To have a successful claim, you need to produce ample evidence of the other party’s carelessness. Negligence requires four things to be proven in court: duty, breach of duty, causation, and resulting damages.
Duty - The defendant owed you a legal duty of care. In the case of a medical malpractice claim, the duty of care is much easier to prove because you have, in essence, a contract with your healthcare provider that they will perform their responsibilities towards you with the utmost care. A driver that gets behind the wheel has a duty of care to drive in a manner that will not cause others harm. A business owner has a duty of care to ensure customers are not injured by walking around in their store.
Breach of duty - Breach of duty is proven if the other party’s actions or inactions are not in line with what another reasonably prudent person’s actions would be under similar circumstances. A reasonably prudent person is a legal standard that essentially means how a regular responsible person would behave. For example, suppose you were hit in the head with a golf ball while driving your golf cart at the golf course. The person that hit you took the swing, knowing you were crossing instead of waiting for you to be out of range. That’s not how an average reasonable person would behave.
Causation - The third requirement to prove negligence is that the defendant’s actions caused injuries. Suppose someone acts recklessly but doesn’t actually cause injuries to your person or property. In that case, you can’t sue them for it. Furthermore, the defendant must have understood their actions could potentially hurt someone. Suppose someone launches a firecracker into a crowd, and you’re burned because of it. The defendant must have understood that doing such a stupid thing could potentially hurt someone.
Damages - The last requirement for establishing negligence in a personal injury claim is that the court must be able to lay a dollar amount on the damages. That is usually easy to do when you have medical bills, have lost out on work, lost an important client, or have damaged property.