At Rector Stuzynski Law Firm, our Colorado Springs personal injury attorneys have spent decades helping accident victims recover the compensation they deserve. From car accidents and motorcycle crashes to wrongful death claims. You focus on healing. We handle the insurance companies, the paperwork, and the fight.
Personal injury cases require experience, strategy, and persistence. Our attorneys represent clients in serious injury claims, handling everything from investigation to negotiation and, when necessary, litigation.
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If you are contemplating filing a personal injury lawsuit, you’re probably hearing the word negligence a lot, and maybe even gross negligence or contributory negligence. These concepts can be confusing if you are not familiar with them, so let’s break down how they differ.
Negligence itself is the failure to take proper care in doing something. In the context of a car accident, this could mean something as simple as failing to check your mirrors before changing lanes and causing a crash. By not checking your mirrors, you may have acted negligently and could be held accountable if the other party can prove it.
Gross negligence is more serious. In Colorado, it is generally understood as an intentional failure to perform a clear duty in reckless disregard of the consequences to another person or their property. For example, intentionally driving through a red light at an intersection and causing an accident could be considered gross negligence because the driver willfully disregarded traffic laws and put others at risk.
The law also recognizes that not every situation is completely clear-cut. Sometimes two or more people contribute to an accident. That is where contributory negligence comes into play. In some cases, even the injured party may be partially at fault. For example, if one driver merges into another lane without signaling and the other driver is speeding, both actions may have contributed to the crash.
If you have questions after reading this article or are wondering how negligence may affect your case, feel free to contact our Colorado personal injury attorneys for a free consultation and case evaluation.
Negligence is essentially carelessness in relation to your duty to act within the law and with reasonable regard for the safety of others. It is usually not associated with a willful act, but rather with a lack of awareness or caution.
Most laws are designed to help keep people safe, and it is each person’s responsibility to act reasonably under the circumstances. When someone fails to do that and causes injury, they may be held responsible for the resulting damages.
If the injured party has the burden of proof and can establish that you acted negligently, you may be financially responsible for the harm caused.
“The failure to take proper care in doing something.”
In legal terms, negligence is “the failure to use reasonable care, resulting in damage or injury to another.” There are four required elements:
All four elements must be proven to establish negligence under the law.
Negligence can take many different forms. Some common examples include:
In all of these situations, the negligent person had a duty to act with care, failed to do so, and caused harm as a result.
Proving negligence can sometimes be difficult, but the same four elements always matter:
When these four things can be proven, you may have a valid claim for negligence. In some cases, proving negligence is straightforward. In others, lawyers may need to reconstruct the incident and show how it could have been avoided if reasonable care had been used.
Gross negligence is a more serious form of negligence. It involves willful or reckless disregard for the safety of others.
When a person consciously chooses to act in a way that places others in danger, their conduct may rise to the level of gross negligence. Courts take this very seriously, and it can sometimes support a claim for punitive damages.
“A lack of care that demonstrates reckless disregard for the safety or lives of others, which is so great it appears to be a conscious violation of other people’s rights to safety. It is more than simple inadvertence, and can affect the amount of damages.”
“A conscious, voluntary act or omission in reckless disregard of a legal duty and of the consequences to another party.”
Some examples of gross negligence include:
What makes these situations different is the willful disregard for safety. Because of that, the plaintiff may be able to recover punitive damages in addition to standard damages.
Proving gross negligence can be difficult if there is limited evidence. However, in some cases, a reconstruction of the incident or the surrounding facts can help show that the conduct was not merely careless, but recklessly dangerous.
The same four elements still matter: duty, breach, causation, and damages.
For example, if a driver rear-ended another vehicle while texting, that may be ordinary negligence. But if the crash was so severe that it clearly involved extremely excessive speed and no attempt to brake, a plaintiff may argue that the driver’s behavior rose to the level of gross negligence. In some of these cases, the injured person may attempt to recover punitive damages.
Contributory negligence is often raised by the defendant as a way of arguing that the plaintiff also acted negligently and played a role in causing the accident.
If the defendant can prove that the plaintiff’s own conduct contributed to the harm, the amount of compensation may be reduced and, in some situations, recovery may be limited altogether depending on the applicable law.
For example, if one driver turns right on red in front of another vehicle, but the other driver was traveling at an excessive speed, both drivers may have contributed to the collision.
“Failure of an injured plaintiff to act prudently, considered to be a contributory factor in the injury suffered, and sometimes reducing the amount recovered from the defendant.”
“Behavior that contributes to one’s own injury or loss and fails to meet the standard of prudence that one should observe for one’s own good. Contributory negligence of the plaintiff is frequently pleaded in defense to a charge of negligence.”
Some common examples include:
These examples show how more than one person’s actions can play a role in causing an injury.
If you are going to claim contributory negligence in a personal injury lawsuit, you will need evidence showing that the plaintiff’s own conduct contributed to the injury.
In some situations this is relatively easy to prove. In others, it can be difficult to show that the plaintiff actually acted negligently. As with other negligence-based arguments, duty, breach, causation, and damages still matter.
If you have been injured because of someone else’s negligence, it is important to speak with an experienced personal injury law firm right away. Doing so can help protect your claim and prevent mistakes that could hurt your chances of receiving fair compensation.
There are many moving pieces to personal injury lawsuits that need to be handled by lawyers who understand the legal process, how damages are evaluated, and how insurance companies operate.
At Rector Stuzynski Law Firm, our Colorado personal injury lawyers have extensive experience handling injury lawsuits of all types. We understand how insurance companies work, how negligence arguments are made, and how to pursue the strongest possible settlement for your injuries.
We treat every case with the seriousness it deserves. If you’ve been injured due to another person or company’s negligence, call us today for a free consultation and case evaluation. We are available 24/7 over the phone, and you are always welcome to stop by our office in Colorado Springs, CO.
We provide clear, practical guidance on personal injury claims and the legal process so you can understand your options and move forward with confidence.
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