When you are involved in a personal injury accident, you naturally want to file a claim that asks for compensation from the other party. However, whether or not you will receive this compensation will depend on whether or not you can prove that the other party was at fault. How do you do that?

Whenever you are injured in a personal injury accident, you need to hire a personal injury lawyer in Compton. He or she will tell you the following about determining who was at fault. You’ll learn from him or her that determining which party was at fault can be difficult sometimes. The ultimate litmus test lies in identifying and proving the party who was negligent (referred to as carelessness!) Remember that fault and negligence must be proved from a legal standpoint.

How to establish legal liability

Your personal injury lawyer will inform you that because carelessness is the main cause of personal injury accidents, the party who was deemed to be the more careless one will be held responsible for paying for the suffering and damages of the more careful party.

The courts and your personal injury lawyer will use this rule and its accompanying propositions to determine who the legally liable party is:

● If you (the injured party) was in a place where you shouldn’t be – in a work zone on the road, for example, or you were in a place where the types of activities that caused your injuries are normal, the other party may not be deemed legally liable.
● If you were even partially at fault, the law of comparative negligence will apply. The tenets of this law state that your settlement will be reduced by the percentage by which you were deemed to be comparatively negligent.
● If you cause an accident at work, your employer may also be held at fault.
● If you were on a property that was determined to be dangerous because of its construction or maintenance when the accident occurred, the property owner will be held legally liable in all situations.
● If you were harmed by a defective product, you can sue the manufacturer or distributor – both will be held legally liable.

What happens when many people are at fault?

If you are involved in a personal injury accident where more than one person is at fault, the law says that you can sue any and all of them for compensation and damages. The responsible people must then decide who will compensate you. This tenet gives you many options, especially if some of the responsible parties are insured. You can, for example, sue the insured people for the entire amount of your desired compensation.

Try not to be careless

Try not to be careless. If you were determined to be even 1% at fault, the principle of comparative negligence will apply. Your final settlement will be reduced by the percentage of your total fault in the accident.

Since insurance adjusters can’t use a set formula to calculate your settlement amount in instances where comparative negligence applies, they will take other factors into consideration.

States restrict your compensation in situations of comparative negligence

There are three ways to apply comparative negligence. One way allows you to claim a settlement based on the overall fault of the other party. The other will leave you with nothing if your percentage of fault was more than 50%. The third way will give you nothing if you were even 1% at fault. Different states apply different ways of comparative negligence. You can indeed prove fault in a personal injury case providing you understand the information discussed in this article and you hire a good personal injury lawyer.