When you file a personal injury claim, you are considered the plaintiff even though you were the victim in the accident that caused your injury. As the plaintiff, there are certain things that you will have to do. Of course, you will have to file all of the paperwork, and you will have to show proof of damages or losses. After all, you will want to make sure all of your expenses are covered. You will also have the burden of proof on you as well. Just what is burden of proof? What does this mean for you?
Burden of proof is a simple term that will have a big impact on the case that you are filing. This means, it will be up to you to prove that the other party is responsible for the accident and your injury. In other words, you are burdened with creating the case. If you cannot prove that the other party actually was negligent, then you will not have much of a personal injury claim at all. Just how do you overcome this burden of proof? Here are a few things that you will need to know.
Proving negligence means you have to do much more than just show that you got hurt on someone else’s property or you were hurt in a car wreck. In the case of a vehicle accident, the burden of proof can be easier simply because you will have a police report showing that the other party is the cause of the wreck. If you are hurt on someone else’s property, then you will have to do more work. For the other person to be liable, then you have to prove that they knew about an unsafe condition and that they chose to do nothing about correcting the situation. If the other party had no idea that the unsafe situation existed and it was not something obvious that they should have noticed, then they are not considered negligent.
When you file a personal injury claim, then there are certain things you will be responsible for as the plaintiff. You will need to handle the burden of proof, which means that you will need to prove that the defendant was directly responsible for your accident and your injury. If you cannot prove this, then it will be very hard for you to actually win the personal injury case and the insurance company will definitely not be willing to settle out of court.
