Expect the Same, Give the Same
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Video Transcribed: Today we are going to talk about the right to assume others will obey the law. I’m Tulsa personal injury attorney, Mike Ashworth.
Now in the Oklahoma jury instructions known as Ouji’s, you can find all the laws the judge will give to a jury when they’re deciding a case. We talked earlier in a different announcement about Rural 10.1, that people should use ordinary care when they drive a car or when they’re a pedestrian they can’t just leap out into the street or they can’t drive recklessly and then say, “I got hurt and it’s their fault.” So we have a right as people to expect others to obey the law. And that’s a jury instruction from the Supreme Court called Instruction 10.8.
And it reads this way. “A driver of a motor vehicle has a right to assume that others will obey the law and is not required to anticipate negligence or unlawful operation on the part of another driver. However, the driver of a motor vehicle must at all times use ordinary care despite his or her right to assume that other drivers or motor vehicles will obey the law.” So the duty goes both ways. We have a duty to use ordinary care. We have a right to expect that others will use ordinary care. When someone breaches that duty of ordinary care, that is when there’s a likelihood that negligence has occurred, for which there can be compensation in the form of what we call damages.
So don’t feel paranoid. Don’t feel like you have to be watching behind your back all the time. Relax, but drive safely and understand that others have the duty to do the same thing. If something’s happened, you have a question about the law, or about any area of law, give us a call here at the Wirth Law Firm because it’s worth a call. You’re worth a call. You can reach me, an Oklahoma accidents lawyer, at tulsapersonalinjurylawyer.pro. You can reach us at makelaweasy.com because that is our motto. We want to make the law easy for you. That we get paid to worry about the law. You trust us to do that. We’re your advocate. We’re also going to be your teachers. We’ll teach you everything you need to know about your case.
