An Auto Accident Lawyer Explains How Negligence Impacts a Case

As an auto accident lawyer, we know that accidents take place every single day. When accidents happen people get injured and property is often damaged, leaving the typical question of who is at fault  to the discretion of the courts.  Being somebody who has been involved in an auto accident you need to know that determining who is at fault will play a significant role in how the court rules and what damages they award to each of the parties.  It is essential as you are going through the justice system that you have a competent auto accident lawyer, like us, who can walk you through the process and ensure that at the end of the day the court does not determine you are more at fault for the accident than the other party.  This is where the concepts of negligence come in, allocating fault between the parties when the answer is not absolutely clear. Anytime you are involved in a car accident, you want to make sure that your auto accident lawyer presents the best case showing that the other party was completely, or mostly, at fault and negligent.  This is one of the most important things we will do as your lawyer.

Being one of the many states that has adopted a comparative negligence ideology vs. a contributory negligence approach means that the court will look at whose negligence was more responsible for the accident and will weigh those issues in order to determine which of the parties is going to be responsible for the greater amount of damages.  There was a time when the courts would view contributory negligence as a means of completely disqualifying the injured party from receiving any kind of compensation. Under this more traditional view, the courts believe that if a person had contributed to their own accident, in any way, that barred them from being entitled to compensation for their injuries. This was an extremely harsh statute, and the court found that even in cases where most of the fault could be clearly allocated, the result would be the injured party not receiving compensation because the other party, and their auto accident lawyer, only had to prove some small degree of contributory negligence in order to be completely excused from damages.

Today, as an auto accident lawyer, we know that the court looks at either pure comparative negligence or modified comparative negligence. Pure comparative negligence means that the judge will look at the total damages and then reduce the amount of payment to reflect the plaintiff’s contribution to the accident and subsequent injuries. In modified comparative negligence, the plaintiff will not recover anything if they are found to be equal or more responsible for the accident. In other words, in order to recover any damages at all the injured party must found to be less than 50% at fault for the accident.

As your auto accident lawyer, we will work to gather enough evidence to prove negligence so that you can receive compensation. 

NOTE: This is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice

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