Negligence is the foundation of most personal injury claims. Negligence is simply the failure to act as a reasonable person would act under the circumstances.
As part of a negligence claim, you need to understand that there may be some defenses asserted. One of those defenses is contributory negligence which means that if there is negligence on the part of the Plaintiff (the injured party) that negligence may be a bar to that persons claim.
There is also a defense known as assumption of the risk which means that if you knowingly and willfully assumed the risk of injury then your claim may be barred.
The doctrine of last clear chance is an exception to contributory negligence which very seldom applies. It does apply in those instances where the Defendant, in spite of the Plaintiffs contributory negligence, still had the last clear chance to avoid the injury.
The burden of proof in a civil case means that the Plaintiff must prove his or her case by the greater weight of the evidence. That same concept applies in regards to a negligence claim. That means that the Plaintiff needs to prove that the Defendant was guilty of some negligence which was a cause of injury to the Plaintiff and must prove that by the greater weight of the evidence.
