Determining Liability in a Car Accident

If you have been hurt in a car accident, you may want to file a lawsuit against the other driver and his insurance company.

2011-07-14

ORLANDO, FL, July 14, 2011 (Press-News.org) If you have been hurt in a car accident, you may want to file a lawsuit against the other driver and his insurance company. In order to win a personal injury case, you must prove the other drive was at fault, or liable, for your injuries. If a loved one has died due to someone else's reckless driving, you will have to prove the other driver was responsible for your loved one's death.

Proving Fault in a Car Accident

In its purest form, fault for causing an accident is either created by statute or defined by common law. Common law recognizes four basic levels of fault:

- Negligence
- Reckless or wanton conduct
- Intentional misconduct
- Strict liability

Negligence generally means careless or inadvertent conduct resulting in harm or damage. It is a recurring theme in the majority of automobile accidents. It encompasses both active and passive forms of fault. For example, failing or omitting to do something, such as yielding a right-of-way, may result in liability just as much as actively doing something wrong. Reckless or wanton conduct generally refers to a willful disregard for whether harm may result and/or a disregard for the safety and welfare of others. Strict liability may be imposed, even in the absence of fault, for accidents involving certain defective products or extra hazardous activities, such as the transportation of explosive chemicals.

Under most state laws, people who have caused an automobile accident have committed a "tort," a private wrong against another, and generally not constituting a crime. Those who have committed torts are referred to as "tortfeasors" under the law. Many automobile insurance policies continue to use the word "tortfeasor" to refer to people who are at least partly "at fault" or responsible for an accident.

If you have been injured in a car accident in Orlando, Florida or a surrounding area, please visit the website of the experienced personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Michael V. Barszcz, M.D., J.D at www.themdjd.com.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Narrowest bridges of gold are also the strongest, study finds

2011-07-14

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- At an atomic scale, the tiniest bridge of gold -- that made of a single atom -- is actually the strongest, according to new research by engineers at the University at Buffalo's Laboratory for Quantum Devices. The counterintuitive finding is the result of experiments probing the characteristics of atomic-scale necks of gold that formed when the pointed, gold tip of a cantilever was pushed into a flat, gold surface. An examination of these tiny, gold bridges revealed that they were stiffest when they comprised just a single atom. The study was published ...

Common Injuries from Motorcycle Accidents

2011-07-14

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), motorcyclists should wear helmets and protective clothing whenever operating their bikes. Motorcycles require more skill and attention to drive than passenger vehicles, which is why the NHTSA also recommends bikers take special courses to learn defensive driving and proper operation of their vehicles. However, even the safest biker cannot always avoid a motorcycle accident, and despite protective clothing and helmets, bikers run a much higher risk of sustaining serious injury in an accident. When ...

Health care in the home – new report July 18

2011-07-14

For many reasons -- including the rising cost of health care and aging of the U.S. population -- health care is increasingly moving from formal medical facilities into patients' homes. A wide range of procedures and therapies are now carried out far from any hospital or clinic, often with no health care professional on site. HEALTH CARE COMES HOME: THE HUMAN FACTORS, a new report from the National Research Council, recommends steps the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other agencies and groups can take to ensure that the medical devices used in home care are easy ...

Hip Fractures Among the Elderly

2011-07-14

Health issues intensify when an elderly person fractures a hip. In fact, 29 percent of older people who break a hip will die within one year; that's according to the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Combine a hip fracture with another chronic disease and morbidity can rise to 75 percent of those cases. Unfortunately, hip fractures are on the rise. Approximately 300,000 Americans over the age of 64 break their hips annually. And, The large majority of those are women. Considering that millions of boomers will hit retirement age over the next few years, fractures ...

Biologists discover an 'evening' protein complex that regulates plant growth

2011-07-14

Farmers and other astute observers of nature have long known that crops like corn and sorghum grow taller at night. But the biochemical mechanisms that control this nightly stem elongation, common to most plants, have been something of a mystery to biologists—until now. In this week's early online publication of the journal Nature, biologists at the University of California, San Diego report their discovery of a protein complex they call the "evening complex" that regulates the rhythmic growth of plants during the night. More importantly, the biologists show how this ...

Legislators Contemplate Bills Protecting Hotel Maids

2011-07-14

In the wake of the sexual assault allegations against International Monetary Fund Chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, New York legislators are contemplating new proposals that would offer further protections to hotel maids. In May, Strauss-Kahn was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault stemming from an encounter with a hotel maid at the Sofitel Hotel near Times Square. On May 23rd, Assemblyman Rory Lancman introduced the Hotel Worker Protection Act, which would add a new provision to Section 202 of the Labor Code. Essentially, the bill would allow hotel employees (specifically ...

Pitt, Wake Forest team finds why stored transfusion blood may become less safe with age

2011-07-14

PITTSBURGH, July 13 – Transfused blood may need to be stored in a different way to prevent the breakdown of red blood cells that can lead to complications including infection, organ failure and death, say researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Wake Forest University. This week in the early online version of Circulation, the team reports the latest findings from its ongoing exploration of the interaction between red blood cell breakdown products and nitric oxide (NO), revealing new biological mechanisms that can reduce blood flow and possibly ...

With Resources, Children with Cerebral Palsy Can Succeed

2011-07-14

Maybe you've had concerns for your child's well-being since the day of his or her birth because your labor was mismanaged, delivery was delayed, too much Pitocin was used or your baby was in fetal distress. Maybe you suspected there was a problem when you noticed your infant didn't reach for you with two hands or seemed excessively stiff or floppy. He or she just didn't move like other babies. Even if you thought there might be problems, an actual diagnosis of cerebral palsy is still devastating. It's a diagnosis that thousands of parents hear every year, as almost ...

Study explores best motivating factors for pursuing a shared goal such as giving

2011-07-14

People who see the "glass as half empty" may be more willing to contribute to a common goal if they already identify with it, according to researchers from The University of Texas at Austin, University of Chicago and Sungkyunkwan University. According to the studies, individuals who already care a lot (highly identify) with a cause are more likely to financially support the cause if a solicitation is framed by how much is still needed (for example, "we still need $50,000 to reach our goal"). However, if individuals care very little prior to a solicitation (low identify), ...

Research provides insight into new drug resistance in hospital microbes

2011-07-14

Boston (July 13, 2011) – Hospitals struggle to prevent the infections that complicate treatment for cancer, joint replacement, heart surgery and other conditions. Hospital-acquired infections are often resistant to multiple antibiotics, leading to approximately 100,000 deaths and more than $30 billion in additional health care costs yearly. New drugs are being developed to combat these infections, but resistance invariably emerges to these last-line drugs. Daptomycin, a new antibiotic approved by the FDA in 2003, is used to treat infections caused by multi-drug resistant ...

Determining Liability in a Car Accident

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: