four legal elements of negligence.
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What Are the 4 Elements of Negligence?
Proving that a party’s negligence caused your injuries requires you to establish four legal elements:
- Duty of care – The defendant owes a duty of care to an injury victim. Although the specifics of the duty of care vary from situation to situation, it requires a party to act reasonably under the circumstances to avoid injuring others.
- Breach of duty – You must show that the defendant breached a duty of care they owed you. This means they did not meet the standard of care required in your case.
- Causation – The element of causation requires proof that a party’s breach of their duty of care directly caused your injuries. This means that you wouldn’t have been injured if they hadn’t breached their duty.
- Damages – For the element of damages, you must prove financial, emotional, or personal losses you have suffered due to your injuries. You can do this by providing bills, invoices, receipts, pay stubs, or expert testimony.
What Is Meant by Duty of Care?
The duty of care refers to the legal responsibility that people owe to others to avoid causing physical, financial, or legal harm. The specific acts that a person must take to avoid harming others may depend on statutory laws or professional regulations.
For example, traffic laws require drivers to operate their vehicles in a specific manner. Professional rules regulate how healthcare providers must deliver treatment. Case law developed over the decades can establish rules for a person’s duty of care, such as a property owner’s duty to protect visitors from hazardous conditions on their premises.
The duty of care can also arise from basic, common-sense rules about how a person should act. As a result, courts instruct juries in many personal injury lawsuits to use their experience and common sense to determine how a reasonable, prudent person would have acted in the same circumstances.
What Is a Standard of Care?
In a personal injury negligence claim, the standard of care refers to the actions a person should take to avoid injuring others. The specifics of the standard of care will depend on the circumstances of the case and the relationship between the at-fault party and the victim.
Ordinary Negligence
In most personal injury claims, the standard of care will involve ordinary negligence. The standard of care for ordinary negligence typically refers to the degree of care used by reasonable people under similar circumstances. In ordinary negligence, the standard of care asks how other reasonable people would act in identical circumstances.
Professional Negligence
Other types of personal injury claims can involve different standards of care. For example, a medical malpractice claim involves professional negligence. The standard of care in a case involving professional negligence refers to the actions or decisions that other professionals of similar training and experience would make in identical circumstances.
Negligence Per Se
The standard of care also requires people to follow the law. A person who causes injuries while violating the law may bear liability due to being negligent per se. A negligence per se claim argues that a party committed negligence simply by breaking the law. For example, a driver who gets into a car accident while driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs may be liable under a negligence per se claim by violating DUI laws.
What Are Some Examples of Breach of Duty?
Examples of breaches of duty in common types of personal injury claims include:
- Drivers violating traffic laws, such as by speeding, running red lights or stop signs, or failing to yield the right-of-way
- A store owner or manager not cleaning up a spill or putting up a wet floor sign
- A dog owner not maintaining their pet’s enclosure, allowing the dog to escape and eventually attack someone in public
- A doctor failing to diagnose a patient’s condition despite having information that would allow the doctor to reach the correct diagnosis
- A commercial vehicle fleet owner putting off necessary repairs or manufacturer-recommended maintenance for their vehicles, increasing the risk of mechanical failures
- A water park operator failing to station lifeguards around pools or water rides
How Do You Prove a Breach of Duty in a Negligence Case?
Depending on what you’ve suffered, you may need evidence to prove that the accident and your injuries occurred due to another party’s breach of their duty of care. Examples of evidence you might use to show a breach of duty in a negligence claim include:
- Police crash reports
- Accident or incident reports
- Accident scene photos and videos
- Surveillance and traffic camera footage
- Eyewitness testimony
- Cell phone logs
- Computer logs
- Maintenance and repair reports
- Staffing records
- Medical records
- Accident reconstruction, engineering, or medical expert reports and testimony
Contact a Florida Personal Injury Lawyer
Proving that someone breached a duty of care they owed to you can involve complex factual and legal issues. After an accident caused by someone else’s negligence, you need solid legal support to prove your claim and demand compensation. A personal injury attorney can help you secure evidence and build a case to hold the negligent party accountable for your harm. Contact Zervos & Calta, PLLC today for a free consultation to discuss your legal options with an experienced personal injury lawyer.
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About the Author
Angela Zervos
Angela has spent more than 20 years of her legal career fighting for personal injury victims – and against big insurance companies. As a true trial lawyer, she takes on a wide variety of personal injury claims, including those involving motor vehicle accidents, slip-and-fall accidents, medical malpractice, traumatic brain injuries, and wrongful death. Prior to starting her own law practice, Angela secured more than $80 million in settlements and jury verdicts for her clients – a 90 percent success rate since 2002. Her efforts on behalf of her clients have resulted in numerous accolades. For example, Angela maintains a “Superb” 10.0 rating from AVVO, an “AV Preeminent” rating from Martindale-Hubbell, and she is ranked among the Top 100 civil trial lawyers by the National Trial Lawyers Association. Zervos & Calta, PLLC serves the entire Tampa Bay area – including Pinellas County, Pasco County, Hernando County, and Hillsborough County – from offices in Tarpon Springs, Spring Hill, Clearwater, and St. Petersburg.
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