Filing a personal injury claim allows you to seek damages that result from someone’s negligent actions. Various types of negligence exist in a Texas personal injury case. Negligence and gross negligence have differing meanings, and the type you experience may impact the compensation you receive in a personal injury case.
The J.D. Silva & Associates, PLLC team wants you to feel confident about filing a personal injury claim and your recovery. Below, we explain the difference between negligence and gross negligence and what they mean in a Texas personal injury case. Working with a Pearland personal injury attorney with our firm allows us to comprehensively evaluate the damages you experience because of negligence and seek compensation on your behalf.
What Is Negligence?
Negligence occurs when an individual fails to take reasonable preventive measures in a given situation. Reasonable actions are generally understood to be what other average individuals in the same environment would take to prevent injury to someone. Failing to take the appropriate measures may be viewed as negligent.
While most people rarely intend to cause harm or injury, their lack of attention or misjudgment can result in harm to someone else. Examples include:
- Engaging in distracted driving such as texting and driving
- Failing to yield at a yield sign and causing a crash with an oncoming vehicle
- Avoiding fence repairs that allow a dog to escape its yard and bite someone
- Not displaying wet floor signs after mopping, leading to a slip-and-fall accident
- Failing to secure a swimming pool area leading to the drowning of a minor
Even when someone’s actions lead to injury without meaning to cause damage, they may still be found legally responsible for the damages. An injured party has the legal right to take civil action to recover payment when an insurance claim does not provide adequate compensation for their damages due to negligence. A lawsuit may also allow an injured party to sue a negligent party personally when the negligent party is underinsured or uninsured.
Establishing Negligence Is Vital to a Personal Injury Claim
To seek damages for the costs you incur from a personal injury in Texas, the burden is on you to show that another person acted negligently. Establishing negligence requires four essential elements, and our personal injury lawyers in Pearland provide critical reviews of a client’s case to demonstrate:
- Someone owed you a duty of care: For example, vehicle drivers are responsible for taking reasonable precautions by obeying a yield sign before proceeding into traffic.
- The at-fault driver breached their duty of care to you: If a driver fails to look for oncoming traffic and obey the sign, they have breached the duty of care.
- Their actions result in your injuries: The oncoming driver fails to yield, striking you on your bicycle, and you suffer a broken leg, a head injury, and property damage.
- You incur damages because of your injuries: As a result of the crash, you have medical bills, lost wages and income, the need for ongoing rehabilitative care, and your bike is damaged beyond repair.
Your recovery or compensation is based on the extent of the damages to you resulting from negligence. In some instances, you may have current damages as well as projected future care costs, all of which must be included in your compensation demands.
A Pearland personal injury attorney will establish negligence through evidence documentation, witness testimony, and, when necessary, expert witness testimony.
Gross Negligence and How It Differs From Negligence
When someone commits an action with reckless disregard for the safety of another and causes injury, their actions may fit the definition of gross negligence. According to Texas Civil Code (Sec. 41.001 (11)), gross negligence occurs when a person purposefully employs an extreme degree of risk by considering the probability their actions will cause harm and the magnitude of that harm to others but continues with the action anyway.
The person committing an act of gross negligence possesses an awareness their actions are risky but proceeds to act despite the harm that may follow to the welfare, safety, or rights of another individual. Examples of gross negligence may include:
- A refinery operator’s failure to repair a leak after multiple notifications of damage results in a refinery explosion, causing workers significant burn injuries
- Drivers racing on city streets and striking a pedestrian with the right of way to cross a highway, resulting in severe injury or death
- A driver drinking excessively then choosing to drive home, causing a crash with significant injury and damages
Acts of gross negligence often result in severe harm and injury. In many cases, injuries resulting from gross negligence impact a Texas accident survivor for life. Gross negligence may lead to:
- Scarring or disfigurement
- Traumatic brain injuries
- Burn injuries that impact most of the body
- Amputation
- Wrongful death
- Paralysis or spinal cord injury
- Internal organ damage or failure
The compensation you may recover depends on the type of negligence a Pearland personal injury lawyer can demonstrate. Because the actual cost of damages resulting from gross negligence is rarely reflected in a settlement offer, pursuing a lawsuit in court may provide the full financial assistance necessary to seek the care and compensation you deserve.
How Negligence Impacts Your Financial Recovery
In most personal injury cases, the injured party recovers economic and non-economic damages to compensate for their injuries and property loss due to negligence. Fully accounting for these damages often proves challenging without experienced legal representation. In some instances, an insurance claim may be insufficient, and your attorney may advise you to pursue a personal injury lawsuit for full financial recovery.
The court may determine that exemplary damages (Sec. 41.003) are owed to you when someone’s actions are grossly negligent. Exemplary damages serve to make an example of the negligent party and punish them for their actions. Exemplary damage awards are rare except when the court sees clear and convincing evidence the harm you suffered results from actions meeting one of the following standards:
- Fraud,
- Malice, or
- Gross negligence
Personal injury costs leave staggering financial impacts on society. According to the National Safety Council, preventable fatal and nonfatal injury-related incidents produce $1,283.5 billion in economic costs. Unintentional injuries lead to a loss in quality of life valued at $6,221.4 billion.
These costs can produce significant ongoing hardship for the victims without legal intervention.
How a Personal Injury Attorney in Pearland Can Help You
Demonstrating negligence requires more than pitting one person’s word against another. Even after sustaining injuries, showing a causational relationship between your injuries and another person’s actions is the key to winning your case and receiving monetary acknowledgment of your suffering. Many injured Texans are unaware of the compensation owed them and settle for low settlement offers that fail to reflect their damages accurately.
Our personal injury attorneys at J.D. Silva and Associates, PLLC, possess a wide range of experience, allowing us to seek maximum compensation when proving negligence led to your damages. We found our services on solid educational backgrounds and the skills developed through assisting a diverse client base. We never back down from litigating a case in court to obtain the compensation owed to you as a result of negligence. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.