You may have noticed that  when a big lawsuit makes the news,  the jury in the case is often asked to  figure out if one of the parties was  "negligent." But just what does it  mean to say someone is negligent,  in a legal sense?

The answer is that it means  pretty much the same as in everyday conversation — that someone  was careless. A basic statement of  legal negligence is that a person  "did not act as a reasonably prudent person would under the same  circumstances." However, a finding that a person has been legally  negligent involves several different elements.

For example, most people  would agree that a driver who runs  a stop sign and hits a pedestrian  was careless, but was he negligent?  To find legal negligence, a court  must first find that the person  "breached" a duty owed to others.  In our example, every driver owes  a duty to others to be careful when  driving a car, and running a stop  sign violates this duty.

The negligent act must also  cause damage. If the driver broke  the pedestrian's arm, this injury  could mean that the driver was negligent. Finally, the damage caused  by the negligence must have been  "foreseeable." Because most people would expect that a driver who  runs a stop sign might hit someone,  chances are a court would find the  driver has been legally negligent.

In real life, most negligence  questions are more complicated  than this example and may be even  more complicated by the fact that  sometimes more than one person  was negligent. If you have been  injured and you think it was someone else's fault, give us a call. We  will make sure that you get all that  you deserve under the law.