Can You Sue Someone Who Accidentally Injured You?

Unfortunately, millions of Americans suffer injuries each year, requiring nearly 90 million emergency room visits in 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Tragically, the CDC also reports that 200,955 people lost their lives in 2020 because of unintentional injuries. 

You might wonder what your options are if you’re looking into suing someone who accidentally injured you. Further, you may wonder if it’s possible to sue someone if they accidentally caused your injuries. Depending on what led to the accident, you may have a legal claim against someone if they unintentionally caused an accident that injured you. 

At Hartley Law Firm, we provide zealous and aggressive legal representation to fight for Texas injury victims. 

What You Need to Know About Suing Someone Who Accidentally Injured You

If someone else caused your injuries, you might be able to sue them, even if they unintentionally caused an accident. The law acknowledges that not all injuries happen because someone intended for them to happen. Texas law allows victims of unintentional wrongdoing to recover compensation under tort law. Torts is an area of civil law that allows a private party to sue someone else for causing them harm. 

Bringing a negligence claim is a common way to hold someone accountable if they accidentally injure you. Negligence involves the defendant breaching their legal duty of care by failing to act as a reasonable person would, causing an injury through reckless or accidental conduct. Defendants can raise defenses like contributory negligence, where the injured party’s own negligence may limit or bar recovery.

Negligent vs. Intentional Conduct

The legal definition of negligence is the failure to act like a reasonably prudent person would act under the circumstances when that failure causes injury to another person. This requirement to act how a reasonable person would act is called the duty of care. Oftentimes, negligent conduct occurs when someone makes a mistake, and that mistake causes an injury. Negligence also includes reckless conduct, which is when someone consciously disregards a substantial risk of harm to others. When bringing a negligence claim, you don’t have to prove that someone intentionally tried to harm you. 

The Basic Elements of Negligence

When suing for negligence, there are four elements you need to prove to recover compensation:

• Duty of care: You must show that someone owed you a legal duty to act with reasonable care to prevent foreseeable harm, such as a driver operating a vehicle safely or a property owner maintaining safe premises.
• Breach of duty of care: Failing to act as a reasonable person would apply under similar circumstances, including through an action or a failure to act.
• Causation: You must prove that the at-fault party’s breach of duty was both the actual and proximate cause of your injury – that is, the harm would not have occurred but for their actions and was a reasonably foreseeable result.
• Injury or damages: You must show that you have suffered actual harm or losses caused by the breach that are compensable, which could include either economic or non-economic damages

A personal injury attorney can help you understand your legal rights and options when you have been injured due to someone else’s carelessness or negligence. They guide you through the process of pursuing compensation for accidental injuries caused by another party.

Defenses to Negligence Claims

A defendant in a negligence lawsuit may raise several defenses to limit or avoid liability:

• Contributory Negligence: In some jurisdictions, if the plaintiff’s own negligence contributed to their injuries, they may be completely barred from recovery.
• Comparative Negligence: More commonly, states apply comparative negligence, reducing the plaintiff’s recovery by their share of fault, including pure (recover regardless of fault) and modified (bars recovery if plaintiff’s fault exceeds a threshold).
• Assumption of Risk: The plaintiff voluntarily and knowingly accepted the risks, which can be express (e.g., signing a waiver) or implied (e.g., participating in a contact sport).
• Lack of Proximate Cause: The defendant may argue their actions were not the proximate cause of the injury if the harm was not a foreseeable result of their conduct.

What Are the Different Types of Torts?

Tort law is an expansive area of law that encompasses situations where one person causes harm to another. To sue someone who accidentally injured you, you can use a couple of different types of tort claims to prove they are liable for your damages.

There are three main types of torts:

• Torts based on negligence,
• Strict liability torts, and
• Intentional torts.

Each type of tort involves different elements you must prove to win your case. Generally, when suing someone who accidentally injured you, you’ll likely bring a negligence claim or a strict liability claim.

Torts Based on Negligence

As we discussed before, negligence occurs when someone breaches a duty of care they owe to you, and that breach causes an injury. Torts based on negligence include:

• Slip, trip, and falls; 
• Auto accidents; 
• Medical malpractice; and
• Dental malpractice.

Because negligence claims don’t require the at-fault party to have intended to harm you, you can bring a negligence claim against someone who accidentally injured you. 

Strict Liability Torts

Strict liability torts don’t require you to show the at-fault party intended to harm you or was negligent. Instead, the at-fault party can be held liable if you can prove they performed a certain type of action that harmed you. Examples of strict liability torts include:

• Some product liability claims, 
• Possessing a dangerous animal, and 
• Engaging in abnormally dangerous activities. 

There are other situations where an at-fault party can be held strictly liable for an injury. An at-fault party’s intentions or lack of care typically aren’t considered in strict liability cases.  

Intentional Torts 

Intentional torts occur when a defendant intentionally acts or works to cause a particular result. Intentional torts include civil battery and assault, false imprisonment, trespassing, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In the realm of intentional torts, what constitutes “intentional” conduct and what is “accidental” can vary from the everyday meaning of those words. 

For example, in most trespassing cases, the at-fault party must have intended to walk on the land to be held liable. It might be irrelevant whether they knew the land belonged to someone else when they intentionally placed a foot on the patch of grass. In contrast, if they accidentally landed on the property because they tripped on a rock, then the court probably won’t find that they acted intentionally. 

Hartley Law Firm: Texas Personal Injury Lawyers Who Can Help

Hartley Law Firm has years of experience fighting for injury victims throughout Texas and helping them seek the compensation they deserve. In 2021, Expertise.com named Austin Hartley one of the “Best Personal Injury Lawyers” in Carrollton. If you or your loved one suffered an injury because of someone else’s conduct, contact our office at 469-502-5307 or online to schedule a consultation.