Auto accidents have a wide range of forms and causes. Sometimes, the person responsible is clear and easy to prove. However, other accidents are more complicated and have more than one root cause. And in others, the responsible party’s legal team might argue that the victim contributed to their own accident in order to reduce their client’s financial losses.
If your accident falls into these more complex categories, you need to know about the rules regarding negligence in personal injury cases and how these affect your claim. To help you understand this, here are answers to a few of the most important questions you may have.
What Are the Types of Negligence Under State Law?
Negligence in the case of an auto accident is handled according to the doctrine by which each state chooses to abide. The main categories are contributory and comparative negligence.
A state which follows the doctrine of contributory negligence allows an accident victim to sue for and receive damages only if they did not contribute to their accident in any way, shape, or form. If the court finds that the victim was even 1% negligent at the time of the accident, they may not be able to get any compensation at all.
A more common approach is comparative negligence. With this doctrine, each party that contributed to the accident is assigned a portion of liability for it. The victim may then see their damages reduced by the amount they contributed to the accident through their own negligence.
What Is Pure or Modified Comparative Negligence?
Even within the scope of comparative negligence, states decide on whether they will follow the doctrine of pure comparative negligence or modified comparative negligence. New York, along with states like California and Florida, follows the pure comparative negligence model. What does this mean?
Pure and modified comparative negligence addresses the possibility that a victim may be more than 50% responsible through their negligence. For instance, consider a driver who is texting while driving when they are hit by a vehicle that ran a red light. In this case, both parties were negligent. If the jury finds that the texter was more negligent, they may assign 51% of the liability to them.
Does this mean the injured texting driver can receive no damages from the one who ran the red light? With modified comparative negligence, this may be true. Once the victim’s share of negligence passes a minimum threshold — usually 50% or 51% — they may be barred from compensation.
However, pure comparative negligence doctrines do away with this threshold. Even if the texter was deemed to be 75% negligent, they can still receive some damages from the other driver. In this case, they would likely receive damages reduced by 75% of what they won. This may be true even if the victim is 99% at fault, although damages would be minimal at this point.
How Is Comparative Negligence Calculated?
There are generally no strict rules about how to calculate the share of each party’s negligence for comparative purposes. Each case is unique, and so each calculation is also unique. Auto insurance carriers have their own methods of calculation, which they often use to present settlement offers to victims. These, of course, are more likely to favor their client than the victim.
If the case goes to a jury, both sides may present their case for calculations but the jury will ultimately decide for themselves.
What Constitutes Negligence in an Accident?
As mentioned, each accident case is different, so the reasons you may be accused of negligence vary. It also varies based on the role of each person. For pedestrians, for instance, the person may be negligent if they failed to act in a reasonable way to prevent their own accident. This might be through jaywalking, failure to obey traffic signals, or not walking on a designated sidewalk.
Drivers have a higher duty of care than simple pedestrians. They may be called negligent if they didn’t act in a reasonable way to prevent injury both to themselves as well as to others. That includes obvious failures like driving while distracted or speeding, but it can also include not properly maintaining your vehicle or interfering with a driver’s operation of the vehicle.
Where Should You Start?
If the doctrines of contributory, pure comparative, and modified comparative negligence sound confusing to you, you’re not alone. These designations can get very detailed, and they have a huge impact on your case. What’s the best thing you can do to counter accusations of your own negligence in your accident? Start by working with an experienced personal injury attorney in your state.
Siben & Siben LLP is here to help New York accident victims with all their legal needs. For nearly nine decades, we’ve defended injured persons facing a wide range of challenges in proving their claims and receiving the compensation they deserve. Call today to make an appointment.