What will you have to prove in order to succeed in your personal injury claim? This can be divided in to three elements:

You will need to prove that the defendant owed you a duty of care and that the defendant was in breach of that duty. In most cases it is not difficult to establish the existence of a duty of care. For example employers owe their employees a duty to take reasonable care for their safety and drivers owe other road users a duty to drive with reasonable care and attention.

However, you also need to prove that there was a breach of that duty by the defendant. This just means that there was some wrongdoing by the defendant. Exactly what you will have to prove will vary according to the type of claim. For example, if you had an accident at work you will need to prove that your employer failed to take reasonable care for your safety or failed to comply with legislation designed to ensure your safety. If you had a road traffic accident, then you will need to establish that the driver who caused the accident failed to drive with reasonable care and attention. Do not be too concerned about this as we will be able to advise you on whether there has been a breach of duty by the defendant.

You will also need to prove that the defendant’s breach of duty caused your injuries. In most cases this will be straight forward but in some cases this can be more complex. If for example, your employer has failed to provide you with safety equipment and you then suffer an accident, it will be necessary to prove that it was the lack of safety equipment which led to your injuries. To give a simple illustration, if your employer should have provided you with a safety helmet but failed to do so, and you are injured by a falling object, you will not be able to establish liability for an arm injury as this would not have been prevented by the safety helmet. If however, you suffered a head injury you would probably be able to establish liability as this injury could have been prevented by a safety helmet.

Once we have established that there was a breach of duty and that this caused your injuries we will then need to establish the value of the claim. You are entitled to compensation for the injury itself and any losses you have sustained as a result of that injury. Please go to the Compensation section for more information on this.

If you are unsure of whether you will be able to establish any of the above elements then please do not hesitate to contact us through the Contact Us page. All our solicitors are very experienced in considering these issues and will be able to advise you further.