Understanding Comparative Negligence in Personal Injury Cases

Accidents happen. Although human error is usually to blame, that does not always mean that only one party’s mistakes alone are the reason for an accident occurring. In fact, many times, everyone involved in an accident could have contributed to it in some way. Because of this, figuring out who was negligent after an accident transpired is not the easiest thing to do and can be quite complex.

If you were in an accident and you sustained injuries, then you may benefit from consulting with an attorney. An attorney can review your case and discuss with you what options may be available to recover compensation. In Florida, the Tampa personal injury attorneys at Fulgencio Law are experienced and resourceful and can help you navigate the claims process and secure the full amount of compensation you are entitled to.

Comparative Negligence After an Accident

Personal injury events can happen in a variety of ways with the most common reason being traffic accidents. However, medical malpractice, slip and fall accidents, boating accidents, and more can lead to a victim suffering injuries and the ability to exercise their right to take legal action and obtain compensation for their damages.

Using comparative negligence systems, the understanding is that an accident can happen with more than one party holding responsibility for it. In this way, those involved may share some amount of liability. As a result, even though a party is liable for causing their injury accident, they may still be able to recover compensation. The way this is possible is by determining the amount of liability each party has for causing the accident. Then, the amount of compensation that any party can get will be reduced by their portion of responsibility.

For example, let’s say that a driver speeds through a traffic light and hits a pedestrian. The pedestrian though, is in the street, not in a designated crosswalk. Here, both the driver who ran a red light would be responsible for the accident just as the pedestrian would have some amount of culpability because they were improperly on the road. As a result, it is likely that the driver in this scenario may have the larger portion of the responsibility for the accident, but the pedestrian too, would also be liable. 

When filing a claim with comparative negligence rules, this impacts a claimant’s compensation. In the case detailed above, The driver may be deemed 80% responsible while the pedestrian would be 20%. If the pedestrian files a claim against the driver and the totality of the pedestrian’s losses came to $100,000 they would only be able to recover $80,000 due to being 20% responsible for causing the accident.

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Florida follows a modified comparative negligence system. This twist on the comparative negligence rules means that a plaintiff who is found to be more than 50% responsible for causing an accident will lose their ability to recover compensation. For the example discussed earlier, this would mean that the driver would not be allowed to obtain compensation for the accident.

To schedule a free case evaluation to discuss your case, please call Fulgencio Law at (813) 463-0123.