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MOTOR VEHICLE ACCIDENTS ATTORNEYS IN SAN RAFAEL, CA

The claim that arises out of the overwhelming majority of motor vehicle cases is a claim of negligence.

The essential elements of this claim are:

  1. The Defendant was negligent; and

  2. The defendant's negligence was a cause of injury, damage, loss, or harm to the plaintiff.

But not all accidents are the result of negligence. The question, therefore, becomes: When is someone negligent and therefore liable for the resulting harm?

Negligence is the doing of something which a reasonably prudent person would not do, or the failure to do something which a reasonably prudent person would do, under similar circumstances.

Defining Negligence

Negligence is the failure to use ordinary or reasonable care.

Ordinary or reasonable care is that care which persons of ordinary prudence would use in order to avoid injury to themselves or others under circumstances similar to those shown by the evidence.

One test that is helpful in determining whether a person was negligent is to ask and answer the question whether or not, if a person of ordinary prudence had been in the same situation and possessed of the same knowledge, he or she would have foreseen or anticipated that someone might have been injured by or as a result of his or her action or inaction. If the answer to that question is “yes,” and if the action or inaction reasonably could have been avoided, then not to avoid it would be negligence.

In the case of motor vehicles, the driver of any vehicle using a public street or highway has a duty to exercise ordinary care at all times to avoid placing the driver or others in danger; and to use like care to avoid an accident; to keep a proper lookout for traffic and other conditions to be reasonably anticipated and to maintain proper control of the vehicle.

Brownstein Law Group has an extensive history of aggressively representing individuals injured through no fault of their own and as a result of the negligence of others.

Please contact us today.