Feb
4
2024

Texas Negligence Law Basics

When a person fails to act reasonably in acting with a degree of care owed to someone else, that is called negligence. The facts of a case very much affect whether something would be defined as negligent or not. For instance, certain people are held to a higher standard as others (doctors, lawyers, etc.) and society has placed certain expectations of care in certain situations. While laws vary from state to state, the basics are as follow:

Duty

This means the defendant should or should not have acted in a certain way. When a duty is owed to someone, we mean that they should have acted in a certain way. For example, a driver owes a duty to others on the road by driving safely.

Breach of Duty

This is when the defendant has failed to act in accordance with fulfilling his or her duty.  Using the driver example, the defendant failed to drive safely thereby breaching the duty to other drivers.

Actual Cause

This is determined by saying “But for the defendant’s reckless driving, the injury would not have occurred” or the defendant’s driving was the direct cause of the person’s injury.

Proximate Cause

Proximate cause is determined by asking if it was foreseeable to a reasonable person that driving recklessly could cause injury to other drivers. Of course, when you drive recklessly, everyone knows that there is a risk to injure yourself and others. Therefore the defendant’s action would be the foreseeable cause.

Damages

In order to sue for negligence, you have had to have some damages inflicted upon you. These would be injuries that you sustained, medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost wages.

Of course, this is a very basic rundown of Texas negligence. If you have been injured and need compensation then you need to speak to an experienced attorney. Call us and speak to one of our personal injury attorneys right away. Contact Dashner Law at  972-793-8989

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