Oklahoma law places certain responsibilities upon us whether we like it or not. Under Oklahoma law, every person is bound to abstain from injuring another person or their property, or infringing upon the rights of another person. This is a duty that is imposed on each of us even in the absence of an express agreement to do so. Okla. Stat. tit. 76 § 1. Personal injury law is grounded in negligence and negligence is based on what is known as the duty of care.
The Duty of Care
We must take reasonable care under the circumstances to avoid inflicting harm upon others. This is not an absolute duty to avoid harm, but a reasonable one. In Oklahoma, a person may be found negligent, and thus, liable to another for the damages inflicted, when one fails in their duty of due care to avoid injury. That failure is usually marked by a person acting with more carelessness than a reasonable person would have used in the same or similar circumstance.
It is important to understand that a person’s actions may be legally within the law for some purposes, but still be a violation of due care towards another. Vehicular speed laws provide an excellent example of this concept. A person may be driving within posted speed limits in a given area, and still be held negligent if that person is driving faster than a reasonable person would in the circumstance, regardless of the posted speed limit.
That is because Oklahoma requires that all motorists to drive “at a careful and prudent speed not greater than nor less than is reasonable and proper, having due regard to the traffic, surface, and width of the highway and any other conditions then existing.” This is the basic speed rule. Thus, even if the posted speed rule is 55 mph in a particular area, a driver traveling at 50 mph may be held negligent if there is dense fog or visibility or safety is otherwise impeded.
The Duty of Care Must Be Owed and Damages Foreseeable
The duty of care is not an endless spool of string. Duty of care is related to persons that may be injured. In the above example, a duty of care to drive reasonably will be due to other drivers on the road and other persons who might foreseeably be harmed by a person’s failure to take care. The driver on a roadway does not owe a duty of care to the person sitting down to lunch at a restaurant in the next city over. The driver’s actions are too attenuated from the person eating lunch and it is not foreseeable that the lunch counter patron will be harmed by any action that the driver may take.
If however, the driver is practicing stunts in an area where the lunch patron is sitting and eating, the driver’s duty would extend to the lunch patron as it is foreseeable that the driver’s lack of care might cause damage to the lunch patron. This sort of negligent driving would be best handled by a Tulsa pedestrian accidents attorney.
Special Duties of Care
The law provides a heightened duty of care under some circumstances. This heightened duty of care is usually attached to professionals such as doctors, lawyers, accountants, and the like. In that case, a professional may be found negligent when they fail to exercise the level of care that another similar professional would apply in the same circumstances. This is a typical malpractice case. These cases are complex and can be difficult to resolve, and are best handled by an experienced Tulsa medical malpractice attorney.
If you or a loved one have been injured due to the actions of another and are wondering if you can recover damages against that person, bring your case in to an experienced Tulsa personal injury attorney. They can answer your questions and help you recover the damages you deserve.
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