When you place a personal injury lawsuit against a certain party, you are essentially blaming them for causing your accident. Well, you must ground your accusation with tangible evidence; and a lot of it. This is commonly referred to as a plaintiff’s burden of proof. So, without further ado, follow along to find out how the burden of proof works and how one of the proficient Panama City personal injury attorneys at Manuel & Thompson, PA can help you execute it correctly.

How does the burden of proof work in the state of Florida?

Up until recently, the state of Florida followed a pure comparative negligence standard. This standard allowed a plaintiff to seek financial compensation in a personal injury claim even if they were a majority to blame for their accident. So, even if you were deemed 99 percent at fault, you may still have been eligible to recover one percent of your damages. Now, a modified comparative negligence standard is observed. This requires a plaintiff to prove that they were only minorly to blame for their accident (i.e., less than 50 percent at fault) to pursue legal action.

This is all to say that your satisfying the burden of proof may subsequently satisfy the comparative negligence standard. This is because every piece of proof you submit to the Florida civil court may just lessen your accountability by a certain percentage; up until you prove you are less than 50 percent at fault for your accident.

What are the key elements of the burden of proof?

For your evidence to be submissible in the Florida civil court, it must be relevant to your exercised arguments. More specifically, the evidence you gather and submit must work well in pointing toward the following elements as true:

  1. Your evidence must demonstrate that a certain party (i.e., the defendant) owed you a certain duty of care.
  2. Your evidence must demonstrate that the defendant breached their duty of care by acting negligently or carelessly.
  3. Your evidence must demonstrate that the defendant’s acting negligently prompted you to enter into a personal injury accident.
  4. Your evidence must demonstrate that your personal injury accident directly caused you to incur serious bodily injuries and property damages.
  5. Your evidence must demonstrate that your injuries and damages have you suffering from significant economic and non-economic damages to this day.

Further, key pieces of proof that work toward the burden of proof may include photos from the scene of your personal injury accident; statements made by eyewitnesses; doctor’s notes and medical bills; and more. At the end of the day, if you require immediate legal representation, look no further than one of the talented Panama City personal injury attorneys. Someone at Manuel & Thompson, PA will be happy to serve you.