Requirement #1: Prove a person/party was negligent and responsible for the incident

By The Husband and Wife Law Team on October 23, 2008

Mark Breyer, Arizona personal injury attorney, continues his discussion of requirements that are incumbent upon any personal injury plaintiff to prove to win their case.

A personal injury claim only exists when someone other than the injured person recklessly or negligently causes an injury to the victim. For instance, over the years we have talked to people who wanted to know if they could make a claim where they were injured in an Arizona auto accident that they, themselves, caused. By way of example, one mother called us after her daughter negligently drove into the rear end of another vehicle. The mother wanted to know if her daughter could make a claim through her insurance policy as a result of the medical bills incurred by her daughter.

We explained that it is possible that the daughter may be able to receive reimbursement of her medical bills from their own insurance company, depending on which insurance coverage had been purchased prior to the incident. However, the first step in a personal injury claim begins with being able to prove that another person was negligent. Well, in this example there was someone that was negligent: the mother’s own daughter. An injury victim that was the cause of her own injuries has no personal injury claim. Since no one else caused the injury, the potential “case” would not make it past this first requirement in the analysis.