Can You Sue for Negligence?

It’s a common quip that you can sue for any reason in the United States. While that may be a well-tread joke, it doesn’t reflect the reality of civil law. As defined by state or federal law, you must have a good reason to file a lawsuit.

Typically, this means that somebody must have either willfully or negligently taken action that harmed you in some way. Unfortunately, the U.S. legal system is so complicated that it confuses many people, who can’t tell whether they have a legitimate reason to sue.

There are multiple solutions to this problem, but one of the most effective is to contact an attorney and let them explain your legal options.

Schedule a free case evaluation and consultation with a Morgan & Morgan attorney if you believe you've been a victim of negligence. During this initial meeting, our attorneys will do their best to answer that burning question: can you sue for negligence?

Don’t wait. Contact us today to schedule your free case evaluation.

When Can You Sue for Negligence?

Just because someone has been negligent doesn’t necessarily mean you can sue them — there have to be other demonstrable factors at play as well. More specifically, a lawsuit based on negligence needs to prove four factors in court:

• Duty of care
• Breach of duty
• Causation
• Damages

If your attorney can’t prove all of these factors, you’ll likely lose your lawsuit. Most attorneys will decline to take a case unless they believe they can prove one or more of these factors.

Duty of Care

You may not realize it, but most people are bound by law to act with care toward others. The most obvious example is a teacher being duty-bound to ensure the children in their care are safe from harm. That duty is defined both by law and by the contract they signed when they accepted their role as an educator and caregiver.

However, even if someone hasn’t signed a contract to act a certain way toward others, they’re probably duty-bound to do so.

For example, if a friend invites you to visit their home, they’re duty-bound to ensure that their dwelling is safe. If they have rickety stairs in their home that could cause an injury to an unwary visitor and they didn’t either try to remove that danger or warn you ahead of time, they’re failing to act upon their duty to protect others.

Breach of Duty

Having established that another party has a duty of care toward you, your attorney must also establish that they breached this duty.

Typically, this involves demonstrating an act of negligence. In the previous example, your friend probably isn’t actively trying to harm you. But if they kept putting off repairing the stairs and forgot to warn you, that failure to act still counts as a negligent act.

However, the fact that you were injured alone doesn’t prove that the other party was negligent in their duty. If they took reasonable action to fulfill their duty and those actions weren’t enough to protect you from harm, they haven’t breached their duty of care. 

Having a duty of care doesn’t mean that somebody must do anything and everything to protect others; it just means they have to take reasonable action to protect others.

Can you sue for negligence? In short, yes, but an attorney must be able to prove that negligence and evidence of a reasonable attempt to fulfill a duty of care typically negate a claim of negligence.

Causation

The next factor your attorney will need to prove is causation. This means that your attorney needs to show that any harm you suffered resulted from the negligence. Both direct causation and indirect causation can be sufficient for a lawsuit based on negligence, depending on the circumstances.

Most of the evidence your attorney collects for your case will likely be centered on proving causation. For example, if you have physical injuries, your attorney will need to prove that those injuries were attributable to negligent action or lack of action by another party.

Similarly, if you suffered from an illness, your attorney would need to provide evidence that you wouldn’t have acquired the illness (or would have experienced less severe harm from it) were it not for negligence.

Damages

Finally, your attorney needs to prove that the harm you suffered resulted in losses that can be quantified in damages. In a legal context, damages are the financial rewards you claim from another party to cover your losses and resulting expenses or hardship.

Damages will generally be quite easy to determine whether you’ve been physically or emotionally injured. The cost of your medical expenses and any lost wages due to lost work time are considered damages and can be easily calculated.

However, it might be more difficult to calculate damages if your reputation was tarnished or you suffered diminished quality of life. These sorts of outcomes often result in lifelong harm that can only be estimated. An experienced Morgan and Morgan attorney can determine an approximate value that will be used to make your case in court.

On the other hand, if the harm you suffered was minimal, you might not be eligible to sue for negligence. There has to be some monetary value that can be assigned to the harm you suffered. If there is no such value, or the value is less than the court fees, there isn’t a reason to sue.

Why Can You Sue for Negligence?

If you look through the legal services most personal injury lawyers offer, you’re not likely to see “negligence” listed as a category. That’s because negligence is a contributing factor in other aspects of the law, not a type of incident or offense in and of itself.

• Typically, negligence can be found in cases involving:
• Medical malpractice
• Defective products
• Car accidents
• Premises liability
• Nursing home neglect

The details of your case matter when choosing an attorney. You want an attorney with experience with the type of claim you’re making.

Can You Sue for Negligence in a Wrongful Death Case?

Yes. If you’re a family member of a party that died due to negligence, you can collect damages for that person's death. Typically, damages will include any income a family member would have provided if they hadn’t died, as well as medical and funeral costs for that individual and additional damages for the suffering you feel at the loss of your loved one.

Can I Sue an Employee for Negligence?

Typically, employees aren’t liable for the activities they perform while at work. However, if an employee intentionally acts beyond the scope of their job or in a way that would generally be considered unreasonable, they might be legally liable for the harm they cause.

Your attorney can determine whether an employee has crossed the line in such a way that their negligence makes them liable.

Can I Sue a Bar or Restaurant for Negligence?

Negligence at a bar or restaurant can easily cause illness, especially if the breach of duty of care involves food preparation or storage. The difficulty in suing a bar or restaurant is that your attorney must prove that the negligence, and not some other factor, caused your illness.

Can I Sue for Negligence After a Bar Fight?

This is a perfect example of premises liability. Since alcohol reduces inhibitions and promotes aggressive behavior and bars serve alcohol, bar owners are required to ensure that customers are safe while in their establishments.

If a bar doesn’t have appropriate security or continues serving a customer alcohol after they’re intoxicated, the owner has failed in their duty to protect you from other customers.

Can I Sue My Insurance Company for Negligence?

While it may be tempting to sue your insurance company for denying your claim, denial alone isn’t proof that the insurance company has acted negligently.

Usually, denial will only be considered negligent if it would clearly cause harm and should have been approved based on your insurance policy contract. This is a difficult bar to overcome in many cases.

What’s the Difference Between Ordinary Negligence and Gross Negligence?

Gross negligence represents reckless behavior that disregards the harm that behavior is likely to cause others.

A motorist intentionally running a red light during rush hour traffic is an example of gross negligence. If the same person accelerates through a yellow light and briefly runs a red light during off-peak hours, they’re probably only guilty of ordinary negligence.

As a general rule, it needs to be clear to the person that there’s a good chance their actions will result in harm to another party. However, even if the individual didn’t realize the action would likely result in harm, it might still be considered gross negligence if a reasonable person would have come to that conclusion.

What Are the Consequences of Gross Negligence?

If you win a civil case that involves negligence, you should receive compensatory damages. These damages pay for any expenses or losses you’ve suffered due to the negligent party’s actions. When gross negligence is involved, you’ll typically also receive punitive damages.

Punitive damages are awarded by a court to deter the defendant from performing similar actions in the future. A judge determines the value of these damages based on how severe the negligence was, rather than the specific consequences of that negligence.

Even if your compensatory damages were rather small, you stand to receive a large payout in punitive damages if the negligent action was expected to result in much more harm than it did.

Can I Sue if the Harm Was Intentional?

While intentional harm, by definition, isn’t negligent, that doesn’t mean you can’t file a lawsuit for an intentional action. While your attorney will have to prove different facts in court to secure compensation, an intentional act can indeed be the basis of a lawsuit.

If another person’s actions have harmed you, don’t trouble yourself attempting to surmise whether those actions were intentional or negligent. Tell your attorney the facts of the case and let them figure out how to proceed.

An Experienced Lawyer Can Help You if You’ve Been Harmed by Negligence

Almost everyone acts irresponsibly at some point in their life. But when that irresponsibility causes preventable harm, the party that caused the harm might be liable under the law.

Don’t wait to contact a personal injury attorney. Contact Morgan & Morgan today to schedule a free case evaluation and speak with an experienced attorney about your legal options.