Once in a while things happen purely by accident. But if an accident causes harm to someone or damage to their property, chances are they will want to know whether it could realistically have been prevented. This is at the core of the question of negligence.

1. What Constitutes Negligence?
Once in a while things happen purely by accident. But if an accident causes harm to someone or
damage to their property, chances are they will want to know whether it could realistically have been
prevented. This is at the core of the question of negligence.
In the legal system, “negligence” is a term that refers to any action or inaction that a reasonable person
would not have taken, which leads to damages. This is a very broad definition and negligence is a
factor in numerous lawsuits. That’s because civil suits are usually brought about to secure
compensation for the victim of some kind of injustice, and many injustices come about more through
carelessness than through intentional wrongdoing. Our justice system presumes that either cause,
carelessness or ill will, is enough to make the responsible party liable for damages.
Here is an example. Imagine that you hire someone to babysit your child. You drop off the child at their
home as agreed, and you go to work. The babysitter owns a large dog that is normally kept in a separate
room while kids are in the house, but during the day the dog gets out and bites your child. Your child
has to get stitches and you lose a day of work.
The babysitter obviously never intended for your child to be harmed, which leads many people to chalk
it up as an accident. But if you don’t have medical insurance or paid time off, that “accident” might be
very costly to you, on top of alarming you about your child’s safety. And you do have legal recourse, if
the babysitter was being negligent.
In a case like this, the parent would have a very good chance of winning in court against the babysitter.
To determine whether the babysitter’s actions were negligent, the court would consider:
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Did the babysitter have a duty to keep your child safe?
Would a reasonable, prudent person have acted as the babysitter did?
Did damages result from the babysitter’s actions?
The first point is easy enough: the babysitter agreed to care for your child and took on a legal
responsibility to keep them safe. The second point is where it can be difficult to prove your case, but
something about the babysitter’s behavior is obviously fishy: first of all, why did they have a large dog
on the premises where they are watching children? Is that even a reasonable setup for a babysitting
business? And secondly, why wasn’t the babysitter watching the child? Even once the dog got out, the
sitter should have seen it and intervened. The child was clearly unattended.
Many courts would find the sitter to have been negligent, and that negligence directly led to damages in
the form of injuries, medical costs and perhaps lost wages.
Negligence is one of the most common reasons why accidents happen, from car accidents to workplace
injuries. An experienced personal injury lawyer will be able to prove negligence and win compensation

2. for the victim. If you need an attorney in Virginia, the law offices of Howard, Morrison, Ross, and
Whelan http://www.hmrwlaw.com will provide you with some of the best representation possible.