Negligence

• Negligence is defined in Black's Law Dictionary as "the failure to exercise the standard of care that a reasonably prudent person would have exercised in a similar situation." In Washington, as in most states, to prove negligence a plaintiff must show that the defendant owed them some duty of care that was breached, resulting in an injury for which the plaintiff suffered damages.
  
  

Pure Comparative Negligence

• In Washington, the courts follow a pure comparative negligence system. This means that in determining the amount of damages owed to the plaintiff, the judge or jury will assign a percentage of fault to each party and that party is then responsible for the corresponding proportion of the monetary damages suffered.
  
  

Statute of Limitations

• A statute of limitations is a period of time within which a lawsuit must be filed. In Washington, the statute of limitations for personal injury claims is three years. If an injured party is a minor at the time of the injury, the three-year period runs from the date of his 18th birthday.