Natural Disasters Make Lawsuits Challenging
Brian O Sutter
Personal Injury
Regardless of whether you believe in God’s work, climate change, or simple random, bad luck for Florida, the southwest part of the state had the misfortune of being struck by one of the larger, more serious hurricanes in recent memory. Even now, some areas are still struggling with full recovery and a complete return to a normal life. And for some residents, tragically, the hurricane has caused so much damage that the results are there is no home to go to, or, in some cases, an actual loss of life.In the great majority of these cases, the best that people can hope for is that they have had the foresight to get some kind of insurance coverage that will protect them and their property from this kind of outlier, meteorological activity. For example, anyone that had the opportunity to get flood insurance in their area, ultimately chose not to, and then had their home flooded out is now probably experiencing an enormous amount of regret, in addition to the trauma of seeing a home damaged. That, however, was a choice with consequences.
There are other times when something happens during the course of something like a hurricane, but in the final analysis, the damage, injury, or loss of life you experienced may not be 100% attributable to an “act of God,” and someone else’s negligence may actually be responsible. But how do you differentiate between the two?
Unpredictable Damage Is Beyond Your Scope
Some cases of damage to a home, or injury to a person during a hurricane event have no human cause, and this type of case can only be covered by whatever insurance coverage you may have. A boat, for example, that is literally picked up on the coast, carried for miles in the air by cyclonic forces, and then dropped through the roof of your house is not something you can take the boat owner to court for. There is simply no way that anyone could have predicted that the placement of someone’s boat, miles away, could have negligently resulted in a collapsed home on your property.
These types of occurrences have no legal recourse, and no ethical, professional personal injury lawyer would take your case, or advise you to sue. The prerogative to take someone to court for a lawsuit is based on the expectation that some kind of preventable negligence or inaction is responsible for the harm caused. Something as random as the direction a hurricane decides to travel in does not count.
People Taking Chances With The Safety Of Others Can Be Punished By Law
On the other end of the spectrum, there may be a longstanding risk that people were aware of that could cause harm, and a hurricane eventually results in damage as a result of that risk being ignored. This is a much more reasonable and feasible case for a personal injury lawsuit to go to court.
So, in another example, if a home owner had an old, dead tree, and there was a constant risk of these branches falling off and hitting someone or injuring them, this is a real problem. This is, in fact, a problem so obvious, that many people may have warned this homeowner about it, but the homeowner, for whatever reason, decided to do nothing about it.
Now, in the event that a hurricane hits the area, if branches from this tree were to tear away, break through your own home, and even injure people inside, this could very well go to court. In this particular instance, negligence is very easy to prove if you have documented yourself and others giving repeated warnings to the homeowner about the dangers of the old, dead tree, and how it should be removed for public safety. Now, if you have experienced property damage or even injury as a result of this tree, the hurricane itself only played a minor role in causing the incident. The rest of the blame falls largely on the homeowner that chose to not act on the very real safety hazard the tree presented.
Evidence Makes The Difference
While making sure that someone’s negligence gets its day in court with a personal injury lawsuit, it’s important to remember that it’s not enough to simply think that an injury was unfair. Once you make the decision to go to court, you need to win your case, and you do that by convincing a jury. That jury will only be won over with good investigation by your personal injury lawyer and a team of experts, who produce evidence that cannot be ignored.
If you’ve been injured in a natural disaster, but you know it was largely the negligence of someone else that played a major role, the seek out the help of an experienced lawyer. It will make all the difference once you get to court.