Duty, Breach, and Damages
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Video Transcribed: Hi, my name’s Mike Ashworth. I’m a Tulsa personal injury attorney here with the Wirth Law Firm. I’ve worked throughout the state, all 77 counties.
Today, we’re going to talk about a basic concept you hear about all the time, but nobody really explains to you, and that’s why we make it easy. We make the law easy here at the Wirth Law Firm, basically, we’re going to talk about negligence and under Oklahoma law. It’s something that happens in every car accident, every slip and fall where someone’s to blame. It’s called negligence. There are certain elements of negligence you must have. One is you have to have a duty. Somebody owes you a duty, for example, they owe you a duty to drive safely. For example, they owe you a duty to pay attention. For example, they owe you a duty not to cause you harm. So that’s the duty.
Now, what’s the breach of that duty? You’re stopped at a stoplight. You’ve done everything right, somebody plows into you from behind. It’s a hard hit. That’s a breach of the duty, of driving safely. So what’s the next element we have to have? This is the one that really, really makes the lawsuits happen. It’s called damages. As a result of someone not driving safely and having breached that duty, how did they hurt me? Things like doctor’s bills, things like missed work, things like you can’t do things you used to do, things like pain and suffering, increased prescriptions, and job changes because of it.
So you have to have a duty, breach of duty, and damages, and then you have to show the damages were caused by the breach of that duty. Remember, it’s worth a call to the Wirth Law Firm if you have a question and need an Oklahoma traffic accident lawyer.
