What to Know before Consulting an Attorney Colorado for Personal Injury Cases

If you have been injured due to somebody else’s carelessness or fault, you should contact a personal injury attorney Colorado. It can be due to an action such as carelessly dropping a brick from a height, or it can be the lack of action such as a property owner failing to repair a faulty stair. But the thing is that the burden of proof lies with the plaintiff. An attorney Colorado will have to prove the following if he or she takes up your case:

·         The defendant owned certain care towards the plaintiff

·         The defendant failed to exercise or show this care towards the plaintiff

·         The failure of care caused injury to the plaintiff

·         The plaintiff suffered damages due to this failure.

The first two points are related to two important concepts in the personal injury law: Duty of Care and Breach of Duty. These are the two important points that a personal injury attorney Colorado will have to establish in such a case.

Duty of Care: The plaintiff has to show that the defendant owed him or her certain duty. In addition, a reasonable person in that situation should be able to see that their action (or the failure of action) will result in injury to someone else.  On certain occasions, this duty is very clear. For example, if you dig a ditch in the middle of the road without any warning signs, causing an accident, you will be legally liable.

However, in other cases this may prove very hard to prove. If a person has a pool in his backyard, is he responsible for his neighbor’s children’s safety? An attorney Colorado will have to prove what safety measures a reasonable person would have taken and what would be the limitation of this liability.

Breach of Duty: After establishing the duty mentioned above, the plaintiff must prove that the defendant failed to discharge this duty. As the example above pointed out, a reasonable person will know that an open ditch in the middle of the road can cause accident. Therefore, by not posting any warnings to that effect or fencing the ditch, the defendant has clearly failed their duty to other people on the road.

In addition, a personal injury attorney Colorado will also have to establish the cause and show the damages from the injury. The amount of compensation will take into account the plaintiff’s medical bills, loss of income (past, present, or future) or any other damages that directly result from the accident

An attorney Colorado must establish all the above points in a personal injury case. Know these basics and make a point of what is applicable in your case before seeking legal help.

Joshua J McDowell is former El Paso County Deputy District Attorney and now he is writing articles about Colorado Attorney, Personal Injury Lawyer Colorado and Colorado Criminal Lawyer as per the basis of his knowledge and experience of Colorado Laws.