Robert C. Neeley, Jr.  

¿Qué tipos de daños que puede recuperar a una persona lesionada?

There are two types of potentially recoverable damages in Virginia: compensatory damages and punitive damages.

 

Compensatory damages are compensation for the person’s injuries and losses. These injuries and losses include the bodily injuries; the impact of these injuries on the person’s health and function; physical pain; mental anguish; inconvenience; medical expenses incurred in the past and likely to be incurred in the future; loss of earnings and lost capacity to earn; and property damage.

 

Punitive damages are recoverable in limited circumstances. They are awarded to punish or make an example of the wrongdoer for conduct that is intentional or so reckless as to demonstrate a willful disregard for the rights of others. The actual payment of punitive damages is relatively rare.

 

¿Cuándo una persona lesionada tiene derecho a recuperar los daños?

Generally speaking, an injured person can recover damages when he proves (1) a company or a person was negligent, and (2) the negligence caused his injury, and (3) the injured person himself was not negligent.

 

¿Es una persona herida requiere contratar a un abogado?

No. People can represent themselves in Virginia. A person can serve as his own lawyer just as he can serve as his own doctor, plumber, or mechanic. Whether or not this is a good idea depends on how serious the matter is and how much money is at stake. Many attorneys provide a free consultation for injury cases, and an experienced attorney can provide good advice on this issue.

 

¿Cuál es el papel del jurado en un juicio con jurado?

The specific issues vary from case to case, but in a typical injury case, the jury would decide whether the defendant was negligent, whether that negligence caused damage to the plaintiff, whether the plaintiff was contributorily negligent or assumed the risk of injury, and the amount of damages to be recovered by the plaintiff.

 

As part of this process, the jurors have the specific job of judging the facts. They determine for themselves the credibility of the witnesses and the weight of the evidence. The judge will instruct them to consider the appearance and manner of the witnesses who testify, the witnesses' intelligence, the witnesses' opportunity for knowing the truth and for having observed the things about which they testified, their interest in the outcome of the case, their bias, whether they have made prior inconsistent statements, and whether they have knowingly testified untruthfully as to any material fact in the case.

 

Jurors are instructed that they may not arbitrarily disregard believable testimony of a witness. However, after the jury has considered all the evidence in the case, then it may accept or discard all or part of the testimony of a witness as it thinks proper. From all the circumstances of the case, the jury determines which witnesses are more believable and weighs their testimony accordingly.

 

¿Cuál es la carga del demandante de la prueba en un caso de lesiones?

It is not enough for the plaintiff to prove than an accident occurred and caused him to suffer injury. In the normal case, the plaintiff has the burden of proving by the greater weight of the evidence that the defendant was negligent and that the defendant’s negligence caused the accident and the injuries to the plaintiff. The greater weight of all the evidence is sometimes called “the preponderance of the evidence.” This is the evidence that the jury finds to be more persuasive. The testimony of one witness whom the jury believes can be the greater weight of the evidence.

 

¿Qué es negligencia?

Negligence is the failure to use ordinary care. Ordinary care is the care a reasonable person would have used under the circumstances of this case.

 

¿Cuál es la culpa concurrente?

Contributory negligence is essentially negligence by the injured person – it is the failure to act as a reasonable person would have acted for his own safety under the circumstances of this case. If the defendant proves that the plaintiff was contributorily negligent, then the plaintiff cannot recover for his injuries under Virginia law. When the defendant claims contributory negligence as a defense, he has the burden of proving by the greater weight of the evidence that the plaintiff was negligent and that this negligence was a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries.

 

¿Qué pasa si el demandado fue negligente y el demandante tuvo culpa concurrente?

Under Virginia law, if the jury finds from the greater weight of the evidence that both the plaintiff and the defendant were negligent and that their negligence proximately contributed to the accident, then the jury is not allowed to compare the negligence of the parties. The plaintiff will be barred from recovering anything if his own negligence was a cause of the accident, even if the defendant was also negligent.

 

¿Qué es la "asunción del riesgo"?

If the jury finds by the greater weight of the evidence that the plaintiff fully understood the nature and extent of a known danger, and then voluntarily exposed himself to it, then the plaintiff the assumed the risk of injuring himself from that danger. The plaintiff cannot recover for injuries proximately resulted from assuming the risk of a known danger.

 

¿Qué es una reclamación por "encomienda negligente" de un vehículo?

In order to recover for injuries sustained by a defendant who permitted another person to use the defendant’s vehicle, the plaintiff must prove that:

 

• Defendant expressly or impliedly permitted the driver to drive the defendant’s vehicle

• The driver was an unfit driver

• The defendant knew, or should have known, that the driver was an unfit driver

• The driver was negligent as a result of the unfitness

• The driver’s negligence was a proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries

 

¿Cómo debe precisamente al demandante probar sus daños?

The burden is on the plaintiff to prove by the greater weight of the evidence each item of damage he claims and to prove that each item was caused by the defendant's negligence. He is not required to prove the exact amount of his damages, but he must show sufficient facts and circumstances to permit the jury to make a reasonable estimate of each item. If the plaintiff fails to do so, then he cannot recover for that item.

 

¿Tiene el demandante tiene el deber de minimizar sus daños?

Yes. If the jury finds that the plaintiff did not act reasonably to minimize his damages and that, as a result, they increased, then he cannot recover the amount by which they increased.

 

¿Puede el demandante recuperar por negligencia que agrava una condición pre-existente?

Yes. If the jury finds that the plaintiff had a condition before the accident that was aggravated as a result of the accident or that the pre-existing condition made the injury he received in the accident more severe or more difficult to treat, then if the jury finds for the plaintiff, the jury may award the plaintiff compensation for the aggravation and for the increased severity or difficulty of treatment. The plaintiff is not, however, entitled to recover for the pre-existing condition.

 

¿Cuándo puede un demandante recuperar para ser herido debido a una condición peligrosa en la propiedad de otra persona?

The answer depends on a number of factors. Generally speaking, if the occupant of the property invites the person onto the property, the occupant has the duty to the person:

 

• To use ordinary care to have the property in a reasonably safe condition for the invited person’s use consistent with the invitation, but an occupant does not guarantee an invited person’s safety

• To use ordinary care to warn an invited person of any unsafe condition about which the occupant knows, or by the use of ordinary care should know, unless the unsafe condition is open and obvious to a person using ordinary care for this own safety

   

If the occupant of the property fails to perform either or both of these duties, then he is negligent.

 

¿Cuánto vale mi caso?

The answer to this question depends on the answers to many other questions.

 

• Who was at fault? What are your injuries?

• What are your financial losses?

• Does the defendant have the money or insurance coverage to compensate you?

• If the defendant is relying on insurance, how much coverage does he have?

• How will the jury react to the case?

• What are the problems with the case?

• Is there anything particularly sympathetic about either side in the case?

• Is there anything unsympathetic about either side? Where will the case be tried? Who is on the jury?