After an accident, your loss can be unbearable, and your living standards are likely to go down significantly. The post-accident process and your intention to minimise the damage is of crucial importance as the adverse effects of your medical condition, economic loss and psychological sufferings can last long. Upon claiming compensation, you are obliged to prove the safety breaches and omissions of the defendant that became the main cause of an accident. Then, your loss, either as an economic loss due to your injuries, loss of income and loss of superannuation entitlements or as psychological sufferings, should be demonstrated well in the claim process.
Negligence should be distinguished from the obvious risk
For the case to be examined under the personal injury laws, the defendant party should owe the plaintiff a duty of care. Basically, the duty of care is the legal obligation to take reasonable, sufficient and correct care to prevent accidents that might cause a loss to the victim. As failing to execute necessary tasks to provide safety causes obvious risk, the defendant might be sued for breaching this duty.
On the other hand, the victim’s actions can also be the main cause of an accident. Excluding work accidents, failing to act reasonably and being the cause of your own loss may prohibit you from claiming compensation. For this reason, the claimant should demonstrate the duty that was owed to them and failing to exercise this duty caused the loss. You may be owed a duty of care in numerous situations. If you are a worker, your employer is obliged to keep the workplace safe as in the contrary case, the risks present in the workplace is obvious, and foreseeably, an accident can arise. In medicine, the duty of care is imposed on medical professionals to perform their practices at acceptable standards. This can be done by following the standard procedures and involves the patient’s whole treatment process that starts with the diagnosis and ends with the discharging of the patient. In public, the duty of care is imposed on almost every individual to sustain safety. If you own a business place that is accessible by the public or providing a service, the duty is owed to your visitors and your consumers. Considering the variety of risks that are posed to your customers, the business is responsible to take precautions. If the business is a theatre, lack of illumination –before and after the movie-, contaminated consumption products being sold in shops, dangerously placed decorative items and defective seats poses a foreseeable risk to the visitors that might not be recognisable by the victim until an accident arise. These mentioned conditions are easily noticeable by the business. Even if not, the duty of care involves regular extensive maintenance to notice and eliminate these risk factors. Considering the foreseeability of accidents resulting from neglecting the duty, in case of an accident, the business is to be determined as negligent.
Post-accident difficulties can be minimised and the loss of the victim can be recovered
Being permanently impaired and unable to work can threaten your financial safety. The continuous effects of these difficulties can be hard to withstand and damage your mental health. This situation is common and proves the importance of personal injury laws as these sufferings can be avoided. The intention behind imposing these strict and strong duties is to minimise the possibilities of accidents due to the human error factor. The laws are in your favour to prevent unjustness as the potential conclusions of accidents are foreseeable.
