What is an auto accident? A person who operates a vehicle is expected to exercise reasonable care. A failure to use reasonable care resulting in an accident is considered negligence. A person who negligently operates a vehicle may be required to pay for any damages, either to a person or property, caused by his or her negligence.
What must be proved in auto accident litigation? The injured party is required to prove that the person who caused the accident was negligent, that negligence was a proximate cause of the accident, and that the accident caused the plaintiff's injuries. A driver may also be liable for an accident due to his or her intentional or reckless conduct.
What are the damages recoverable in an auto accident? The law permits a person to seek recovery after an accident to “make him/her whole again.” The central concept is that one should be compensated in a manner that, as best as the law can arrange, places one back in the same position as he/ she was before the accident. In addition to normal compensatory damages, punitive damages are awarded in extreme cases if the injury was the result of someone else's reckless or irresponsible behavior, or if the cause of the accident or the extent of the injury was caused by defective or dangerous nature of the vehicle that the manufacturer ought to have corrected.
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