The Common Defenses in Personal Injury Cases and How to Overcome Them
If you’re thinking about filing a personal injury claim after getting hurt, you’ve got to be ready for some pushback. The person or company you’re up against isn’t just going to hand you the money you ask for.
They’ll argue, maybe even try to blame you, and use every trick they can to avoid paying. That’s why it’s smart to find a personal injury lawyer who can help you handle these challenges and fight for what you deserve.
On the other hand, if someone is blaming you for their injury, you’ll need to know how to defend yourself too. It’s important to understand these defenses before you dive into the case so that nothing catches you off guard.
Here are the top ones they use, as well as how you can overcome them.
Assumption of risk
Assumption of risk is a defense that basically means you knew what you were doing could be dangerous, but you chose to do it anyway.
This defense is often used for activities that come with obvious dangers, like sports or anything adventurous. The idea is that the risks are just part of the activity, and since you accepted them, you can’t blame someone else for getting hurt.
This only works if the injury happens because of the normal risks of that activity. If the person or company responsible did something careless or didn’t make things as safe as they should’ve been, that’s different.
To fight this defense, you’d need to show that your injury wasn’t just from the usual risks but because someone messed up or didn’t do their job to keep things safe.
No duty of care
Sometimes, in personal injury cases, the person you’re suing might argue that they didn’t owe you any responsibility. This is called the “no duty of care” defense. Basically, they’re saying they didn’t have any legal obligation to protect you or keep you safe.
This is common in cases where someone gets hurt on someone else’s property. For example, they might say they didn’t need to warn you about dangers because you were trespassing or doing something illegal.
To win your case, though, you need to prove that the person was responsible for keeping you safe. If they had a duty of care to you but didn’t follow through, that’s a big part of your case.
To fight the “no duty of care” defense, your lawyer will need to gather evidence that shows the person was supposed to protect you or warn you about potential dangers. Then, they’ll show how their actions or lack of actions caused you harm.
Previous medical issues
When the defense brings up pre-existing conditions, they’re trying to argue that your injuries aren’t because of the accident, but because of something wrong in your body before the accident happened. They might say you had a past injury, like back problems, and that’s what’s really causing your pain, not the incident you’re claiming.
To fight this, your lawyer would need to prove to the members of the court that while you may have had a condition before, the accident made things worse or caused a new injury that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.
Causality issues
When the defense raises causality issues, they argue that there’s no clear connection between the other person’s actions and your injury. They might claim that what happened wasn’t caused by their negligence or that something else was to blame.
Overcoming this would require your lawyer to present strong evidence, such as expert testimony, medical records, and accident details, showing that the defendant’s actions caused the injury.
Here, hiring a competent lawyer really pays off. You need a lawyer who will do whatever it takes to present a compelling case and convince the judge and jury in your favor.
