Negligence

Negligence refers to when an individual or any other party knowingly causes others to be afflicted by occurrences that would have been avoided. For a case to be identified as negligence a party must have been assigned the duty of managing the risks involved but instead overlooked them resulting in injuries and at times deaths of the people under his/her care. We can not say that negligence is equivalent to carelessness because in negligence plays his/her role of cushioning the other parties from the dangers but the intensity of prevention is partial and thus it fails to serve its intended role. For instance driving while drunk is being negligent because the drunken motorist is aware of the dangers that are involved with driving while being under the influence of alcohol.However, the same can not be said about the motorist who caused an accident due to mechanical problem.

When some people are ignorant they subject innocent people to a lot of suffering including physical body injuries, loss of property and loss of lives. Negligence act is therefore meant to make people pay for their mistake so that next time they will dare to care. The punishment for being ignorant is administered through monetary fines that are imposed to the accused as compensation to the persons affected by his/her misconduct. There are four elements that are used to gauge the validity of cases involving negligence. This is because whenever something happens people always try to put the blame on someone even when it’s their fault. For instance when an employee operates an equipment without putting on protective clothing that have been provided by the employer, the employer is free from any blame incase of any injury because he/she had done his part of providing the protective gear.

It is therefore important to consult a legal practioner before filing a law suit to identify whether the accused party failed to prevent the incidence from happening. The first element of negligence act entails identifying the mandate that is assigned to the accused that would have prevented the incidence from happening. In the above mentioned example the role of the employer is to provide the protective clothing and if he/she failed to do so then he/she has a case to answer. In most working environments the role of preventing harmful events is integrated with work ethics.

The second element involves establishing whether the role of protecting others was performed or not. If the concerned party did not perform the task then he/she is held responsible for what befell the victims because if he/she did as required no one would have been injured or killed. However, if the concerned party performed the task of protecting others as required the charges are withdrawn. This implies the suffering was caused by unavoidable circumstances. For instance if employees had been provided with protective gear but the premises was hit by an earthquake that’s a natural occurrence beyond human control.

Causation is the third element and it entails establishing the connection between the offence that was committed by the accused party and the suffering that was experienced by the victim. This suggests that if the accused had not ignored his/her task no one would have suffered. But if the suffering experienced by the complainant was not caused by the ignorance of the accused party then the charges can not be filed. Additionally there must be valid proof of suffering such physical body damages or the damaged property and in fact this constitutes the fourth element of negligence that is outcome of negligence. At times it is important to present certified medical reports that verify the bodily harm caused to the victim. If there are any persons who lost lives their death certificates must also be presented. These documents are necessary when requesting for compensation because they act as evidence of what happened otherwise without valid proof it would be difficult to win such cases.