CAN I RECOVER MONEY IN A CAR ACCIDENT CASE IF I WAS PARTIALLY AT FAULT?

Oftentimes clients will come to me and it is determined that they are partially at fault for causing their own car accident or truck accident. I will tell the client that yes, you can recover a money settlement in a car accident case even though you were partially at fault or partially responsible for your own car accident or car crash. How can this be?

BEING PARTIALLY AT FAULT IN A CAR ACCIDENT DOES NOT PRECLUDE YOU FROM RECOVERING MONEY IN COLORADO.

Different states have different laws on whether or not a partially at-fault plaintiff or driver can recover if they are at fault or partially at fault. Colorado does allow you to be partially at fault and still recover money damages. Colorado follows the pure comparative negligence laws. Under pure comparative negligence, you can still recover money damages against the other driver even if you were mostly at fault. Doesn’t seem to make much sense does it?

COLORADO IS A PURE COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE STATE

Let’s take a situation where a court finds that you are 50% at fault in causing your car accident or car crash. After a jury trial, the jury finds that you are 50% and awards you $100,000 in money damages for your injuries. Since you were 50% at fault, then that $100,000 award will be reduced by the Judge by 50%. In other words, 50% of $100,000 is $50,000. So your net judgment will be $50,000 and that is the reduced amount that you will receive as your total proceeds. The final judgment is reduced by your percentage of negligence. If you were 10% at fault in the jury’s findings, then the judge would reduce the $100,000 judgment by 10% which equals $90,000. In this example, your total money proceeds will be equal to $90,000.

*CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE

Other states follow the doctrine of contributory negligence. If you are even 1% at fault in these contributory negligence states, then you cannot recover any money. This is not a good statute or law for injured car accident victims and we are very lucky that Colorado follows a pure comparative negligence statute/law.

Let’s say you were in a contributory negligence state and you went to trial before a Jury. Your money damages were $200,000 as you had fairly serious injuries. The jury looked very carefully at the way each driver behaved during the car crash. It found that you as the plaintiff were 5% at fault. In these kinds of states, you would walk away with nothing, no money judgment since you were partially at fault. It is a very unfair doctrine in my opinion and I am very pleased that the Colorado legislature chose to follow comparative negligence.

*MODIFIED COMPARATIVE NEGLIGENCE

The last type of negligence statute that certain states follow is a modified type approach to comparative negligence, thus called the Modified Comparative Negligence statute or. Law.
Under this type of state law, the plaintiff or you as the injured car accident victim, can only recover damages if your fault is below 50%, for example.

This is actually the most common type of law in the United States when it comes to factoring in negligence of both drivers. Let’s say you were injured in a car or truck accident and were 40% at fault. The jury awards $100,000. The judge will reduce your $100,000 down to $60,000. Thus, under this type of state law, your net recovery would be $60,000.

Let’s say in the same example above, the jury awarded you $100,000. You were found to be 51% at fault. Then in this situation, you would recover no money since your fault is greater than the other driver. Again, Colorado follows the most liberal type of law by adopting the pure comparative negligence statute/law. Where would you rather bring your injury case? Definitely in Colorado.

DETERMINING FAULT

*ANALYZE THE FACTS OF YOUR CAR ACCIDENT CASE WITH YOU LAWYER.

First, lawyers and clients can begin by reviewing the police report. Every state has a police agency that will investigate the cause of the car crash. In Colorado, it is usually one of the local city police agencies, sheriff’s office or Colorado Highway Patrol. You can learn a lot from the police report. Usually, the investigating officer will issue one driver the ticket and this goes a long way in showing who was at fault. The officer will interview both drivers, any eye witnesses, video footage, skid marks, the final position of both vehicles, etc. Then, he or she will determine who is at fault and issue a traffic citation.

*HIRE AN EXPERIENCE CAR ACCIDENT ATTORNEY

An experienced car accident attorney like myself (32 years of handling car accidents and car crashes) can give an opinion on whether your case is winnable or not. If an experienced personal injury lawyer believes that you were totally at fault, then he or she will not take your case. Fault is necessary to establish before your case can proceed and without a favorable finding on liability, you will lose your case and spend money that was not necessary to spend. If you do not agree with the opinion of the lawyer, definitely seek a total of 3 opinions. Lawyers can certainly differ in the way they see fault playing out. It is important to educate yourself, find the best and most experienced car accident lawyer and then make a final decision. That final decision should be jointly made between yourself and your lawyer.