What Is Negligence?
Negligence is the legal standard used in most personal injury cases. A party is negligent when they fail to act with the care that a reasonable person would use in the same situation, and that failure causes harm to another person.
The Four Elements of Negligence in Arizona
To win a personal injury case in Arizona, you must prove all four elements of negligence:
- Duty: The defendant owed you a duty of care. Every driver owes a duty to follow traffic laws and drive safely. Property owners owe a duty to maintain reasonably safe premises.
- Breach: The defendant breached that duty by failing to act as a reasonable person would. Running a red light, texting while driving, or failing to fix a known hazard are breaches of duty.
- Causation: The breach caused your injury — both in fact (but-for the breach, the injury wouldn’t have happened) and proximately (the injury was a foreseeable result of the breach).
- Damages: You suffered actual harm — physical injury, medical bills, lost wages, pain, or other losses. Negligence without measurable damages doesn’t create a viable PI claim.
Negligence Per Se in Arizona
When a defendant violates a statute designed to protect people in your class of victims from your type of harm, Arizona courts may apply negligence per se — the breach element is established automatically. Running a red light (ARS § 28-645) and injuring a pedestrian is a classic negligence per se scenario.
Gross Negligence vs. Ordinary Negligence
Ordinary negligence is failing to act with reasonable care. Gross negligence is a higher level of carelessness — reckless disregard for others’ safety. Gross negligence can support punitive damage claims in Arizona under ARS § 12-820.04 (government entities) or common law (private parties).
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the four elements of negligence I need to prove in Arizona?
Duty (the defendant owed you a duty of care), Breach (they violated that duty), Causation (the breach caused your injury), and Damages (you suffered measurable harm). You must prove all four to establish a negligence claim.
What is negligence per se in Arizona?
Negligence per se occurs when a defendant violates a law designed to protect people in your class from your type of harm — for example, running a red light and hitting a pedestrian. The breach element of negligence is established automatically by the statutory violation.
Questions about your Arizona personal injury case? Call Wood Injury Law at (623) 207-0000 for a free consultation.