A personal injury lawyer may pursue an injury lawsuit on behalf of an injured person, even if the case lacks direct evidence of negligence. A legal doctrine called res ipsa loquitur allows an injured party to demonstrate the at-fault party’s negligence solely through circumstantial evidence. The Latin phrase translates to “The thing speaks for itself.” The legal doctrine may apply in personal injury cases if the circumstantial evidence supports an overwhelming inference of the defendant’s fault. In other words, the plaintiff’s injury could not have occurred except for the defendant’s negligence.
What Is the Difference Between Negligence and Res Ipsa Loquitur?
The doctrine of res ipsa loquitur gives an injured accident victim a means to prove another party’s negligence in the absence of direct evidence. Since the doctrine permits a jury to infer negligence from circumstantial evidence, it can relieve a personal injury plaintiff from some evidentiary burdens.
For example, establishing the doctrine’s applicability to a personal injury case allows a plaintiff to obtain a favorable verdict even though the plaintiff presents no direct evidence of a specific negligent act by the defendant. The doctrine permits a jury to infer negligence from circumstantial evidence.
What Are Some Examples of Claims That Could Use Res Ipsa Loquitur?
Examples of personal injury cases where a plaintiff might rely on the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur include:
- Construction equipment falls from a higher floor of a building under construction and strikes a pedestrian on a sidewalk below. Although the injured pedestrian may not have direct evidence of a construction worker knocking the equipment over the side of the building, the fact that the equipment fell from the building may allow the jury to infer the construction company’s negligence in handling its equipment. The pedestrian would not have been injured but for the construction company’s mishandling of equipment.
- A surgeon leaves a piece of surgical gauze inside a patient’s body. In a medical malpractice case, the mere presence of a foreign object inside a patient’s body speaks to the defendant surgeon’s negligence in failing to remove any gauze, clamps or other surgical tools before closing a patient’s incision. Accidentally leaving surgical equipment inside a patient’s body represents a negligent act.
- A prop gun on a film set gets loaded with live ammunition instead of blanks, and a bullet strikes someone on the set when the actor fires the gun. Because prop guns on movie sets should not have live ammunition, the mere fact that the gun had live ammunition speaks to the negligence of the party who loaded it.
What Does It Take To Prove a Res Ipsa Loquitur Claim in Georgia?
Res ipsa loquitur allows an inference of negligence when a plaintiff establishes all of the following legal requirements:
- The plaintiff suffered an injury that would not have occurred absent negligence by the defendant. A plaintiff must prove that they suffered an injury under circumstances in which no factor other than the defendant’s negligence could have caused the plaintiff’s injury.
- The injury occurs due to some event or cause exclusively within the defendant’s control. A plaintiff can prove that a defendant had exclusive control over the circumstances that led to the plaintiff’s injury by either proving that the defendant owned, operated, or controlled and had responsibility for the management of the item or person that injured the plaintiff. A defendant may not have exclusive control over an item when other unaffiliated parties can physically handle the item.
- The injury did not occur due to any voluntary action by the plaintiff. Any contributory negligence by a plaintiff renders the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur inapplicable.
Furthermore, courts only permit plaintiffs to rely on this legal doctrine when the record contains no direct evidence of the defendant’s negligence. Res ipsa loquitur becomes unavailable as a legal doctrine for a plaintiff if the record contains evidence of another possible cause that could have produced the plaintiff’s injury.
How Might the Defense Counter a Res Ipsa Loquitur Claim?
Although invoking the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur does not shift the burden of proof to a defendant in a personal injury case, a defendant may challenge a plaintiff’s reliance on res ipsa loquitur by pursuing various factual or legal defenses, such as:
- The plaintiff contributed to causing their own injury: A plaintiff may not rely on res ipsa loquitur if the evidence tends to show the plaintiff shares some of the fault for causing their own injury.
- Alternative cause of injury: A defendant may defeat a res ipsa loquitur claim by presenting another plausible cause of the plaintiff’s injury outside the defendant’s exclusive control.
- Contradictory direct evidence: A defendant may avoid liability under a res ipsa loquitur claim by presenting evidence of the actual cause of the plaintiff’s injury, over which the defendant had no control.
- Insufficiency of evidence: A plaintiff cannot rely solely on the invocation of res ipsa loquitur to prevail in a personal injury claim. The injured person’s attorney must present evidence to establish all three elements of the doctrine. A defendant may assert that the plaintiff’s evidence fails to prove all three elements, and thus, the plaintiff cannot rely on the doctrine to alleviate the need to present direct evidence of the defendant’s negligence.
Contact a Georgia Personal Injury Lawyer
If you’ve been seriously hurt in an accident caused by another party’s carelessness or recklessness, you may be entitled to recover compensation for your losses. You need experienced injury attorneys who will evaluate all the avenues to help you seek justice. For more than 31 years, the attorneys at Sherrod & Bernard have been standing up for injured people in Douglasville and throughout west Georgia. Contact Sherrod & Bernard, P.C. today for a free, no-obligation consultation with a knowledgeable personal injury attorney. We can evaluate your accident and discuss what proof is needed to hold accountable those who caused your injuries and losses.
