Liability

Liability

In personal injury law, liability is a form of legal responsibility for losses suffered by the victim of a personal injury, although liability is not limited to personal injury cases. Typically, the injury victim demands that liability be satisfied by paying them a certain amount of money. There are many ways to prove liability.

Most parties to a personal injury claim don’t want to go to trial. Fortunately, the great majority of personal injury cases settle outside of court, with no need for a trial at all. Nevertheless, there is an irony here—the best way to avoid a trial is to prepare to win one and make sure the other side knows it.

New York law, along with the law of every other state, recognizes several different grounds for liability, as outlined below.

Negligence Liability

The best non-legal synonym for negligence is ‘carelessness.’ In a negligence claim, you allege that someone else carelessly injured you. They may not have intended to harm you, but their action (or failure to act) was wrongful. If your allegation is true, you can justly hold them financially responsible for your injuries.

Comparative negligence

Much of the time, fault for an accident does not lie with one party only. The parties might share fault. When this happens, a New York court will assign a percentage of fault to each party and subtract a proportionate amount from their recovery. This is how New York’s “pure comparative negligence” system works.

Strict Liability

Strict liability is liability without proof of fault. That might not seem fair, but it makes sense in many instances.

Product liability

Suppose, for example, that you fall seriously ill due to the side effects of a defectively manufactured prescription drug. You want to sue the manufacturer, but you find out the manufacturer is located in India. Under strict product liability law, you can sue the product’s US distributor under a strict product liability theory even though the distributor did not manufacture the product. You might need an expert witness to win your claim.

Chris O’Brien

Chris O’Brien is a nationally recognized personal injury attorney with over 30 years of experience fighting for accident victims in Western New York. A founding partner at O’Brien & Ford, he has helped recover millions for clients and built a reputation as a top trial lawyer and educator. Chris is a Diplomate of the National College of Advocacy, a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, and was named one of Western New York’s Top Ten Lawyers by Buffalo Business First. He lives in Amherst with his family and their Bernedoodle, Moose.

Years of experience: 33 years
Practice areas: Personal Injury Law, Car Accidents
Location: Buffalo, New York

Inherently dangerous activities

New York imposes strict liability for certain inherently dangerous activities. No matter how careful you are, you are liable if someone gets hurt.

Below is a list of inherently dangerous activities:

• Any use of explosives, such as dynamite, for demolition or construction.
• Blasting for construction, mining, or excavation.
• The use or storage of hazardous chemicals.
• Transporting hazardous materials such as gasoline, toxic gasses, or other dangerous goods.
• Owning or keeping wild animals such as chimpanzees, etc. Some animals cannot be domesticated.
• Operating or drilling oil and gas wells.
• Aerial application of pesticides (“crop dusting”).

Just because an activity does not appear on the foregoing list doesn’t mean it is not inherently dangerous.

Intentional Misconduct

Intentional misconduct is the type of wrong that most obviously justifies liability.

Common forms of intentional misconduct include, but are not limited to:

• Physical violence, such behavior is typically a criminal offense as well as a civil offense
• Road rage, running your car off the road, for example
• False imprisonment, locking an adult in a room without justification, for example
• Sexual assault
• Vandalism

Intentional misconduct is more likely to warrant the imposition of punitive damages than other types of misconduct.

Vicarious Liability

Vicarious liability refers to the situation where one party bears liability for another party’s misconduct.

Examples include:

• Employer liability for employee on-duty misconduct (respondeat superior)
• Principal liability for the actions of their agents
• Parental liability for misconduct committed by their child
• Vehicle owner liability for injuries caused by someone else driving their vehicle with their permission

New York law includes several other types of vicarious liability.

New York’s No-Fault Auto Accident Insurance System

New York is one of a dozen states that applies a no-fault system to car accidents. If you are injured in a New York car accident, you usually cannot sue the at-fault driver. The good news is that your no-fault insurance will probably cover your medical bills and lost earnings.

Nevertheless, if you can prove your injuries are “serious” (as New York law defines that word), you can exit the no-fault system and sue the at-fault party for non-economic and punitive damages.

Damages

The term ‘damages’ refers to money that you demand from the defendant for the consequences of your injury. New York law offers three possible forms of damages.

You might qualify for one, two, or even all three types:

• Economic damages. Any losses that you can easily count—medical bills, lost earnings, and out-of-pocket expenses, for example.
• Non-economic damages. Losses that are difficult to count because they are intangible—pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and emotional distress, for example. Non-economic damages are often worth far more than economic damages.
• Punitive damages: An extra sum awarded to punish the defendant for particularly wrongful behavior. Courts typically refuse to award punitive damages.

A New York personal injury lawyer can evaluate your case and assess what it is worth.

A New York Personal Injury Lawyer Can Help You Establish Liability

Not every claim justifies hiring a lawyer. Some claims are so small that they’re not even worth hiring a lawyer for. The problem is that you might not be sure how much your claim is worth until you talk to a lawyer. Pain and suffering and other non-economic damages might greatly inflate the real value of your claim.

Contact The Personal Injury Lawyers At O’Brien & Ford PC For Help Today

For more information, please contact the Buffalo personal injury lawyers at O’Brien & Ford PC to schedule a free consultation with an accident lawyer. We have a convenient office location in Buffalo, NY.

We proudly serve all throughout Erie County and the state of New York.

O’Brien & Ford Buffalo Car Accident and Personal Injury Lawyers
4549 Main St, Suite 201
Buffalo, New York, 14226
(716) 222-2222