The Difference Between “Breaking the Law” and Being Negligent
When someone does something or doesn’t do something they’re supposed to, and it causes an accident, we tend to believe that they “broke the law.” Or, when we are trying to see if someone acted negligently towards us, we often want to find a written law somewhere that says that what they did was illegal.
But in personal injury law, that’s not exactly how it works, especially when it comes to negligence.
The Reasonable Person Standard
While breaking a written law is, obviously, a huge sign that someone has acted negligently towards you, it actually doesn’t matter whether someone has broken an actual, written law –they can still be liable to compensate you for your injuries, even if there is no written law that applies, and even if no such law was broken.
That’s because when we evaluate negligence, we only ask whether or not the party or person that injured you, acted in a way that a reasonable person in the same or similar situation would have acted. If the answer is no, then it is likely that the Defendant was negligent, regardless of whether there is any written law anywhere that addresses your situation.
Some Examples of the Reasonable Person Standard
Let’s take a typical example, where someone falls inside of a store on a liquid that has been allowed to remain on the floors for too long. The store also had no warning anywhere to customers, that the liquid was on the floor. You come along, and you fall on that liquid, injuring yourself.
Is there any written law that says how many times that a store has to inspect their floors, or what kind of inspection they have to do, or exactly how they have to address substances that may be on the floor? There is not. Is there a law that says what kind of notices or warnings that a store must put up, what size the notice must be or what it should say? There is not.
Technically the store hasn’t “broken the law.” But they have acted negligently, and thus, can be liable to compensate you for the injuries they caused you; a reasonably safe and prudent store owner would have checked the floors, cleaned spills diligently, and warned customers of the dangerous condition that existed on their floors.
Imagine that you have a green light through an intersection. But there is also a bicyclist right in the middle of that intersection.
Technically, the law says you have a green light and can go through the intersection legally. But does that mean that you can just ignore the cyclist and hit them, and get away with it? Of course not. Any reasonable person would have seen, and stopped for the cyclist, thus making you, the driver, negligent for hitting the cyclist–even though you didn’t break any actual written laws by just driving through an intersection with a green light.
Need help to see if someone might be liable to you for your injuries after an accident? Call our Boston personal injury lawyers at The Law Office of Joseph Linnehan, Jr. at 617-275-4200.
