If you have been involved in a car accident and file a claim, one of the defenses you may face could be “contributory negligence.”
Sometimes accidents are not the fault of one person; There are times when multiple people will be at fault, including the person filing the claim. If he is injured in an accident for which he is partially responsible, it is known as his contribution to negligence or contributory negligence.
Contributory negligence is when the defendant (the person you are claiming against) claims that you contributed to their damage or loss. They admit that they are to blame, but they also say that you are partly to blame.
For contributory negligence to be accepted as a Partial Defense, both you and the Defendant must have committed acts or omissions that give rise to tort liability. Simply put, both of you must have acted negligently in a way that caused or contributed to the accident or your injury.
One of the most common examples of contributory negligence in car accident claims is when a person forgets to wear a seat belt. The person who forgot to wear his seat belt was not responsible for the accident, but her injury was more serious because he was not wearing a seat belt. Another would be when a person was not looking properly when they crossed a street and got into traffic traveling above the speed limit. Or when a driver was not looking properly and slammed on the brakes to avoid a hazard causing a person riding too close to hit them.
HOW THE DEFENDANT CAN PROVE TAX NEGLIGENCE
In order for the defendant to prove that you contributed to the cause of the accident or your injury, you must be able to show that:
You did not take proper care for your safety. Lack of proper care is a lower standard than the typical standard of dereliction of duty, can vary by situation, and children are unlikely to be found to have had inadequate care. Examples of not taking proper care may include:-
- Not wearing a seat belt in a car
- Failure to use a designated crossing area when crossing the street, if one is available
That your carelessness was a contributing cause of the harm suffered
Your fault must have had a direct impact on your injury or the accident itself.
TAX NEGLIGENCE DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU HAVE NO CLAIM.
Being partially responsible for an accident or your injury does not mean that you do not have a claim.
As long as primary liability can be established against the Defendant, you will be entitled to compensation. Primary liability means most of the fault, as long as the Defendant was mostly (more than 50%) at fault for the accident, then you still have a claim.
HOW DOES TAX NEGLIGENCE AFFECT YOUR COMPENSATION?
If you agree or if the court decides that you were partially at fault, then you will not be able to claim as much as you would have if you had not been partially at fault.
Contributory negligence is often negotiated as a percentage, so if you agree that you were 20% at fault for the accident, then your compensation will be reduced by 20%. Financially, this means that if your compensation is £20,000.00, then because it was agreed that you were 20% negligent, you will lose £4,000.00 and receive £16,000.00. His compensation has been reduced by 20%.
WHAT IF YOU ARE NOT NEGLIGENT, BUT THERE ARE TWO ACCUSED
In some cases, contributory negligence does not affect the Plaintiff (the person filing the lawsuit) at all, but instead will affect two (or more) Defendants. If more than one person was responsible for your accident, you will need to agree on how responsible each was. Again, as with compensation, this will be done in percentage terms. The percentage each person is held responsible for will reflect how much of their compensation they pay. Therefore, if Person A is found to be 80% liable and Person B 20% liable, and is awarded compensation of £20,000.00, Person A will pay £16,000.00, which is 80% of your compensation, and Person B will pay £4,000.00, which is 20% of your compensation.
IN CONCLUSION
In conclusion, contributory negligence is the defense used when the Plaintiff is partially at fault. It is negotiated in a percentage and can be agreed between the parties or decided by the Court based on the evidence. It will affect the amount of compensation received based on the agreed percentage.
You should now understand what contributory negligence is, how it is calculated, and how it can affect your claim.