Posted: August 28, 2011
Cincinnati personal injury lawyer law talk will be a blog series on personal injury law of Ohio. I hope to break down some of the statutes and cases that deal with Ohio personal injury accident claims. This is part one in and will focus on an introduction to the law of negligence.
That is a term often used in Ohio as do other states have their own definition, which is probably similar to Ohio personal injury law. If you were to have a personal injury accident case or be on a jury you would hear the judge explain to the jury what negligence is.
Here is an example from an actual case : The defendants are required to use ordinary care to discover and avoid danger. The plaintiffs claim that the defendants failed to use ordinary care in maintaining, inspecting, and/or repairing a tank car. As discussed above, ordinary care is the care that a reasonably careful person would use under the circumstances. In considering this, you must decide what the facts and circumstances were, then you must decide whether the defendants used ordinary care. If the defendants did not use ordinary care, they were negligent; if the defendants used ordinary care, they were not negligent.” So negligence is a failure to use the care that a reasonably prudent person would use.
In the first instance the party injured, the plaintiff, ,must be owed a duty by the defendant. For example all car drivers have a duty to operate their car with ordinary care to avoid injuring others. The duty and the standard of care can also be set be the legislature. So if a person violates a statute this can be negligence as a matter of law. Everyone is familiar with the rear end collision.
You are sitting at a red light and someone for whatever reason drives right into the rear of your car. In Ohio this can be a violation of 4511.21 the assured clear distance statute. This occurs if there is a car traveling in the same direction and in the same lane as you and you are visible and the car fails to stop in time to avoid striking you. That person would be negligent . If there negligence caused you a auto accident personal injury then they would be responsible to you to pay for your injuries.
I was injured in a car accident and can't work is a good phrase to use if you are trying to find information on the steps to take if you have a personal injury. However this series hopes to send the lay person to law school in the very defined area of personal injury accident and injury law. Or if you would like specific questions on Ohio law you can go to my personal injury lawyer web site .
As always I am happy to take your call for a free personal injury law case evaluation . Call Anthony Castelli Cincinnati personal injury lawyer at 513-621-2345 or enter your information in the box to the right.
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