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When you’ve been in an accident in Michigan and have been seriously injured, you are likely suffering not only physically but financially from the incident. Medical care is expensive, and the more serious your injury, the greater your financial losses are likely to be. You may even be missing out on work because of your injury.
If your accident was caused by the carelessness of another, you may be asking yourself how the negligence laws in Michigan work. Regardless of what type of accident you were involved in (vehicle collision, dog bite, slip-and-fall, other), you may be able to recover compensation for your financial losses.
First, it will help to understand how negligence works in Michigan.
Negligence in Michigan
Every state has laws that handle negligence. In Michigan, negligence laws use a structure called “comparative negligence.” Essentially, when you’ve been injured and you file a personal injury claim seeking damages, you must prove the party that injured you was at least partially at fault for your accident.
Also, if you were partially responsible for your accident, you can’t seek non-economic compensation if you were greater than 50 percent responsible. You can, however, seek economic damages from the defendant in proportion to his or her responsibility in the accident.
For your lawsuit to be successful, the following elements must be proven in a negligence case:
- The defendant must have owed you a duty of care.
- The defendant must have failed in some way to meet that duty.
- If not for the defendant’s failure, you would not have been injured.
- The defendant’s failure, and not some other factor, must have caused your injury.
- You must have actually been hurt and suffered some kind of loss.
Hire a Michigan Injury Attorney
If you’ve been seriously injured in an accident and another party’s negligence caused your injury, you can seek compensation by filing a personal injury claim.
For help, contact a Detroit personal injury lawyer with Christensen Law. We will meet with you for free if you call 248-900-9000 or complete the contact form at the bottom of the page.
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