Steps To Calculate Comparative Negligence In Auto Accidents

Contributory negligence states

how contributory negligence can affect you

It is possible to recover damages caused to your vehicle in an accident, as a result of your negligence or fault. The old system of pure contributory negligence is no longer followed by any state in which the injured party was not allowed to apply for recovering the damages due to an accident that they were partially responsible for. With comparative negligence, one is armed with quite a few recovering options based upon the intensity of each parties fault in causing the accident. Contributory negligence states that if the applicant was even in part guilty of negligence that contributed to the accident, then the liability of the delinquent is accordingly reduced.

Instructions to Determine Comparative Negligence in Auto Accidents

  • Prepare the details of the accident. The negligence factor can be determined by knowing the cause and parties involved in the accident. You can get all the details from the report made by the local police department.

    basics of Contributory negligence

    Contributory Negligence in a car accident

  • Consult your insurance provider so that they may start investigating the matter as soon as possible. The process includes recording statements from the accused as well as eye witnesses and of course the official police report.
  • Perform your own investigation. Draw a diagram of the incident by showing the roads, traffic signals devices and the location of vehicles before and after the accident.
  • Now you need to compare the facts of the accident to the regulations that’s been implemented by the statutory traffic regulations in your state. These regulations can slightly vary depending upon your location.
  • Now determine the degree of fault of each party in causing the accident using the comparison that you have made from the facts and regulations mentioned in the above steps. For example, your degree of fault is high if you took a left hand turn and ran over another person or crashed into another vehicle.
  • Armed with all these facts, you should now contact your insurance company’s claim adjuster. He will set an amount that the company agrees to pay along with the method of coming at the quoted value. You can contact the lawyer of your insurance company if you do not support the determination.

The rule of contributory negligence states that the claiming party cannot apply for damage recovery even if he has a slight participation in causing the accident. We hope you liked this information on contributory negligence. Thank you for visiting and have a good day!