In public liability cases, the onus is on the defendant to prove that the plaintiff was negligent in the performance of their duties and that this negligence led to injury in a public place. If negligence cannot be proven, it is likely that the case will be dismissed and the defendant will be responsible for the cost of damages that ensued from their injury themselves. However, if it can be unequivocally demonstrated that negligence led to an injury in a public place, the person who failed to enforce safety precautions in the public place can be sued for the total sum of damages resulting from the injury.
Determining the Case for Public Liability
In order to irrevocably prove that the plaintiff was negligent in their duties, they must have: a duty of care for the site where the injury occurred and breached their duty of care: resulting in the injury via manifest of causation.
Duty of Care
When public liability is in question, a duty of care is a formal, written agreement that dictates a person maintain responsibility for enforcing safety precautions at a certain space. The duty of care contract outlines the basic precautions that the person given responsibility must take to ensure that the area they look after is safe and free from potential hazard.
Breach of Duty of Care
A breach of duty of care occurs when the person given responsibility fails to meet the basic safety requirements of their contract. Examples of this may include: forgetting to leave a ‘wet floor’ sign out, failing to secure windbreakers or not enforcing hygiene and/or safety measures defined in employee contracts. Essentially, if a person responsible for a public space has not taken reasonable measures to secure the safety of the site they can be considered in breach of their duty of care.
Causation
There must be evidence of a direct link between a breach of a duty of care and injury sustained at the site where the duty of care exists. Causation can be considered to manifest when lack of reasonable safety preparation has resulted in a person or people suffering injuries at a site.
How to Prove Negligence: Key Elements and Evidence
The most important elements and evidence in a public liability case include: witness statements, photographs and documentation describing damages suffered by the defendant. Evidence should be collected as soon as possible following the injury and should be as comprehensive as possible.
Witness Statements
If possible, visual evidence of the injury occurring should be presented to the magistrate litigating the case. This could be security footage or handheld/mobile footage. If video evidence is unavailable then first-hand witnesses should be interviewed and their testimony recorded to prove that the injury occurred exactly as the defendant reports.
Photographs
Photographic evidence displaying the full extent of injuries suffered in a public liability case should be obtained as quickly as possible following the incident. In addition to these, other photographs should be taken of the site where the injury occurred to demonstrate that there was, in fact, a breach of duty of care in the situation.
Documentation
Documentation of expenses related to the case is fundamentally important to ensuring that fair compensation is given to the defendant in a public liability case. These may include medical bills, time absent from work due to the injury, travel to medical clinics or legal counsel offices and any other expenses incurred as a direct result of becoming a victim of an injury.
If all of the conditions regarding duty of care have been met and the defendant has sufficient evidence to support their claim, then the magistrate should rule in favour of the victim. All that is left in such a case is to determine the value of compensation paid to the defendant by the plaintiff.
Call Tony Love Lawyers Today
If you have been injured due to negligence, get in touch with Tony Love Lawyers. You must contact us within three years of notification of the injury. We are a team of lawyers you can trust, with over 25 years of experience in injury litigation.