Being involved in a car accident is a stressful experience to put it lightly. After you’ve made sure you and everyone else involved is safe, there’s a mountain of tasks to conquer before everything is fixed. Dealing with those consequences can have high costs, but why should you have to pay them yourself if you’re not at fault?
Making a claim for compensation after an accident requires you do one primary thing, prove that the other person is liable for the damages. Proving fault in an accident is no easy task, however. Learn everything that’s required for proving fault in an accident and discover how a skilled personal injury lawyer can help.
What Determines Liability?
Legally speaking, the one thing courts look for above all else when determining fault is carelessness. Generally, the driver who is more careless is the one at fault. Subsequently, the one at fault is then responsible for the damages suffered by the driver who was less careless. As you might expect, however, determining who was more careless isn’t always so simple.
There are some cases where blame isn’t even put entirely on the drivers involved. If the careless driver was taking a work call leading up or at the time of the accident, for example, their employer could be held liable. A defective product could also have been at fault for the accident which makes both the manufacturer and the seller liable.
Multiple Vehicle Accidents
Proving fault in an accident between two drivers can be tough in its own right, but when multiple drivers are involved, it’s even more tricky. However, there are some additional benefits you can enjoy if you’re not the one at fault. When multiple people lead to an accident due to carelessness, you can collect from any one of them.
This freedom especially comes in handy if one of the drivers doesn’t have insurance. You can simply turn to a different liable party and use their insurance to get what you’re owed. It’s important to remember, however, that you can only settle your claim with a single insurance company, so you can only pursue one of the responsible parties in an actual lawsuit.
Comparative Negligence
Determining carelessness can get a bit complicated when both people involved were careless in their own way. In those cases, the person who is the most careless is held responsible, but their liability is decreased on a percentage basis depending on how careless the other person was being.
Imagine you need $10,000 to cover damages from an accident. Both you and the other driver were acting careless, but you were being less careless, so you’re only responsible for 10% of the accident. That means the other driver would only be liable for $9,000 in damages instead of the full $10,0000.
West Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer
Proving fault in an accident can be incredibly tough without the help of a professional personal injury lawyer. To get the compensation you’re owed, look no further than Bell Law Firm. We’ve spent years helping injured individuals all across West Virginia, so we have all the experience you need. In fact, we’re so confident about any case we accept that you don’t have have to pay us anything upfront or anything at all if we lose. Contact us today for your free consultation!
