Negligence is a legal word and isn’t commonly used by people outside of the legal community but it is very important if you have been injured by another person.

The act of negligence is resolved in a civil claim.  This means that if a person is liable for negligence they have to pay money rather than go to prison. Negligent acts are unintentional and accidental.  Insurance policies will not provide insurance coverage if someone hurts another person on purpose they will only provide coverage for unintentional acts of negligence.

In order to establish negligence in a court of law, RS Law would need to prove that (1) the injuring party had a legal duty towards the injured party, (2) that the injuring party violated that legal duty to the injured party, (3) that that breach of the duty was the cause of the damages the injured party suffered, and (4) that injuries were suffered.

Per Kansas Statutes Rules of Civil Procedure 60-258a Comparative Negligence KS Stat § 60-258a (2015)

“60-258a. Comparative negligence. (a) Effect of contributory negligence.  The contributory negligence of a party in a civil action does not bar that party or its legal representative from recovering damages for negligence resulting in death, personal injury, property damage or economic loss, if that party’s negligence was less than the causal negligence of the party or parties against whom a claim is made, but the award of damages to that party must be reduced in proportion to the amount of negligence attributed to that party.  If a party claims damages for a decedent’s wrongful death, the negligence of the decedent, if any, must be imputed to that party.

(b) Special verdicts or findings required.  When the comparative negligence of the parties is an issue, the jury must return special verdicts, or in the absence of a jury, the court must make special findings, determining the percentage of negligence attributable to each party and the total amount of damages sustained by each claimant.  The court must determine the appropriate judgment.

(c) Joining additional parties. On motion of any party against whom a claim is asserted for negligence resulting in death, personal injury, property damage or economic loss, any other person whose causal negligence is claimed to have contributed to the death, personal injury, property damage or economic loss, must be joined as an additional party.

(d) Apportioning liability.  When the comparative negligence of the parties is an issue and recovery is permitted against more than one party, each party is liable for that portion of the total dollar amount awarded as damages to a claimant in the proportion that the amount of that party’s causal negligence bears to the amount of the causal negligence attributed to all parties against whom recovery is permitted.

(e) Applicability.  This section is applicable to actions under this chapter and to actions commenced under the code of civil procedure for limited actions.”

Kansas is a comparative fault case and this means if you are also found at fault for the accident at a percentage of greater than 50% you will not receive payment from the other partially responsible negligent party.

RS Law insists that our clients receive fair compensation for their injuries from the negligent party or we are willing to force them to be fair at a trial.  Because we are willing to take our personal injury claims to court, the insurance companies that represent negligent parties are more likely to offer fair settlements to our client’s to save the extra costs associated with litigating matters in the legal system.  Our reputation gets our client’s better settlements and verdicts than other personal injury law firms.

ersonal injury litigator litigated and tried numerous negligence claims, and has gotten results. While many Law Firms in the area give up on a case if they aren’t able to settle out of court, RS Law has a proven history of fighting for our clients.