If your accident results in a personal injury, regardless of whether you are able to continue to work or not, you may be entitled to recover for your injuries. The issue is simply whether someone failed to act reasonably, or broke the rules, and thrust personal injury losses into your life. This can happen in many different scenarios, such as motor vehicle negligence, premises liability negligence, dog bites, a product defect, or any other way that someone else caused you injuries by being careless.
Even if someone else was careless and caused you injury, many times their defense lawyer will argue that you were negligent in your own actions that resulted in the accident that lead to your personal injury. Knowing what type of arguments will be made toward you will go a long way in either a successful or failed personal injury lawsuit.
Proving Fault
Regardless of what you may hear in insurance advertisements, insurance carriers are not in the business of paying for the full value of your losses. Very often they will try to sway liability away from their insured and toward the injured party. This style of defense falls under the “comparative fault” legal concept.
Here’s what you need to know about these laws, and how they can affect your case:
Comparative Negligence: In states that have adopted this rule, it will limit the compensation of the plaintiff by the percentage that is found they are at fault of the accident. (i.e. if the plaintiff is found to be 25% at fault in a $25,000 lawsuit claim, then the compensation awarded will be reduced by 25% to a total of $18,750).
Seeking Representation Right Away
If you have been injured in an accident that wasn’t your fault, there’s no need to add to your stress. Get in touch with a dependable legal team as soon as possible.