Personal Injury

Car accidents are unfortunately common. Usually, a victim seeking compensation will need to establish another driver’s negligence. This means that they will need to show that it is more likely than not that the defendant owed a duty of care to drive safely, they breached the duty of care, this caused the accident, and they sustained damages. Rhode Island is a pure comparative negligence state, which means that a victim will be able to recover a certain amount of damages even if they were partly at fault. These damages may cover medical bills and lost income, as well as pain and suffering.

There are many reasons why boat accidents may occur. These include machinery failure, boating while intoxicated, negligent boating, negligent boat maintenance, inexperienced operation, excessive speed, and dangerous water or weather conditions. Often, boat accidents involve open motorboats, but sometimes they involve personal watercraft like jet skis. If your injuries resulted from a boater’s negligence, a personal injury attorney in Rhode Island can help you recover damages by establishing the elements of negligence. Rhode Island follows the rule of joint and several liability. This means that when multiple parties are responsible for the same event, they each can be held fully accountable for the damages. Thus, it is wise to bring all potentially responsible parties into the litigation.

Under Rhode Island Statutes section 4-13-16, there may be strict liability for dog owners whose dogs bite other people. The statute permits an injured person to hold a dog’s owner strictly liable for injuries if the dog injures, bites, or assaults the injured person or an animal that belongs to the person. In other words, negligence need not be shown. However, the strict liability rule applies to injuries inflicted on property that does not belong to the owner of the dog. If injuries happen on a dog owner’s property, the one-bite rule applies. This means that the dog owner is liable only if the owner knew or had reason to know that the dog would behave aggressively. If a dog has injured someone previously, and the dog’s owner was previously held liable for that injury, the owner may need to pay double damages if a Rhode Island personal injury attorney can establish liability for the second incident.

Under Rhode Island Code section 31-18-3, Rhode Island pedestrians have the right of way if they are in a crosswalk, even if the traffic control signals are not in operation or in place. Drivers should yield the right of way, but unfortunately, they do not always do that. Drivers may speed, fail to follow traffic signals, fail to yield when required, drive while distracted, or drive while intoxicated. Sometimes a pedestrian accident is fatal because the victim lacks any protection from the force of the vehicle. If you have lost a loved one in a pedestrian accident, you should explore the possibility of bringing a wrongful death claim.