Negligence is when someone fails to use reasonable care and that failure hurts you. In an injury case, it usually means the other person had a duty to be careful, they broke that duty, and their carelessness caused your injuries and losses.
Lawyers break it into pieces. There has to be a duty of care (a driver owes it to everyone else on the road), a breach of that duty (running a red light, texting, speeding), and a real connection between that breach and your harm. Then come the damages: medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and future care.
California follows a pure comparative-fault rule. If you were partly to blame, that does not end your claim. It only reduces what you can recover by your share of the fault, depending on the facts. So even a driver who was speeding a little can still recover from someone who ran a stop sign.
This shows up in almost every case we handle, from car accidents and pedestrian accidents to slip and fall claims where a property owner ignored a hazard. The general two-year deadline to file a personal-injury lawsuit in California comes from Code of Civil Procedure section 335.1, and claims against a public entity can have much shorter deadlines.
This is general information, not legal advice, and every case is different.
Want to know if you have a case? Call Joe Crudo at (858) 622-7280 or reach out through our contact page. The consultation is free and confidential.