The success and failure of New York personal injury cases come down to attributing blame. Someone’s actions or negligence led to a cause-and-effect situation where someone got hurt. It could be a distracted driver hitting a pedestrian, a negligent company not following safety standards, or all kinds of other cases. However, these personal injury suits are rarely black and white, with one party being 100% to blame for the injuries, pain, and suffering. Many claimants will share the responsibility to some degree. So, what do courts do in this situation? How do you determine compensation? This is where comparative negligence rules come into play. In New York, this rule is structured so that it could work in the claimant’s favor.
Here’s a quick rundown of what comparative negligence means and how it can affect different types of personal injury cases.
What Is Comparative Negligence?
The short answer is that comparative negligence laws allow courts to assign compensation based on the level of blame of each party. These laws vary between states. Typically, you will find that claimants can’t recover damages if they are more at fault than the other party. So, if you feel you’ve been wronged but the court assigns a lot of blame on you, you can’t win. This is either classified as 50% or less or 49% or less, depending on the state.
It’s a different situation in New York, however. Here, the comparative negligence rule means that claims are still possible even with the percentage of blame above 50%. So, if there is a car accident, for example, with 70% of the blame on one driver and 30% on the other, both can get compensation. The amount will just be reduced by the percentage given. This means that those that cause serious crashes.
What Does This Mean For Personal Injury Cases?
This rule is good news for claimants and defense alike in personal injury cases. Cases are complex, and there’s always going to be the chance to throw around blame on different sides. So, even if you’re deemed to be mostly at fault, you can still lessen the impact of the damages. Here are some examples of shared blame in Buffalo personal injury cases. This should provide some indication of how you can still be at fault and make a claim. Whatever your situation, a Buffalo personal injury lawyer can help.
1) Car accident
Shared blame is pretty common in accidents involving two cars. The majority of the blame may lie with the one that was speeding or that accidentally rear-ended someone due to a distraction. But, if the other driver didn’t respond to the light because they were texting or if they were driving recklessly due to impairment, they’re also at fault.
2) Motorcycle accidents
It’s a similar situation for motorcycle accidents where the rider isn’t 100% blame-free. It’s easy to focus on drivers who pull out in front of riders and cause serious injury. But what if the rider was going too fast or getting too close to the car in the driver’s blind spot? Compensation claims over injuries may also be affected if the rider wasn’t wearing appropriate safety gear.
3) Pedestrian accidents
Again, the blame tends to fall on the motorist when pedestrians are hit by cars. The driver was the one in control of the vehicle and in a position to cause harm. This makes sense when drivers are over the limit, speeding, or running red lights. The pedestrian could be 100% blameless there. But what if the pedestrian walked into the road while on their phone, was deliberately jaywalking, or was walking on a road at night with no reflective clothing? Also, what if they fell into traffic because of poorly maintained sidewalks? In that case, maybe both the driver and pedestrian have a claim for pain and suffering against the city.
4) Slip and fall
Slip and fall cases can seem pretty one-sided, especially when you have a large company cutting corners and a citizen injured due to that company’s bad practices. For example, stairwells with bad lighting or leaks causing wet floors put the blame on the property owner. Yet, there are times when the company did all it could to prevent accidents, such as putting up wet floor signs, and cordons, or blocking off areas entirely. Patrons that ignore those and get injured take some of the blame.
5) Construction injuries
It is a similar situation to accidents in the construction industry. If you have a company cutting corners by not providing training or safety equipment for workers, that’s on them. If workers are trained and provided with the right equipment but choose to act against both, they are to blame for injuries.
6) Dog bite
Dog bite cases tend to occur when an animal that’s poorly trained or out of control attacks someone. The injured party will place the blame on the owner for their negligence in failing to control and contain the dog. But there are other times when this isn’t the case. Was the dog provoked to bite because of abuse from the injured person? Was it trying to protect its owner and family because the claimant was aggressive or threatening in some other way?
7) Medical Malpractice
Finally, even medical malpractice suits can end up with some degree of shared blame. The instinct in these cases is to side with the patient who suffered due to the mistakes of surgeons or medical staff. Medics need to take their share of the blame if they cause illness, injury, or other complications through bad record-keeping or neglect. However, patients who don’t disclose vital information about allergies and their medical history are also at fault if they suffer as a result.
Don’t Miss Out On Compensation
Every single personal injury case is different. Every victim has a story to tell about the incident and what both sides did or didn’t do wrong. Don’t assume that just because you share partial blame for what happened, or the other party can prove some degree of negligence, that this means you can’t claim. Get in touch with the best personal injury lawyers in Buffalo, explain the situation, and see how the Personal Injury Cases comparative negligence law could work in your favor. You might be surprised at how much is available in financial compensation and the positive impact the case could have.
