A legal claim for the recovery of a victim’s losses after a drunk driving accident can be an important part in ensuring that the victim has the money and support they require to return to their pre-accident life. Many personal injury claims, including those that arise from drunk driving collisions, are based on negligence. While this post will generally address how negligence applies to legal claims against drunk drivers, readers are reminded that the posts on this California legal blog do not offer any specific legal advice.
Negligence happens when someone fails to meet their duty of care to another person and causes that person to suffer losses. Duties do not have to be formal; generally, when a person chooses to drive they have a duty to others that they will act reasonably given the circumstances that surround them. The failure to meet that duty of reasonableness may result in a breach.
When a duty is breached a person may suffer harm, and to recover their losses they must be able to show that the breaching party was the cause of their harm. Establishing causation is often required for negligence claims, as is a showing of actual loss from an injury-causing event.
Evidence of intoxication, witness statements and a host of other types of evidence may be used to demonstrate that a driver was intoxicated when they caused a crash. As reasonable drivers do not drink alcohol before they drive it may be possible for victims of these preventable types of crashes to build strong legal cases. More information about intoxicated driving and lawsuits may be procured from local personal injury attorneys.
