Columbia, MO Personal Injury Attorney

On the road, you trust other drivers to put their phones down and pay attention to the world around them. In a store, you rely on the staff to place clear signs when the floors are wet or the surroundings are unsafe for customers. When walking in your neighborhood with your family, you count on your neighbors to keep their dogs secured in their yards. Everyone typically has a responsibility to act safely to protect those around them, and when they take risks or neglect that duty, others suffer. In Missouri, this duty is often defined as “what a reasonably careful person would do under the same or similar circumstances.” This is the duty of care we all typically owe each other.

To establish negligence in a personal injury or wrongful death case, it is our responsibility to not only show a duty existed for the defendant, but that the defendant then breached said duty. As such, it is our job to uncover evidence and present it in a way that clearly shows the at-fault party failed their victim. This can be done with video footage, witness testimony, expert witness testimony, vehicle onboard computer data, and much more. In the above examples, a breach of duty would likely exist if a driver is texting behind the wheel, a shop fails to apply appropriate signage, or a neighbor fails to secure their dog. Duckworth Injury Law has years of experience gathering relevant evidence for personal injury cases. Our attorney knows what judges and juries look for when he is proving a defendant’s negligence, and he won’t stop his research until he is confident he has uncovered all relevant evidence.

To prove your negligence case, we must next establish that the defendant’s actions caused the accident resulting in your injury or your loved one’s wrongful death. For example, while an individual may breach their duty of care (e.g., texting while driving), they may not be the cause of the crash (e.g., a separate driver rear-ended you). In Missouri, establishing causation requires showing that the defendant’s actions were the actual and proximate cause of a plaintiff’s harm. Actual causation requires showing the accident would not have occurred “but for” the defendant’s actions, while proximate cause requires showing the resulting accident was reasonably foreseeable based upon the defendant’s actions.

Finally, to succeed on a negligence claim we must show that you sustained damages because of the defendant’s actions. For example, during a personal injury or wrongful death case, the at-fault party’s insurance company will often argue that the victim’s injuries were pre-existing, were caused by something else, or simply do not exist at all. If an insurance company can prove that you weren’t hurt due to the accident, they will not be liable for paying you compensation. It’s important to remember that an insurance company’s primary goal is to pay the least amount of compensation possible—if they pay at all—so they are incentivized to fight tooth and nail to contest the injuries and damages you sustain. This is why working with an experienced lawyer is so important. A Columbia, MO lawyer with extensive experience fighting and winning personal injury cases is the right choice for families seeking the maximum compensation for their injuries, pain, and suffering. At Duckworth Injury Law, our attorney consults with qualified medical experts if necessary to clearly establish your injuries were caused by the accident.