All citizens, professional or domestic, are legally required to maintain certain standards of behavior designed to protect everyone involved. Negligence occurs when a party fails to meet these standards. Negligence is the most common cause for filing a personal injury lawsuit.

The legal system understands that victims often face difficulties in proving negligence claims because they do not have the knowledge of the negligence when it occurs.

For example, it is difficult to prove a negligence claim when a patient is injured as the result of a medical procedure and does not know exactly what caused his/her injury.

When it is obvious that the injury would not have occurred without the negligence of the patient's medical provider, that patient is protected by the "res ipsa loquitur" legal doctrine. This doctrine implies that the victim of the negligence only needs to show that an injury occurred and would not have happened unless someone was negligent.

To successfully invoke this doctrine in a negligence claim the victim must show a few elements.

First, it must be shown that evidence of the actual cause of the injury cannot be obtained.

Secondly, the victim must prove that the injury would not happen under normal conditions without negligence.

Next, the victim must show that they were not responsible for his or her own injury, and that the defendant had complete control of the circumstances surrounding the injury.

Finally, it must be proven that the injury could not have been caused by any circumstance other than the circumstances of which the defendant had control.

Once this doctrine has been successfully invoked, the burden of proof falls to the defendant to prove that the negligence claim is unfounded, placing the bulk of the work and expense involved in a negligence claim on the defendant rather than the victim.

There are many factors when filing a negligence claim, which must be proven in order to be successful. It is advisable to obtain the services of an experienced personal injury lawyer familiar with negligence claims to help you understand your rights and legal options.

The main three issues which must be addressed are:

There are many ways to show that these things happened, such as the testimony of expert witnesses and submitting federal and state statutes as proof of negligence.

Legal behavior standards upon what a reasonable person would do in similar circumstances rather than what the average person would do under the same circumstances. It is important to understand that a reasonable person and an average person are two different legal concepts.

Standards set for the reasonable person are based on the jurisdiction's judgment of how a person should act in a given situation, while the standards of the average person are based on how the typical person might act. In a court of law, only the standard of a reasonable person is taken into consideration.

An experienced personal injury lawyer knowledgeable in negligence claims can assist you in determining responsibility as well as how this standard applies to your negligence claim.

Generally, people have a legal duty to protect others from harm, within reason. For example, a store owner has a duty to caution customers of recently mopped floors. If the store owner fails to do this, it constitutes negligence. However, in certain negligence claims the law limits the duty owed by one person to another.

A trespasser, for instance, would not have a claim of negligence due to the wet floors because the person should not have been on the property to begin with. It is also important to understand that while a person must attempt to reasonably protect others this does not place a requirement on the citizen to assist those in trouble. However, if a person assumes a duty that is not legally enforced, he must provide a reasonable standard of care in that duty. For instance, if a person administers CPR that person must do so correctly or face a negligence claim for the injury which occurs due to their lack of knowledge or negligence.

If you, or a loved one, have been the victim of negligence in Kansas or Missouri, please do not hesitate to contact our office for a free consultation and case evaluation.