Expert Advocacy

Personal Injury Due to Negligence

The culpable modality of behaviour refers to the violation of an objective duty of care, which occurs in two specific situations, namely: (i) the active subject should have foreseen a foreseeable circumstance, or (ii) the active subject did foresee said situation, but underestimated it trusting that it would not cause any harm. In this order of ideas, article 120 of the criminal code (law 599 of 2000) establishes the crime of culpable personal injuries, indicating that whoever causes another person the injuries described in articles 112 and 119 of the criminal code will be imposed the respective penalty of the reduced criminal type of four-fifths (4/5) to three quarters (3/4).

Likewise, this rule establishes that when injuries are caused using motorized means or firearms, additional penalties may be imposed that prohibit the driving of motorized vehicles and the legal carrying of weapons in accordance with each case.

Taking into account the above, the list of injuries that can be committed negligently is the following:

• Personal injuries with incapacity to work (art. 111 and 112 cp)

• Deformity (art. 113 cp)

• Functional disturbance (art. 114 cp)

• Mental disturbance (art. 115 cp)

• Anatomical or functional loss of an organ or limb (art. 116 cp)

• Injuries with chemical agents, acid, and similar substances (art. 116a cp)

• I give birth to preterintentional abortion (art. 118).

At this point, it is essential to mention the unified punishment established in article 117 of the criminal code. Accordingly, if several of the previously described injuries co-occur, the penalty provided for the most serious one will be imposed. Likewise, article 119 of the criminal code establishes three events as causes of aggravation that increase the penalties, as follows:

1. The same aggravating circumstances as homicide (art. 103) that are enshrined in article 104 of the criminal code are assigned to negligent personal injuries; therefore, if any of these causes are present, the penalty will increase from one-third to one-half.
2. If the passive subject of the personal injuries is under 14 years of age or a woman assaulted due to her gender, the penalties assigned for each type of injury will be doubled.
3. Suppose the active subject of the injuries corresponds to a member of the public force or somebody who performs judicial police functions occasionally or permanently, carrying out legal or administrative procedures. In that case, the penalty will be increased by two-thirds.

Intentional personal injury

Next, intentional personal injuries can be found in the same articles 111 and 119 of the criminal code. It is essential to clarify that all criminal types are intentional unless the same criminal law assigns them the category of negligent or preterintentional. Intention refers to conscious and voluntary conduct to cause serious harm to another person. In this sense, direct intent refers to the complete coincidence between the will of the active subject of the crime and the result. In addition, intent can be:

1. Direct, which refers to the concordance between the will of the perpetrator of the crime and the harmful result.
2. Indirect, which occurs when a necessary result occurs that was foreseeable by the active subject. However, it does not correspond to the purpose that had been proposed.
3. Eventual, which refers to the cognitive aspect of the perpetrator of the criminal conduct, who knows that he can cause the result but does not care and continues to act.

More technically, deceit refers to the intention to carry out a behavior that is legally classified as a crime.

According to the above, the types of wilful personal injuries can be found between articles 111 and 119 of the criminal code. In other words, the criminal types of injuries seen in these provisions can be committed in the negligent or wilful mode of conduct, depending on the particular circumstances of each investigation or judicial process.