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LIABILITY ISSUES Personal Injury Cases What the Johnson Law Office does, is represent those who have potential claims and lawsuits as a result of injuries or medical harms they suffered. But not everyone who suffers an injury or medical harm has a potential claim or lawsuit. Our system of law and government only make such harms compensable (lawsuits) if the harm was suffered as a result of someone else’s wrongful conduct. Generally, we only represent those who are injured because of non-intentional wrongful conduct, such as carelessness and negligence. Typically, we do not represent those who are victims of crimes where someone injured a person on purpose. The best example of carelessness or negligent conduct is the case of someone who causes a car accident, such as by rear ending the car in front of them. In such case, as the rules of the road are so clearly defined, it is clear cut that the person who fails to stop, has done something wrong. If harm results from such wrong, the person who suffers such harm has the right to be reimburse for such harm. Thus, if you were injured in a rear end automobile accident, clearly a personal injury lawyer would be interested in representing you to recover for the injuries you suffered. But that is only an example of wrongful conduct, that makes up the Tort of negligence. A tort is a wrongful conduct for which the law recognizes the injured person’s right to recover. Under our current laws, almost any time someone is injured (the Plaintiff) because of negligence of a party (the Defendant), there is a right to recover for the harm. However, in the real world, lawsuits typically only make sense if the harm suffered was substantial, and the person who caused the harm, has a practical way in which to reimburse the injured party for the harm. Typically, such claims will only make sense when there is insurance on the person who caused the harm, the Defendant. That is why we do not represent those injured by intentional or criminal acts, because in almost all cases, insurance policies do not cover (indemnify) a person for liability they incur for intentional acts. Not all accidents, however, meet the standards of a Negligence claim. It is necessary to prove that the Defendant was first Negligent. To be Negligent, a person must have done something that was unreasonable. Wisconsin defines Negligence as follows: A person is negligent when (he) (she) fails to exercise ordinary care. Ordinary care is the care which a reasonable person would use in similar circumstances. A person is not using ordinary care and is negligent, if the person, without intending to do harm, does something (or fails to do something) that a reasonable person would recognize as creating an unreasonable risk of injury or damage to a person or property. Negligence can be a mistake in driving a car, which most people will find intuitive. It can also involve a mistake in rendering medical care (medical negligence). It can involve a mistake in designing a product, or a mistake in manufacturing the product, to its design standards. Vehicle rollovers are an example of poor design, as vehicles may rollover because they were not designed properly to handle real world driving conditions. The Ford Explorer cases are a good example of such a claim. Air Bag claims may be another example of design problems, but are more often examples of manufacturing defects, because the product simply failed when it was put to the test for which it was designed. Other important examples of Negligence claims are slip and fall cases. But in order to have a negligence claim for a slip and fall, it is necessary to prove more than a person fell on someone else’s property. It is also important to prove that the fall was preventable, if the owner or person in charge of maintaining the property, failed to take appropriate actions to remove the risk of the fall. Injuries as a result of defective buildings can be a special issue, because many states, including Wisconsin, require building owners to take greater care than that required by the Negligence standard. In Wisconsin, that is called the Safe Place Law. One additional very important area of liability, that relates to building defects, is carbon monoxide poisoning. The primary focus of the Johnson Law Office is our brain damage practice. There are a shocking number of cases where people suffer permanent brain damage as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning, and almost all of those cases involve some type of claim of building defect or manufacturing defect. Those who survive carbon monoxide poisoning can have catastrophic brain damage, or less severe damage that may still result in substantial disability.
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For more on Attorney Gordon Johnson
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