The average person can do a fairly decent job of describing what a personal injury case involves. Someone committed an act (or, alternatively, failed to act) and another person was harmed. Far less people will be able to define a key word that is central to many personal injury cases: negligence. Any Colorado personal injury lawyer encounters this term so often that he or she can recite the definition from memory. Therefore, people seeking help from attorneys with injury cases should have a basic understanding of negligence, too.
In Colorado personal injury cases, negligence is defined by the courts as a “failure to do an act a reasonably careful person would do, or the doing of an act which a reasonably careful person would not do, under the same or similar circumstances to protect oneself or others from bodily injury.”[i] Put simply, negligence means somebody acted in an unreasonable manner or failed act in a reasonable fashion.
There is a specific legal test an injured party must satisfy to prove negligence. The elements of this test are:
- Duty (an obligation recognized by law requiring the defendant to conform to a certain standard of conduct for the protection of others against unreasonable risks);
- Breach of duty (a failure of the defendant to conform to the standard required under the aforementioned duty);
- Proximity or causation (a reasonably close causal connection between the defendant’s conduct and the resulting injury); and
- Damages (actual loss or damage resulting to the plaintiff).[ii]
An injured party must prove all the elements of negligence to recover his or her damages.[iii]
An important issue that comes up in negligence cases is the “reasonable person standard.” Put very simply, this issue asks the question: what would a reasonable person do in the same or similar circumstances? In the case of United Blood Servs. v. Quintana,[iv] the Colorado Supreme Court worded the reasonable person issue as follows: “an actor is required to conform his or her conduct to a standard of objective behavior measured by what a reasonable person of ordinary prudence would or would not do under the same or similar circumstances.” The reasonable person standard requires individuals to exercise ordinary caution when performing everyday activities; however, if a person is conducting riskier actions, he or she would be required to exercise a greater degree of care.[v]
As the above information should indicate, Colorado personal injury cases can be rather complex. They are not as simple as saying “I was injured and someone should pay me.” If you were wrongly injured by another party’s negligence, contact Mile High Legal and we can provide professional assistance to help you recover the damages you suffered.
[i] Lombard v. Colo. Outdoor Educ. Ctr., 266 P.3d 412, 415 (Colo. App. 2011); see also CJI-Civ. 4th 9:6 (2015)
[ii] Keeton, W.P. & Prosser, W.L. Torts §30 (5th Ed. 2008)
[iii] Jarnagin v. Busby, Inc., 867 P.2d 63, 69 (Colo. App. 1993)
[iv] 827 P.2d 509, 519 (Colo. 1992)
[v] Bedee v. Am. Med. Response of Colo., 2015 COA 128, ¶ 13
