What Are Common Negligence Causes of Action in Las Vegas Car Accident Cases?

When a lawsuit is filed, your injury attorney will have to state causes of action that apply in your Las Vegas car accident case. A “cause of action” is a set of facts that, if proved, entitle you to relief. In Las Vegas, typical causes of action in personal injury cases are negligence, negligence per se and negligent entrustment. The elements of each cause of action will be discussed. 


Negligence. The most common cause of action in an auto accident case is Negligence. The legal elements of Negligence are (1) defendant (at-fault party) owed a duty to plaintiff (injured party); (2) defendant breached that duty; (3) defendant’s breach caused plaintiff’s injury; and (4) plaintiff suffered damages. So, each party has a ‘duty’ to act reasonably. If they ‘cause’ an accident, then they ‘breached’ that duty. If you were injured in the accident, then you sustained “damages”.

Negligent Entrustment. In a car accident case, where someone was driving another person’s car and they caused an accident, your attorney may make a claim for Negligent Entrustment. The facts needed to sustain a claim for Negligent Entrustment are as follows:  (1) defendant owed a duty of care to plaintiff; (2) defendant breached that duty of care to plaintiff by knowingly entrusting a vehicle to an inexperienced and/or incompetent person, the driving defendant; (3) the breach by defendant was the legal cause of plaintiff’s injuries; and (4) plaintiff has suffered personal and bodily injury damages in excess of $10,000.00.   
 
Negligence Per Se. When the defendant has violated a statute that was intended to protect persons such as an injured person in a car accident case, then a case for Negligence Per Se may be alleged. This cause of action should be alleged after you have set forth the basic facts of the car accident at issue. Once you have done that, then you can state the following to make a claim for Negligence Per Se: (1) the above complained of actions of defendant are negligent per se in that her blatant failure to use due care was in violation of NRS 484.363 (or your statute at issue) requiring operators of motor vehicles to decrease speed as may be necessary to avoid colliding with any person or vehicle. This statute was intended to protect the rights of persons, such as plaintiff, from injuries and damages which are foreseeable and likely when the provisions of these statutes are disregarded and/or violated by persons such as defendant here; (2) as a direct and proximate result of all the foregoing negligent per se acts of defendant, plaintiff has suffered the damages complained of above; (3) as a direct result of the above mentioned negligence of defendant, plaintiff has suffered personal and bodily injury damages.

Although there are many potential causes of action, the above are some of the more common ones in your typical car accident case. Next time, we will discuss how are juries selected in Las Vegas auto accident cases.