Proving liability means demonstrating, either at trial or in settlement documents before trial, that the at-fault party was negligent. Negligence means that the at fault party committed acts that were careless or reckless, resulting in physical or emotional harm. For example, if a driver goes through a red light and causes a crash, that is an act of negligence.
Money damages refers to the amount of harm, translated into dollars, that the negligent acts caused. For example, if the above driver who ran a red light caused injuries requiring medical treatment and loss of wages, the insurance company of the at fault driver must pay for the past and future medical bills, past and future wage loss and past and future pain and suffering sustained by the injured person.
Potential clients are often confused by the erroneous belief that a huge amount of damages can make up for a weak case of liability or vice versa.
For example, assume that someone drives through a red light at 100 miles per hour causing a crash but, thanks to a well deployed air bag, the injured person only sustains a mild bruise that clears up in a few days. Under such circumstances the small amount of damage would not make it financially feasible for an attorney to spend the hours needed to work on the case and bring it to trial if the jury would only award a few hundred dollars of damages.