If you’ve been injured in California and are considering filing a personal injury lawsuit, the process can be confusing to the uninitiated. Questions about the state’s Strict Liability Doctrine and its application to your case can be difficult to understand.
Riverside County residents who have questions about California’s Strict Liability Doctrine can contact a Temecula personal injury lawyer who can explain this sometimes hard-to-understand concept.
What Is California’s Strict Liability Doctrine?
In most personal injury cases in California, the plaintiff has the burden to prove that the defendant acted negligently and, intentionally or not, caused injuries through their negligence. This is common for most lawsuits involving car accidents, slip and fall injuries, and other events where an injury is the fault of a person or an entity.
However, there are certain circumstances when the plaintiff doesn’t need to prove direct negligence to win a personal injury claim. The defendant can still be held liable for injuries despite not being directly related to the accident. California’s Strict Liability Doctrine comes into play in two distinct types of lawsuits; dog bite injuries and injuries caused by defective products.
Dog Bite Injuries
Dog owners in California are held strictly liable for injuries sustained by a victim if their pet bites them. The plaintiff doesn’t have the burden of proving that the dog’s owner was negligent in any way or even responsible for the attack.
Strict liability only applies to dog bites, but that doesn’t mean the pet has to break the skin for the dog’s owner to be liable. California’s Strict Liability Doctrine still applies if a dog bites your clothing and causes you to fall and injure yourself.
For the Strict Liability Doctrine to apply to dog bite injuries, these two scenarios must apply:
- The dog bite occurred on public or private property you were allowed to be on.
- You did nothing to provoke the dog to bite you.
There is a 2-year statute of limitations regarding personal injury lawsuits involving a dog bite. Fortunately, California doesn’t adhere to the One Bite Rule that other states have, where you cannot sue if the dog doesn’t have an aggressive history.
You can file a claim to recover damages such as:
- Current and future medical bills
- Lost wages, both current and future
- Disfigurement
- Pain and suffering
Defective Products
If a defective product in California has injured you, you aren’t obligated to prove that a mistake made by the manufacturer caused them. Injuries caused by defective products fall under the Strict Liability Doctrine. This includes injuries caused by products with design defects, manufacturing defects, or those without a warning label.
To file a personal injury lawsuit against the manufacturer, all that’s required is to show that you used the product in a reasonably foreseeable way. If you properly used the product in the ways it was intended for use but were harmed, you can file a personal injury lawsuit to receive compensation for damages.
The California statute of limitations for a personal injury lawsuit due to a defective product is 2 years. You can recover the same types of damages for a defective product lawsuit as you can for a dog bite suit.
Do I Still Need to Hire a Lawyer If My Case Is Covered by Strict Liability?
Although it may seem as if lawsuits covered by Strict Liability are slam dunks without the need for hiring a personal injury attorney, nothing could be further from the truth. Without the knowledge and experience of navigating California’s personal injury, filing a lawsuit of this type could be difficult.
Winning a case or getting the maximum settlement amount still requires the plaintiff to prove the defendant was legally responsible for the injury. If you were the victim of a dog bite, you’d need to prove that the bite wasn’t provoked. For product liability cases, you’re responsible for proving that the product was defective when it left the manufacturer’s or retailer’s possession.
Strict Liability Doctrine Explained
Although California’s Strict Liability Doctrine can ease the burden of proof on the part of the victims of injuries sustained by dog bites or those caused by defective products, those wishing to file personal injury lawsuits are strongly advised to hire legal counsel. You’ll want an experienced legal team on your side to receive the maximum compensation.