I'm Giancarlo Enrico S. Pozon, a Wushu instructor, investor and Barrister... That's right, Barrister; I graduated from law school and took the Bar Exams, now I'm waiting for the results. I created this blog to make Philippine Law easy to understand for the average person. It's all about free legal advice. There are many law blogs. But the problem is that many of them are written for lawyers and law students. They use words that can't be understood by ordinary people.
Many lawyers, judges and law students consider themselves as superior to most human beings because of their knowledge of the law. It bothers me since the law is supposed to serve society. Since the law is meant to serve society as a whole, it is important that is must be understood by everybody.
This does not mean that we should all become lawyers. It means that although law is a highly specialized profession, the first duty of everybody in this profession is to make the law understandable to all; that's why all these articles are free legal advice.
Like I said, this blog is about law -but it's for the ordinary people, not the lawyers. It's for the ordinary folk so they will know what is good and bad for them, and that making them aware of the law will help us all improve society as a whole. This is free legal advice for everybody!
You may have heard of cases in other countries where the "victim" sues the "tortfeasor" because of an injury which could have been avoided if the "victim" hadn't acted in the way that led him to suffer that injury.
Article 2179 provides two (2) instances of an injury where the victim owns some responsibility:
1.) The victim's pure negligence
2.) The victim's contributory negligence
If the victim was the one responsible for the very injury he suffered, Art. 2179 bars him from recovering any damages. If the injury was caused by the tortfeasor, but the victim was partially negligent (such as a drunk walking into the path of a car driven by another drunk -yes, it happens!) the court can reduce the damages the victim claims. This is because the law requires that the victim must take precautions to keep himself safe in his environment. A responsible victim, that is, a victim who was not negligent and was injured by the negligence of another, can fully claim his damages in court. A careless victim either cannot claim damages, or his claim for damages will be reduced by the court if his claim has some merit.
The cause of injury doesn't need to be the immediate cause. It may also be something that may have taken place some time ago but, not taken care of, became the cause of the injury.
Remember also: a child below 9 years old is not capable of contributory negligence under the law.
1 comments:
how about if i accidentally hit a dog in public road that suddenly appeared and ran from its owner's house and it died? what is the extent of my liability?...i know that it will be presumed that there is a negligence on my part but isn't it that there is also a negligence on the part of the owner?
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