When you suffer a serious injury in Massachusetts, you may wind up facing major medical bills in the aftermath. You may also experience considerable pain and suffering, among other possible repercussions. While you may chalk up your experience to an unfortunate accident, it may not have been an accident if someone else’s negligence caused it.
If someone else’s negligence was the root cause of your car crash, slip-and-fall incident or something similar, you may be able to hold that party accountable. In doing so, you may be able to have that individual or entity cover your medical and other expenses related to your injury.
Understanding “negligence”
Negligence occurs when someone has a particular duty of care and fails to uphold that duty, with the failure to do so causing or contributing to an injury. For example, all motorists have a duty of care to abstain from driving under the influence. If a motorist does so, strikes you and causes a serious injury, that motorist was negligent by driving drunk.
Understanding “contributory negligence”
The concept of “contributory negligence” may come into play during a personal injury case if someone tries to argue that you were at least partially at fault for the incident that caused your injuries. If the other party’s negligence was greater than yours, you may still be able to secure compensation from the more negligent party. However, you may receive less compensation than you would if you were not negligent at all.
Massachusetts has complex negligence laws. The more you understand about these laws, the more you might understand whether your personal injury case has merit.
