The Four Required Elements of a Successful Auto Injury Accident Insurance Claim or Lawsuit

If you’re reading this, you certainly want to know whether or not your family might have a successful personal injury case against a defendant who must reimburse you for the loss of your loved one in a fatal car accident. In most auto accident cases, the victim, or in this case, the victim’s surviving family, has a legal right to collect damages. Texas law says that rightfully asking for and collecting damages are two different things. As plaintiffs, you have the burden of proving all four necessary pillars of defendant liability for the fatal car accident claim in court. In the US, we all know that all defendants are innocent until proven guilty. All who will judge your case (or evaluate your insurance claim) must clearly understand why you are owed damages. All your opponents have to do to win is effectively deny or disprove any one of these four elements.

In civil law, each of these four essentials of proving legal liability against a defendant must demonstrate your charges are valid and appropriate. They are duty, breach, causation, and damages. Below, we’ll briefly discuss each of these elements to give you a better appreciation of what it will take to prove that you’re entitled to damage compensation.

Duty: The first task thing your fatal auto injury lawyer must do is prove is that the defendant owed your loved one a duty of care. The defendant must exercise an acceptable level of caution to prevent people from being hurt or killed as they drive. Texas Civil Codes and Procedures establish the level of the duty of care that a person or organization owes to another in personal injury cases. Duty depends on the situation in-question that are considered relative to the relationship of the parties involved. Proving that the defendant in your case owed your loved one at least some duty of care is relatively straightforward since nearly all drivers owe each other the duty to drive as a reasonable person would in keeping others safe. Unless there are unusual circumstances (and there are a few), the chances are that a moderate “reasonable person standard” applies to the defendant (or defendants) in an auto accident case that caused your loved one’s untimely death.

Breach: If the defendants drive unreasonably only for the moments immediately leading up to the fatal car wreck, they can be held responsible for their negligent actions that caused this tragedy.
A breach of the defendant’s duty of care includes offenses such as
speeding recklessly, driving at night without headlights, running through red lights, driving while intoxicated, driving while distracted (by cellphone or texting). It applies even if they may not have been legally charged for these offenses in criminal court. Proving that the defendant breached his duty of care is typically accomplished when your attorney presents evidence from an investigation that removes any doubt what the defendant did or failed to do in causing the fatal car wreck. The jurors, in your case, will consider your breach of duty evidence along with additional evidence that clearly illustrates the defendant’s negligence. Many times this element can be the most difficult to prove and calls for a great deal of investigation by your lawyer. But once that breach is successfully confirmed, the rest of your civil action might not be so difficult.

Causation: Simply showing the defendant might have been negligent isn’t always enough to win your case that the defendant owes your family a long list of damages arising from the fatal auto wreck. If a defendant is forced to deny causation (a term used in proving a breach of duty), often he will argue “unforeseeable circumstances” such as other drivers, pedestrians, or even your loved one were the actual cause of the fatal wreck. Most often, this tactic is the defendant’s last stand if he or she hopes to wiggle out of being held liable for legal damages. Expect the defendant’s lawyers to claim anything from the sudden appearance of an obstacle in the road that forced them to violently swerve and hit your loved one’s car to their toddler threw a bottle of apple juice at them while they were otherwise driving safely. You know that this is untrue. But how do you expose this defense for what it is? What happens if they introduce a perfect driving record, no accidents or tickets, that dates back to the Reagan Administration? It’s up to you and your Texas fatal auto accident lawyer to prove your accident claim and disprove any untruthful defense. It’s important to have more than sufficient evidence to refute any argument that is thrown at you, and that it was the defendant’s conduct behind the wheel that caused the car accident that took your loved one.

Damages: The term “damages” isn’t limited to just the actual cost of injuries and the medical or funeral expenses of your loved one. It’s a legal term that refers to the total monetary value (the exact sum of money) the defendant owes you and your family in the wake of your loved one’s fatal auto accident. In addition to the above expenses, damages might include your deceased loved one’s pain and suffering, present lost wages (present and projected earnings), and you and your family’s pain and suffering. The repair or replacement bills for any vehicle or items of worth that are destroyed in the accident will be included as well. To prove what you’re entitled to collect, you and your attorney must correctly calculate what the defendant owes you and provide irrefutable evidence of all your family’s injuries and losses to support your damage claim.

While you and your fatal car accident lawyer establish your exact damage amount, the defendants also work on the very same thing, calling it “totaling up our losses.” Civil damages owed can be the most contentious issue of any personal injury case. Defendants use their own “creative accounting” to determine how little they think they owe fatal accident victims if the jury finds that they are responsible for the accident. They’ll accuse you of asking for a handout and beg the court to see that your requested amount is unreasonably higher than traditional payouts in similar cases. This very convenient defendant argument is also often accompanied by a charge that you are bringing a frivolous lawsuit against them. You must clearly show the jury that your requested damage amount is realistic and proportional to the actual harm done to you and your family by the negligent defendant. Contesting the compensation amount is usually their last gasp at wiggling out of paying reasonable damages. You must strongly finish your case with clear evidence that proves your family’s losses are genuine, and that the amount requested is the full and reasonable total of your damages.

Determining the proper amount of damages can be as important as the other three elements of proof because you are approaching the end of your family’s quest. And you have only one shot at receiving fair compensation from any single negligent defendant. Computing every single loss can be challenging unless you have an experienced auto injury attorney who knows the value of personal injury losses arising from fatal auto accidents and how to effectively calculate them: both tangible and intangible. How do you put a price tag on a beloved family member? In calculating the loss of earning capacity, how do you account for hypothetical raises and promotions your loved one would have received had he or she continued to work, or been promoted, or hired away by another company at double tomorrow’s salary? Damage calculation issues are a reason you need an experienced fatal car accident attorney with our Law Firm who knows how to account for and calculate every damage claimed as a result of losing a loved one to a deadly auto accident.

Call us today. One of our accident injury attorneys will patiently listen to you, analyze your case, and explain your options. Our goal is to make sure that you recover as much as possible for your injuries and make this sometimes complicated legal process as easy as possible for you to bear.

The period after the loss of a loved one is often stressful and confusing. Don’t add to it and the confusion it creates by letting an inexperienced attorney handle your case or represent yourself when you are unqualified. With decades of experience, we are uniquely qualified and fully prepared to get you the best results possible. If you or someone you know was injured in a car accident, contact an attorney at our Texas Law Firm today at 1(800) 862-1260 (toll-free) for a free consultation and find out how we can help you.