Proving Negligence in Your Workplace Accident Claim

Accidents happen when a party acts negligently or recklessly. Negligence comes in many forms – it can be an oversight or a failure to consider how one's behavior or property can cause harm to others, it can be due to poor design of either a product or the layout of a parking lot or building, it can be a breach of one's responsibility to protect others by making choices that endanger others, such as choosing to come to work drunk or under the influence of drugs, or it can be a simple failure to react to a hazard. Any time that a party has a responsibility to protect others, such as a premises owner's responsibility to protect those who come to the property, and fails to uphold this responsibility, he or she may be found negligent and liable for the victim's damages.

Workplace accident claims operate on this principle, just like other types of accident claims. If you have been injured in a workplace accident, you will need to prove that the responsible party acted negligently and that this negligence directly caused your injury and damages.

Negligence, as a legal concept, is defined as the sum of the following:

• The presence of a duty of care;
• A breach of this duty;
• Injuries directly caused by the breach; and
• Damages directly caused by the injury.

This is why you need to provide evidence to support your workplace accident claim. You cannot simply state to an insurance provider that you were hurt at work and expect to receive compensation. You need to show that the party responsible for your injury had the responsibility to protect you and failed to act in this manner and that this failure to act responsibly directly caused you to be injured. For example, if you were working at a client's premises and the client provided you with a broken ladder to do your work, then you were injured in a fall because the broken ladder could not support you, the client breached his or her duty to provide you with safe equipment and this breach was the direct cause of your injury. You must also prove that the damages for which you are seeking compensation, such as medical bills and lost wages, are the result of your injury. You can prove this by providing copies of your pay stubs and medical bills to show your financial loss.

Negligence is the key to almost any accident claim – if a party cannot be proven to have been negligent, that party cannot be held liable for the victim's damages. Learn more about negligence and other elements at play in a workplace accident claim during your initial legal consultation with a member of our team of skilled San Jose workplace accident attorneys at Corsiglia, McMahon, & Allard, L.L.P. We proudly serve clients throughout the Bay Area, San Mateo County, Alameda County, San Benito County, Monterey County, and Santa Clara County.

• Negligence
• Duty of Care